Smart Bets web extra: The Mobros

First, don’t be put off by the band name. Yes, The Mobros sounds suspiciously like “Mofro.” Not that the Southern rock band fronted by JJ Grey was a bad thing, but The Mobros, a garage rock duo from Camden, S.C., borrows from Western and soul sounds without even glancing in the direction of jam.

The Mobros are brothers Kelly Morris (guitar and vocals) and Patrick Morris (drums and vocals). They played a standout set at the inaugural CCX Fest, but it wasn’t the duo’s first time in Asheville. They have a tendency to quietly sneak into town, play a blistering show and then drift away without the sort of fanfare they deserve. (They return to The LAB on Friday, Dec. 20 for a show with The Go Devils. 9:30 p.m., $5.)

As FreeTimes describes, “Bandleader and guitarist Kelly Morris, 22, is blessed with an age-defying, deeply soulful singing voice that literally has the power to stop listeners in their tracks, and that’s before you get a whiff of his eerie, Prince-like falsetto. It’s almost unreal, and yet Morris wears it unassumingly in live performances, leading you to believe that some wayward spirit enters his body when he steps up the microphone.”

Expect the kind of drum-and-guitar one-two punch revived by the likes of The White Stripes and The Dex Romweber Duo, but refined with harmonies, Caribbean flourish and serious soul. It’s a sound at once old and new, dark and bright, haunted and fiery. Or,a s the band’s bio says, they “make old ideas sound new.”