Mods & Gods, the 2026 release from the Mal Thursday Quintet, is a full-throttle blast of Farfisa-driven energy and playful garage primitives. Mal Thursday has spent decades scraping the rust (which never sleeps) off the genre’s fuzz-soaked hemoglobin—nods to Sky Saxon, Roky Erickson, and Brian Jones are baked in. And yes, Mal has gotten around.
Born in the thick of Boston’s 1980s garage revival, Thursday cut his teeth in bands like The Malarians, rubbing shoulders with the fuzz-obsessed and digging through the dusty, forgotten singles that shaped his sound. He eventually drifted north to Montreal, hopping the border for radio shows, record hunts, and a stint covering the Expos. Batter up.
The Quintet itself is a rotating crew anchored by Thursday and longtime collaborator Bob Medley—yes, appropriately named. With a lineup spanning Texas to the Pacific Northwest, they bring a mix of reedy combo organs and guitars that bite with the white-hot howl of Gerry Roslie. It’s a spirited echo from garage rock’s golden era.
The album kicks off with “South of the River,” a fuzz-fueled anthem where those Farfisa stabs don't just play—they incite. It’s a riot in a teacup, a Boston-bred rowdiness that sounds less like a polite studio session and more like a 1966 VFW hall sliding off its foundation.
Then things get weird. “If 6 Was 5” strips a Hendrix-adjacent classic down to its garage-band bones, while originals like “Kitten with a Whip” and “A Crumpled Five” feel like lost Nuggets-era singles Lenny Kaye forgot to dig up. Live cuts like “Torn Up” and “Flagrante Delicto” capture the sweat of a tight band in full swing, while “In Love with a Ghost” drifts into psych textures without losing the grit.
Featuring David Champagne and Jim Fitting (reprising their roles from Treat Her Right’s “Picture of the Future”), these tracks span 2017 to 2025. It’s a long-haul labor of love, but that loose, garage-floor immediacy holds firm throughout.
Thursday has always walked the line between collector and bandleader, and Mods & Gods proves it. Monks-inspired minimalism, scattered Sonics riffs, and playful nods to the Expos make it feel like a conversation with garage rock’s past—one that’s alive, kicking, and ready to drag the troglodytes out of their holes. Turn it up.
9 out of 10 Lava Lamps
