Avi Buffalo
BIOGRAPHY
“‘You know why it’s good? Because it sounds OLD, but it’s NEW!’ said Blues Mentor, sparing the world more labored analysis”….said Subpop.com, sparing the writer more laboured analysis. Is it too early to be getting all meta-narrative? It’s probably always too early to be doing that. I’m sorry, I promise I’ll never do it again.
So. Avi Buffalo.
A great deal has been made about this band's shortcomings in way of years – this would be a fair enough disparagement to make were they applying for a bar job in the US (the band only finished high school in 2009) - but if the job were to ask for a songwriter to sculpt a charming lump of sunrise-tinged pop songs about teenage love, growing up and, err, teenage loss than - well, one would assume that the best fit would be a teenager. No brainer, huh?
Luckily enough that’s exactly what Avi Buffalo do – I wouldn’t even stretch to saying its “what they do best” because, truth be told, they don’t do anything else – they write cute little indie pop songs with lyrics like "you are tiny and your lips are like little pieces of bacon"; songs which ruminate lyrically – possibly mid-coitally – on selfishness and self-deprecation, documenting either a stumbling relationship or a drunken hook-up with wit and candor.
The thing which most cements the self-titled debut album as a piece of something tender is that it is full of those minor moments, you know the kind when a synesthetic moment sets a synapse fuse ripping through your memory - like that guys B.O. reminding you of your first festival, or that week old milk reminding you of your first bad cocktail – well Avi’s self-titled debut is full of those moments, songs that evoke so precisely those half remembered summers and first loves that never existed, events and people in your life that never were, but which you can’t help but remember.
At this point I should probably go back and correct the possessives in the last few paragraphs (but I clearly won’t, because I haven’t, so I won’t) because Avi Buffalo is actually the adopted name of 19-year-old songwriter Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg, although he now plays with a band, it is essentially Avi + band. Interestingly enough "+ band" includes keyboard player Rebecca Coleman whose vocals sweep and coalesce with Avi's affected MGMT-ish croaky falsetto. Oh, and she was originally Avi's muse by way of an intense teenage crush. You can hear the tenderness to their voices, a kind of brittle frailty that lends their sunlit melodies an edge of sadness. As for the name (I'm meandering a little here. I've been listening to the album on loop and it has an awkward way of making your mind drift. In a nice way - I just spent five minutes staring out the window thinking about how great an iced tea would be. Or maybe an ice-cream soda. Mmmm.), the sotory of it's birth is shallow; as Avi ponders in their characteristically lo-fi documentary filmed in their lo-fi studio in which they recorded their romantically lo-fi album:
‘you know there isn't a story, like at all...it's completely random...my friend.in 8th grade...we were on the Baseball field in P.E. and he said “I'll be Isaac Lightning, and you be Avi Buffalo”. And, I guess, that’s the story...there's no kind of, mystical buffalo’
Like the music, the name has a level of mystique about it – something colloquial and quintessentially American, but detached, indecipherable. There is the worry that, when that last twist of the padlock is made, or the cipher worked out, the romanticism will uncover very little beneath. However, for now lets just ride the wave of fake nostalgia and borrowed romance.
TOUR DATES
13 May 2010 Brighton, UK The Great Escape Festival
14 May 2010 Minehead, UK All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival w/ Pavement SOLD OUT!
15 May 2010 The Hague, The Netherlands Walk The Line Festival
16 May 2010 Brussels, Belgium Le Grand Salon - Les Nuits Botanique
18 May 2010 Paris, France Reservoir Club
20 May 2010 Hamburg, Germany Molotow
21 May 2010 Berlin, Germany Bang Bang Club
23 May 2010 Amsterdam, Netherlands Paradiso w/ The Ruby Suns
24 May 2010 London, UK The Old Blue Last
25 May 2010 London, UK Rough Trade East
FREE IN-STORE PERFORMANCE. ALL AGES
30 May 2010 George, WA Gorge Amphitheatre Sasquatch! Music Festival
18 June 2010 NXNE (SOLO) Toronto, BC W/ AA Bondy
19 June 2010 NXNE @ LEE’S PALACE Toronto, BC W/ Cold Cave, The Soft Pack
24 June 2010 The Deaf Institute Manchester, UK Headline Show
27 June 2010 GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL Glastonbury,UK Queen’s Stage - 10PM. SOLD OUT1 July 2010 ROYAL OAK THEATER Royal Oak, MI w/ Modest Mouse
2 July 2010 ROYAL OAK THEATER Royal Oak, MI w/ Modest Mouse
3 July 2010 SUMMERFEST Milwaukee, WI w/ Modest Mouse
4 July 2010 80/35 MUSIC FESTIVAL Des Moines, IA
6 July 2010 CROSSROADS KC AT GRINDERS Kansas City, MO w/ Modest Mouse
23 July 2010 CRYSTAL BALLROOM Portland, OR W/ Blitzen Trapper
26 July 2010 THE AQUARIUM Fargo, ND Headline Show
27 July 2010 FIRST AVE Minneapolis, MN W/ Blitzen Trapper
28 July 2010 TURNER Milwaukee, WI W/ Blitzen Trapper
30 July 2010 PIER 17 SOUTHSTREET SEAPORT New York City, NY
w/ TBA
31 Jul 2010 Montreal, Canada Osheaga Music Festival w/ Arcade Fire, Pavement, Beach House, Blitzen Trapper
August 3 2010 OPERA HOUSE Toronto, BC w/ Blitzen Trapper
August 4 2010 MAJESTIC Detroit, MI w/ Blitzen Trapper
August 5 2010, THE VOGUE Indianapolis, IN w/ Blitzen Trapper
August 9 2010, The Hi-Dive Denver, CO Headline Show
04 Sep 2010 Monticello, NY ATP New York Festival w/ Sonic Youth, Iggy & The Stooges
LINKS
www.myspace.com/avibuffalo
Review of debut album on Rockfeedback.com
avibuffalomusic.com/
http://www.last.fm/music/Avi+Buffalo
VIDEOS
Avi Buffalo - "Whats In It For?"
In The Studio With: Avi Bufalo Part 1
In The Studio With: Avi Buffalo Part 2
Avi Buffalo - Summer Cum
words and thoughts by Samuel Smith