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Obnox - I'm Bleeding Now LP (Smog Veil)
If you don’t recognize the name Lamont “Bim” Thomas, don’t worry ‘cuz even those familiar with Bim’s previous bands probably won’t recognize the Obnox moniker or the sounds ground into these abominable grooves. Mr. Thomas’ resume includes membership in such prestigious gun clubs as the Bassholes, This Moment In Black History, and Puffy Areolas, the latter of which having the most in common with Obnox. “I’m Bleeding Now”, aptly titled as I'm sure he is after recording this basher, is Bim’s first LP as Obnox and it’s brilliantly brutal. Smog Veil somehow beat In The Red to the punch on this one and I feel punched in the head every time I listen to it.

- Lance Barresi - Filter Magazine

Lamont "Bim" Thomas is an institution in underground Cleveland punk. He's played drums in the Bassholes, and still does in This Moment in Black History and scuzz-psych collective Puffy Areolas (a band I mentioned in my "best live music of 2011" roundup). Over the summer Bim released an LP of one-man-band recordings under the name Obnox. I'm Bleeding Now, out on Smog Veil, was limited to 500 copies and flew under most folks' radar. This incredibly soulful and criminally overlooked release stands on the middle ground between the hyperactive garage punk of Jay Reatard and the blown-out Ohio pop of Guided by Voices. Also of note: It's got my favorite album artwork of the year. Bim's face was on the front, blood dripping from his lips. The back cover? A broken glass bong, blood running down from the razor-sharp remains of the mouthpiece.
Over the past month, Bim has been uploading new songs to his Soundcloud page and today's 12 O'Clock Track, "Without a Soul," is the latest. A spastic blast of hooky, fuzzed-out punk rock, it captures the essence of what makes Obnox so great. Here's hoping another official release is on the way.

Luca Cimarusti
02.17.12 - The Chicago Reader // The Bleader

Obnox is Lamont “Bim” Thomas of Cleveland’s This Moment in Black History, The Bassholes, The Deathers, Puffy Aerolas, and probably a bunch of other bands only Ohio die-hards can reference and “The Get It Inn” is what Rock ‘N’ Roll sounds like when its done quick, dirty and right. For his first solo album, “Bim,” holed up with a four track in a loft with booze and smoke and simply blasted out jams with his buds for seven days. The result is classic Cleveland punk rock, a little bit of Detroit soul, and that kind of shit-canned sheen that for a brief blip made Columbus the world-wide capital of lo-fi noise. Don’t adjust your speakers. Do play it loud.

- Bill Lipold - I Rock Cleveland

Lamont "Bim" Thomas is a staple of the North Coast's evolving rock scene, most notably atop a drum throne in This Moment in Black History. As OBNOX, Thomas takes full reins, tackling vocals, guitars and drums on a feral mix of tunes collected as I'm Bleeding Now. A limited edition release of 500 vinyl copies with full-color, two-sided insert arrived in June from Smog Veil Records, and a digital copy is now available on iTunes.

Thomas and former Zombie Proof Studio knob-turner Paul Maccarone handled production details on Bleeding, which was recorded during sessions in July and August 2010, over a total of seven days in the St. Clair Avenue loft space of Founding Fathers guitarist John Neely. Adam Smith did the final mix at Columbus Discount Recording. In a press release, Thomas is quoted as "After 15 years of recording with Bassholes and eight years with This Moment in Black History I decided I wanted to do a recording that was raw and blown out, done quickly for cheap. So we opened up the four-track tape machine with a lot of Scotch, whiskey and reefer around, for one of the funnest sessions I've ever had."

The resulting seven songs were certainly born of this freewheeling ethos, delivered as a cacophonous punk uprising. There's a surfeit of "no wave" noise elements akin to Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and DNA, though in the place of bands led by Lydia Lunch's caterwauling or Arto Lindsay's avant-garde guitar shriek is a (predominantly) lone Thomas. As a solo man, Thomas funks up the style with wild-eyed fervor, especially on "Cum Inside," which launches the record with uplifting soul harmonizing, quickly unfolds into a brash romp of plodding drums and swirling effects, intermittent squawking and Suicide-esque emoting and aesthetics. The pace and eccentricity doesn't let up for the duration of the album.

The recording is deliberately crude, dotted with Blaxploitation-worthy dialogue samples, and the unscripted nature of it captures the fun to be had in playing music with friends, of sweltering summer days in Cleveland, and the foggy memories they invite. It's visceral, gritty and affecting on "The Get It Inn," which kicks off with a slowed spoken track repeating, "If you want to make it with me, take off your clothes," before blasting into a pulsing, liberally distorted jangle with lyrics that lament I used to ride around in the summertime / with the top down / and my head held high / and a pretty girl's head on my thigh. Sifting through the blown-out, tortured track mire of "Totalled" unearths a sweet melody complete with "doo-doo-doo" vocals, while "Daughter" has a thrashy, surf rock-like urgency reminiscent of the low-fidelity subterfuge Jesus and Mary Chain used to disguise similarly bubbly diapasons. The sludgy mix and hardcore bravado of "Gin and Coke Water" is no match for lesser sound systems – and wasted on super hi-fi sets. "Whaddup Young Bleed (Drum Thunder Suite)" is an experiment in noise tolerance. Although it's not an instantly accessible work, repeated listens of Bleeding provide an ultimately rewarding exercise. It's Thomas' individual moment in Cleveland underground history.

- Ivan Sheehan
7/7/11 - Ohio Authority

Lamont “Bim” Thomas has contributed to quite a few music projects in the past, including Basshole and, most recently, drumming for the band This Moment in Black History. Now this Cleveland, Ohio native has gone solo under the name Obnox, releasing this seven-track album entitled I’m Bleeding Now.
Pushing the play button and starting the first track “Cum Inside” startled me a bit. The level of distortion made me question if my speakers were blown on my computer. Maybe I got a bad copy? After confirming the intended sound on the iTunes page for the album, I powered through the gnarled guitars and semi-understandable vocals. The mix of warped guitars and driving drumming continue through the first half of the I’m Bleeding Now, at times almost unbearable to listen to. Thank God I didn’t review this album on my MP3 player…hearing this through headphones could be a new tool used at Gitmo on suspected terrorists.
But the distortion works on a few tracks, including “The Cowboy and Cowgirl,” as the harsh guitars are broken up by a guitar solo and catchy yet distorted vocals. The same formula that worked with the previously mentioned song also works with the tune “Daughter.” The album ends on a wild note with the song “Whaddup Young Bleed (Drum Thunder Suite).” With this track we hear Thomas’s skills on the skins as it drives this four-minute and 41-second blast of insanity. Clearly my favorite cut off this album.
On a personal note, I didn’t dig the whole ear torture aspect of over-distortion on this album, as my ears were proclaiming the title of this album by the end. If you dig Bim’s past work or just dig driving noise backed by a strong back-beat, you may want to give this album a spin.

- Matt Edmund
July 27th, 2011 - Verbicide Magazine

This raw release done with only a four-track tape machine starts off with “Cum Inside/I’m Bleeding Now.” The intro takes you on a journey of psychedelic ambiance with a feeling of “something’s gone terribly wrong, but I kind of like it,” as if the band was summoning spirits live right on stage with creepy wooing sounds and witchy witticism. The hook, “I never liked you anyway,” ties into the song creating a bar anthem vibe.

Creepy, perverted one-liners kick off “The Get It In,” offering up a ‘60s rock sound with La-La-La-ing backups creating an illusion of a summer sexual fantasy. The song could very well set the tone for a vintage zombie horror flick. Slowing it down is “Totalled” a rock ‘n’ roll ballad reminding me of “Love Stinks” that leaves you with a vulnerable feeling with little to no hope of recovery. “Gin And Coke Water” starts off when a southern man cracks a sly comment leading the band into rebelling punk rock riot cheers for their gin and coke water.

Ending the record with some jazz is “Whaddup Young Blood” a brief skit of a man and woman laughing about Jesus leading into a jam session of rambunctious drum beats and killer guitar riffs and short leads ultimately ending with a man calling out “Lord help me,” as if he is trying to resurrect himself from his dirty deeds.

The record is rough and cheap yet delivers a unique and satisfying body of work that is right for anyone who enjoys visiting the underground scene. It brings me back to the day where I’d sneak in to dive bars in Brooklyn only to drink Long Islands and Kamikazes as I sat with a group of artistic, open-minded individuals listening to a mixture of Nazareth, The Talking Heads and Rob Zombie.

- Ariel Vreeland, August 12, 2011 - The Aquarian Weekly

I've been writing my way through this stack of records that never quite seems to get any smaller (thank heavens), and the one thing most of these platters have in common is that they're all pretty grounded in a time, a place, a genre. There's fast hardcore bands and slow folk singers, bedroom electronic knob-twiddlers and poly-syllabic dystopian rappers. Some of these are great, some of them not so much, but regardless of which side of the good/bad divide each artist falls I at least have some idea what's going on. Then there's the Obnox record.

Obnox, the solo project of Lamont Thomas, drummer for Cleveland's excellent proto-post-nouveau-garage-psych-hardcore-et cetera act This Moment In Black History, hits in a way not many albums do. The surest reference point is the project's title, which nails the first two syllables of the word ninety-nine percent of listeners would likely apply to the album. It's a messy affair, to be sure. Cascades of feedback and effects-laden guitar blanket all the songs, only letting slip the vaguest insinuations of structure and coherence. But make no mistake – I'm Bleeding Now isn't just some Wolf Eyes-style stab at the eardrums. It might take a listen or two, but there are songs – good ones even – that force their way through the noise like a beacon in a fog.

And this is where accurately summing up the album gets tricky. Like the band for whom he spends the majority of his time drumming, Thomas' solo project picks small enough morsels of influence from enough sources that the end result ultimately bears little direct resemblance to any of his source material. There's a bit of a shoegazer approach in the song structures buried under layers of effects and noise, but there is little of that genre's ethereal whisper or melodic sensibilities. Some of the more sprawling, discordant moments of proto-punk noisemakers like the Velvet Underground or The Electric Eels come into play, but Obnox's interpretation of that sound is more condensed and focused. Some of the actual song structures, muffled though they may be, aren't too far removed from the soul-infused hard rock of a band like Death (the Detroit version), though Thomas' take on their style is far more rough-and-tumble, lacking the nimble refinement of the original.

But for all the dissonance and abrasion, it's lack of direct reference points, I'm Bleeding Now is a damn good record. Its gnarled, lo-fi production cordons it off from the irrelevant reverence of so much retro garage rock, just as its surprisingly catchy songwriting prevents it from turning into some pretentious noise-rock jerk-off. It can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what Thomas is aiming for, and while I'm Bleeding Now isn't the easiest, most digestible record in the world, rock and roll was never supposed to be.

By Graham Scala - RVA Magazine

Lamont “Bim” Thomas, the one man as band responsible for Obnox, is best known as half of the Bassholes, as well as drummer for Cleveland’s This Moment in Black History. (He also manned the skins for little-known Columbus outfit Flipping Hades for a spell.) Though his beat-beating has been an integral component of the Bassholes’ craggily blues uptakes, he’s largely been content to provide the rhythmic backbone to Don Howland’s yowling. But for I’m Bleeding Now, he’s stepped out from behind his kit to play damn near everything (as well as drums). And while there’s some passing resemblance to the Bassholes—he even covers their “Daughter” and Howland’s “The Cowboy and Cowgirl”—even their noisiest blues deconstructions are no preparation for the sonic mindfuck Bim’s created here.

Pressed to just 500 vinyl copies, Smog Veil may be underestimating this record’s appeal. Or perhaps I’m just overestimating the number of people who enjoy getting their lids blasted off by gloriously sculpted white noise. But make no mistake, there’s melody and song structure at work here too, only such qualities are in a constant tug-of-war with Bim’s predilection toward cacophony. The record fades in on “Cum Inside” with a backwards incantation that’s then shot through with holes of sonic explosions. The title track is a furious mix of Stooges grooves and swirling turbulence that ensconce his proclamations of “I never liked you anyway” and Iggy-ed whooping. Throughout the album, snippets of warped muttering create a distinct feeling of unease, but the Bleeding is never arty in its presentation. Rather, Bim goes for the throat at every opportunity. For example, “The Get It Inn” might have been a feel-good summertime ditty were Thomas not shredding it apart from the inside out. Indeed, one can hear everything from Bowie to Albini at work here, only completely digested and regurgitated in chunks.

It’s worth mentioning that Thomas recorded the whole record on four-track, which seems a feat given its piecemeal composition. It’s even more impressive given the cadence of the album, which while fuzz-coated is nonetheless clearer than most ProTools hack-jobs. CDR honcho Adam Smith’s mixing is no doubt responsible.

It’s also worth mentioning that Thomas’ version of “Daughter” is every bit as striking as the original. Bim, sounding not unlike Howland, sticks to the original version’s twangy inflections, only he musses it up with hairy guitars. “Gin and Coke Water,” though, is even fuzzier. It’s all thunder and fury, like the Melvins if they loosened up a whole lot. One gets the sense that there was no holding back when Bim made this record, as if he tapped directly into his synaptical impulses. I guess I’m not surprised that Bim had this record in him, I just never knew he had it in him. Thankfully he let it all out.

Stephen Slaybaugh - The Agit Reader