Nothing if not a model of consistency, Buffalo Tom has been making the same decent-to-great music since 1992’s Let Me Come Over. Actually the Massachusetts trio’s third album, Let Me Come Over feels more like a debut, as it zeroed in brilliantly on the group’s strengths, namely the earnest, imagery-laden, acoustic-gone-electric songwriting of guitarist Bill Janovitz and bassist Chris Colbourn and the propulsive punk undercurrents supplied by drummer Tom Maginnis. Judging by the band’s latest, Skins (Scrawny), it’s a formula that still has legs. Skins is the group’s eighth album and second since reuniting after a 10-year (sort-of) break, and its world-weary lilt and been-there/done-that themes make it the perfect grown-up companion piece to Let Me Come Over’s reluctant coming-of-age angst. It may be the best thing the band has done since that LP. Buffalo Tom will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with Janovitz and Colbourn.
Colbourn: I recently started watching sports because my two young kids are starting to play soccer on the weekends. I thought if I watched something like the German-football Bundesliga, they’d follow my lead and start to gain some interest in their Saturday-morning teams. I was wrong about that, and the kids appear to have no further interest in any sports—or what their dad watches! In the meantime, I got very engaged watching these German teams. The hometown fans for teams like Schalke 04, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich are like nothing I’ve ever witnessed growing up watching the Baltimore Orioles. More than 40,000 Schalke fans stay on their feet, jumping around like Superchunk for the entire match and roaring for their local born star, Manuel Neuer, a young star goalkeeper getting as much attention as any leading goal scorer in the league. They say he’s a natural with divine talents.
Video after the jump.
One reply on “Buffalo Tom’s Chris Colbourn Would Not Be Denied: Manuel Neuer”
Hi, I was wondering how your father might be. I worked with him, as a client, using Moore’s forms when I worked at ISI (now known as CGI). I think he said he was going to retire to Florida. I get there from time to time and would love to ay “hi” if he’s still there.