Obnox

Riddle me this: who on Earth makes 15 top notch records in 5 years and stays as obscure as Obnox monarch Bim Thomas? Not that there’s been no love at all—now that the man seemingly spent as much of 2014 on tour as off, and dropped blazetastic videos for “Red I” and “Molecule/How to Rob,” the spotlight is widening, and not just from the usual indie/undie blogs—the Washington-by-god-POST has seen fit to recognize the ‘Nox’s bulletproof alloy of Cleveland-by-god-Ohio’s two sturdiest musical ores: punk rock and soul.

And maybe that right there’s why fame, Grammys and fat cash haven’t come a-knockin’—’Noxmusik is some potent, real, RAW shit, and the new drop, Boogalou Reed, isn’t going to win over any Future Islands fans to the cause. And that is what it is, but Thomas’ songwriting chops keep getting better and better. Boogalou Reed is home to soul satisfying gospel-psych like “I Climbed a Mountain,” skillet-to-the-face noise freakouts like “Proto-Pipe,” taut rockers like “Raven Slaughter Culture” and “All Hail the Deejay.” ‘Nox’s tunes just keep turning out SO DAMN GOOD, and if more people can’t hear that through the fuzzgrind, that’s really just too bad for them. But there’s no way rock ‘n’ roll this persuasive stays a secret forever. [Ron Kretsch]