LAMONT THOMAS is maybe best known as the drummer of blues punk legend THE BASSHOLES, but he has started a very own project as OBNOX some years and eight albums before. „His approach to punk is well… punk as fuck. Thomas doesn’t care about rules and he certainly isn’t afraid to experiment, blending his sound with noise rock, hip-hop, garage, soul, and hardcore. It’s usually abrasive and often pretty steeped in political and social consciousness, he speaking as a voice for the oppressed without gimmick or pandering” – as Post-Trash Mag wrote about him and I just could write the same.

A few years ago Monofonus Press head Morgan Coy had that crazy idea…why not ask OBNOX to make a free jazz record? And he has made one. Morgan says about it: Although it may not directly sound like it, to these ears it’s an updated take on some of the late 70’s free jazz LP’s that, at the time, were panned by critics but now are being rediscovered… think Albert Ayler’s „New Grass”, Archie Shepp’s „Attica Blues,” Larry Young’s „Fuel”, even reminds me of Tony Williams Lifetime at times. OBNOX has infused „templo del sonido” with that same sense of urgency and protest.  Like the 70’s, we are once again in a time of protest and discontent with the world around us – as Thomas so elegantly states in the first lyrics of the album:

„wake up… wake up… America… wake your punk ass up!”

Perhaps you are afraid of jazz, even more free jazz, but this album is so much punk than jazz. It needs your open mind only:

Anyway his previous recordings were released e.g. on punk rock’n’roll label Slovenly or noise rock one 12XU.

– Zac Ives daughter Anna knows our true spirit:

Last spring Texan label Monofonus invited Dan Melchior to Austin to record with local post punk idiots Spray Paint. Over a week or so beers were drank and songs were hammered out. The result is a Krauty-Crazy Horse-y blending of these two distinct artists. Dan Melchior (ex-Broke Revue) is a highly talented British musician. He comes from garage punk, worked together with Billy Childish, Holly Golightly and Walker Russel (Pheromoans), and usually makes experimental other music.

Their collaborative album under the name of Contributors out now. This record is the second in a series of Spray Paint collaborations that will be coming out on different labels. The 1st  with Ben Mackie from Aussie punk band Cuntz was released this September on 12XU Records.

Trans Upper Egypt

Italian psychedelic rock band
among the members there is one of the best video makers I know
the Z-move specialist tab_ularasa
who made videos for Bazooka, Ultra Twist (as member), Hell Shovel, Feeling Of Love, Country Teaser, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Yussuf Jerusalem, Le Peucher
and many others

Fantasia

from the album Trans Upper Egypt on Monofonus Press (US)

Aussie drums’n’guitar punk duo Gooch Palms‘ self-describe: equal parts GG Allin, Iggy Pop, Roy Orbison and Olivia Newton John (circa Let’s Get Physical era). First single from the double A-side 7”

to be released on Urinal Cake Records (US) before the year is out.

*

Silver Apples Trans Upper Egypt

album on Monofonus (US)

FUTUROSCOPE is a theme park, a stupid high-tech multimedia Disneyland in France, in Vienne Departement. If you go thereabout rather choose the goat cheese and the wine! But also is a French band with perfect references. Unfortunately there’re just a little, but luckily increasing bunch of people who knows about the great little label in Texas, Monofonus Press, and the magnifique petit label in France, Cockatail Pueblo. Led Er Est, Shit and Shine, John Wesley Coleman, The Golden Boys, The Pheromoans, The Rebel, Trans Upper Egypt, XYX (is my absolute favorite there), perhaps these are the most well-known band on Monofonus. Well, I think after these, it is absolutely needless to mention the bands of Cocktail Pueblo (look those!). The Futuroscope’ records were released by them. The French trio (from Tours, with a member of Pneu) plays psychedelic ritual kraut space rock, often it twists into ecstasy

cassette by Monofonus or digital from Bandcamp

The founder of notorious British alternative punk band Country Teasers (which was somewhere between The Fall and Fat White Family), Ben Waller says about the beginning of his musical carrier: “I envied the guys in the school band. They didn’t invite me to join, so I formed my own band. I wanted to play the Cure’s guitar melodies, so that’s how I learnt, playing along. I learnt by ear. I had learnt piano to Grade 3, which I failed; I learnt sax for a year or two at school too. Fucking hated it. But I could play the solo at the end of Pink Floyd’s ‘Two Suns in the Sunset’, the tragic climax of The Final Cut.” * His next cut under his pseudonym The Rebel

„KROT” LP on Monofonus Press (US). It is just like the Country Teasers with minimal orchestration and experimental country songs. It was recorded in Texas. On the label’s site you can listen to the whole album for a limited time!

Free download: Country Teasers          The Rebel

* The cited interview

*

The promised „more grown up, well polished” new album by the acid beach boys Growlers. “There are some happy songs, some love songs, some creepy shit. There’s everything. We got funky.”

„Chinese Fountain” LP, CD, digital on Everloving (US), Fat Cat (EU) and Smack Face Records (Aus)

ONO – Avant/Gospel/Punk/Industrial since 1980 in Chicago. But this is just the 4th excellent album. It’s mixed by Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, George Clinton, Miles Davies and Chuck D.

‘Diegesis’ on Moniker Records

*

Living Alone in a Peep Show with Ghetto Ghouls in Texas

self-titled album with perfect low-fidelity garage punk sound by Monofonus Press

60s style British psychedelic garage pop from Nashville

The Sufis – from Investions LP by Burger (USA) and Ample Play Records (UK)

*

The experimental electro industrial German Army based in Los Angeles.

from Endless Phonics LP by Monofonus Press

Another LP by Skrotup Records