The Revival of Garage Rock

A review of the Nox Boys’ Out of Touch
By Sacha Fleming

Underground garage rock is versatile in the way it incorporates many different genres. The Nox Boys, lead by the great Zack Keim, take on a modern twist to garage rock with whimsical lyrics with a pinch of 60s power pop. The boys’ latest album is Out of Touch off of Get Hip Records. The album has been praised by fans of the genre and even by Shindig! Magazine. The band takes cues from a diverse array of artists, from Link Wray to the Sonics and the Black Lips. 

Hailing from Blawnox, Pennsylvania, the band formed in 2012 after watching the horseradish potato chip episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. They started playing gigs in local dives across western Pennsylvania and upstate New York. The term “Nox Boy” actually comes from a gang in the sixties. The band has opened for notable bands such as FIDLAR and Mudhoney. They have even experienced a van break-down, something every rockstar seems to experience. 

After five years on tour, the band finally released their sophomore album, Out of Touch in May of 2019.  The album opens with the song,  “Out of Touch,” providing a surf-fuzzy tone and soft drums. The vocals proclaim “I talk too much, I think too much, I’m out of touch”. It literally fits in with a Quentin Tarantino film. It turns out these songs weren’t just a stream of outtakes. Rather, the songs were selected among twenty different ideas. “Darlene’s Gone,” for example, is a seven minute long epic that transitions into dark echoes and hair-raising grunge. 

The Nox Boys are a group whose music I’ve been waiting to hear for a while. It’s something old and familiar yet modern and hip. I’ve been listening to this album for two months and it still feels fresh. If you’re looking for a revival of garage rock, this is your band! You can stream both their albums on bandcamp and Spotify. Also you can snatch their album CD, Vinyl or Digital. 

Their next tour stop will be on September 20th at Happy Dog in Cleveland, Ohio.

Check out the album on Spotify here! https://open.spotify.com/album/1ZKYXXwzSbpVrmL7XPXPCn?si=CEFg_57dS5qP8egqpOBErg