Ohio garage/soul band Obnox is kicking up a hell of a ruckus this year. On the heels of his latest LP Louder Space the band’s only full-time member Lamont “Bim” Thomas has been on tour damn near constantly, and has been racking up rave review after rave review.

(Here’s a big pile of disclosures: Thomas is an old friend of mine. I’ve played guitar on one of his E.P.s, and written two promotional bios for his label, and was, in all cases, compensated in Irish whiskey. I’m not even going to pretend to be an objective voice here—Bim’s a beautiful cat and Obnox fuckin’ rocks.)
 

And I’m hardly alone in thinking so.

Thomas was previously known—to the degree that he was known at all—as a drummer in Columbus and Cleveland punk and garage bands like The Bassholes, Puffy Areolas and This Moment in Black History. He began dabbling in writing his own songs very recently, as the stay-at-home dad of a school aged girl, and in the mere three years since he released his uncommonly headstrong and passionate debut LP I’m Bleeding Now, the absurdly prolific 42-year-old has released two more albums of his remarkable skillet-to-your-damn-face R&B/punk hybrid, including the acclaimed 2XLP Corrupt Free Enterprise, and well over half a dozen singles and EPs. His recordings tend to be heavily layered and drenched in lo-fi filth, almost recalling the “Shitgaze” “movement” that emerged in Columbus about a decade ago. This was partly a consequence of his extremely direct recording process—everything was done quickly, on an elderly 16-track tape machine set up in the living room of a punk flophouse. Somehow, instead of obfuscating his ideas, all that grime imbues his recorded work with a remarkable depth, an earthy quality Thomas has retained despite using a proper recording studio for Louder Space.
 

 

 
A couple of weeks ago, he released a video for the songs “Molecule” and “How To Rob (the Punk Years).” In it, he does the laundry, gets high, smashes records, does the dishes, gets high, raps, gets high on the stairs, shaves his head, gets high in a recording studio, dances, and gets plenty fuckin’ high.