Fifteen months after nailing a black-light poster to the walls of their proto-punk domain on Third Time to Harm, OBN IIIs continue to follow the lodestar of street-wise Seventies rock with Worth a Lot of Money. Equal parts Deep Purple and Dictators, the Austin quartet’s action-packed fourth LP onsets with frontman Orville Bateman Neeley III toasting low-rent living (“Trash Heap”) while bragging on scratch-off windfalls (“New Money”) with the prideful sleaziness of a Red River district bathroom. Yet the sinner shows sensitivity, countering with unabashed love song “4KD,” in which Neeley forges a timeless, soulful hook: “There she is, key to my hearrrrt!” The lo-fi Iggy Slop that recklessly yowled “If the shit fits, fuckin’ wear it!” on 2011 debut The One and Only has been bound and gagged, replaced with a leather-lunged wail resembling Phil Lynott on peak track “Let the Music.” Money‘s B-side finds the band on steroids, with Marley Jones’ unforgiving hammering and Tom Triplett’s nicotine-stained fretwork pushing metallic creeper “The Stalker” and quitter anthem “I’m Done” into the red. Another effortless-sounding platter from the prime movers of Austin’s underground, whose artistic apex seems infinite.
This article appears in September 18 • 2015.