Bill Janovitz (born June 3, 1966) is an American musician and writer. He is the singer, guitarist, and songwriter of

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...

band

Buffalo Tom Buffalo Tom is an American alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1986. Its principal members are guitarist Bill Janovitz, bassist Chris Colbourn, and drummer Tom Maginnis. The band's name is derived from the band Buffalo Sp ...

, and has also released three solo albums. Janovitz has written extensively for

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

, authored the '' Exile on Main St.'' book for the

33⅓ (Thirty-Three and a Third) is a series of books, each about a single music album. The series title refers to the rotation speed of a vinyl LP, RPM. History Originally published by Continuum, the series was founded by editor David Barker i ...

series, and contributed to Boston Magazine, the ''

Boston Phoenix ''The Phoenix'' (stylized as ''The Phœnix'') was the name of several alternative weekly periodicals published in the United States of America by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts, including the ''Portland Phoenix'' and ...

, and Post Road magazine.

Professional career

After enrolling at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...

, Janovitz formed

with fellow students Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis. A friendship with

J. Mascis Joseph Donald Mascis Jr. ( ; born December 10, 1965), better known as J Mascis, is an American musician who is the singer, guitarist and main songwriter for the alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr. He has also released several albums as a solo arti ...

Dinosaur Jr. Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name. The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlow ( ...

helped the band's career to take off, with Mascis producing the band's first two albums to critical acclaim. Commercial success followed with their subsequent records as the band developed a fanbase both at home and abroad. In 1997, Janovitz released the solo album ''Lonesome Billy'', with help from

Joey Burns Calexico is a Tucson, Arizona-based Americana, Tex-Mex, indie rock band. The band's two main members, Joey Burns and John Convertino, first played together in Los Angeles as part of the group Giant Sand. They have recorded a number of albums on ...

and

John Convertino Calexico is a Tucson, Arizona-based Americana, Tex-Mex, indie rock band. The band's two main members, Joey Burns and John Convertino, first played together in Los Angeles as part of the group Giant Sand. They have recorded a number of albums o ...

Giant Sand Giant Sand is an American musical group from Tucson, Arizona, United States. Its most constant member is singer-songwriter Howe Gelb. The group started as Giant Sandworms in the late 1970s post-punk and paisley underground scenes. They later s ...

and

Calexico Calexico () is a city in southern Imperial County, California. Situated on the Mexican border, it is linked economically with the much larger city of Mexicali, the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California. It is about east of San Diego ...

, utilizing unused Buffalo Tom songs to form the bulk of the album. During Buffalo Tom's long hiatus after '' Smitten'' in 1998, Bill worked with keyboardist Phil Aiken and Chris Toppin and released the album ''Up Here'' in 2001. He continued to work with Aiken and released the album ''Fireworks on TV!'' as Crown Victoria (also including Tom Polce on drums and Josh Lattanzi on bass) in 2004. Bill took many of the songs he wrote with his bar-band/side project The Bathing Beauties (featuring Tanya Donelly of Belly, Dean Fisher, Phil Aiken, Chris Toppin and Paul Kolderie) and put out a CD under the name Show People with Toppin. Beginning in November 2008, Bill, as part of his Part Time Man of Rock blog, started a Cover of the Week project, featuring new recording of cover songs along with lengthy essays detailing his relationship with each of the songs. Some of these articles detail Bill's career in music, but many connect deeply to his personal life. In 2011 Janovitz, along with

Graham Parker Graham Thomas Parker (born 18 November 1950) is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead singer of the British band Graham Parker & the Rumour. Life and career Early career (1960s–1976) Parker was born in Hackney, East L ...

and Kate Pierson, sang on the album ''Lost Songs Of Lennon & McCartney - From A Window'', featuring covers of

Lennon–McCartney Lennon–McCartney was the songwriting partnership between English musicians John Lennon (1940–1980) and Paul McCartney (born 1942) of the Beatles. It is the best-known and most successful musical collaboration ever by records sold, with the ...

songs that were originally recorded by artists other than the Beatles. Janovitz's book ''Rocks Off: 50 Tracks That Tell the Story of the Rolling Stones'' was released in July 2013.

Personal life and family

Bill has three younger brothers, all in bands: Paul, who founded the band

Cold Water Flat A cold water flat is an apartment that has no running hot water. In most developed countries, current building codes make cold water flats illegal, but they used to be common in such cities as Detroit, Chicago and New York City until the mid-twen ...

, Scott of the band

The Russians ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

and many others, and the youngest, Tom, of Sodafrog. Since the end of Buffalo Tom's major-label career in the late 90s, he has developed a parallel career as a

real-estate agent A real estate agent or real estate broker is a person who represents sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agen ...

, based in

Lexington, Massachusetts Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston. The population was 34,454 as of the 2020 census. The area was originally inhabited by Native Americans, and was fir ...

, with a particular interest in the city's mid-century

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

homes.

Solo discography

*''Lonesome Billy'' (1997) *''Up Here'' (2001) *''

Fireworks on TV! Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large number of devices in ...

'' (as

Crown Victoria The Ford Crown Victoria ("Crown Vic") is a full-size sedan that was marketed and manufactured by Ford. The successor to the Ford LTD Crown Victoria, two generations of the model line were produced from the 1992 to 2012 model years. The Ford ...

, 2004) *''Walt Whitman Mall'' (2013)

References

External links

BillJanovitz.comBuffalo Tom Official Website
1966 births Living people People from Huntington, New York American male singers American alternative rock musicians Alternative rock singers University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni SpinART Records artists {{US-rock-singer-stub