Buffalo Tom is an American

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band from

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, formed in 1986. Its principal members are

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

ist Bill Janovitz who also sings the majority of lead vocals,

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

and singer Chris Colbourn, and

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

mer Tom Maginnis. The band's name is derived from the band

Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield was a Canadian-American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1966 by Canadians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin (musician), Dewey Martin and Americans Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely know ...

and the first name of the drummer.

Career

Buffalo Tom began with a friendship at the

University of Massachusetts at Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the Flagship university, flagship campus of the Univer ...

among students Chris Colbourn, Tom Maginnis, and Bill Janovitz. Another friendship with guitarist/frontman J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. helped the band's career to take off through Mascis assisting with the production on the band's first two albums. Mascis also played lead guitar on the song "Impossible" from Buffalo Tom's self-titled debut. Dinosaur Jr would also influence Buffalo Tom's music, as would Hüsker Dü, the Replacements, Moving Targets, and the Neats. Buffalo Tom had their highest-charting songs in the mid-1990s: "Sodajerk" (1993) peaked at No. 8 and "Summer" (1995) peaked at No. 4 on the Heatseekers chart. Their album, '' Big Red Letter Day'', peaked at no. 17 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

in October 1993. The band contributed the track "For All To See" to the 1993 AIDS-Benefit Album No Alternative produced by the Red Hot Organization, and the track "Lolly Lolly Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here" to the CD '' School House Rock! Rocks''. Buffalo Tom's song "Sodajerk" was featured on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

to the 1994 television series '' My So-Called Life''. They appeared in a club scene on ''My So-Called Life'', episode 12, titled "Self-Esteem," playing "Late at Night." The episode originally aired on 17 November 1994. The group also wrote the theme song to the short-lived 1999

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

'' The Mike O'Malley Show''. In 1999, the song "Taillights Fade" was used in the Breckin Meyer/ Elizabeth Berkley independent film ''Taillights Fade''. They also recorded The Jam's "

Going Underground "Going Underground" is a single by English rock band the Jam, written by lead guitarist Paul Weller and released in March 1980. It debuted at number one in the UK Singles Chart, spending three weeks at the top. "Going Underground" was the fir ...

" for the 2000 tribute album '' Fire and Skill: The Songs of the Jam''. Issued as a double A-sided single, with

Liam Gallagher William John Paul Gallagher (born 21 September 1972) is an English singer and songwriter. He is the lead singer and co-founder of the rock band Oasis (band), Oasis and fronted the rock band Beady Eye from 2010 to 2014, before starting a succes ...

and Steve Cradock's

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of "Carnation", the single reached No. 6 in the UK Singles Chart in October 1999. They were the final musical guest on '' The Jon Stewart Show''. Buffalo Tom is a perennial performer at the ''Hot Stove Cool Music'' concerts that benefit Theo Epstein's Charity, 'Foundation to Be Named Later'. After a lengthy hiatus through most of the decade, during 2007 Buffalo Tom re-emerged to perform at the South by Southwest Music Festival and to go on a summer tour across the US. An album, '' Three Easy Pieces'', was released on July 10, 2007, through the

New West New West Records is a record label based in Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville and Athens, Georgia. It previously had offices in Burbank, California and Beverly Hills, California. From 2013 to 2018, New West's records in the U.S. were distributed b ...

label. The band has played a number of concerts in the US, Australia and Europe. On November 24, 2010, it was announced through the band's Facebook and Twitter pages that their new album would be titled ''Skins'', and was intended for release in mid-February 2011. It came out to positive reviews from

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 Mus ...

and others on March 8, 2011, through their own label Scrawny Records, via The Orchard distribution company. ''Quiet and Peace'' was released on March 2, 2018. The band performed the theme song for NBC's ''

Extended Family An extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear family of parents and their children to include aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins or other relatives, all living nearby or in the same household. Particular forms include the stem ...

'', called "We Thought We Were Done".

Discography

Albums

*'' Buffalo Tom'' (1988) *'' Birdbrain'' (1990) *'' Let Me Come Over'' (1992) *'' Big Red Letter Day'' (1993) *'' Sleepy Eyed'' (1995) *'' Smitten'' (1998) *''Instant Live 6/10/05 Paradise, Boston, MA'' (2005) *'' Three Easy Pieces'' (2007) *'' Skins'' (2011) *'' Quiet and Peace'' (2018) *''Jump Rope'' (2024)

Compilation albums

*''Asides from Buffalo Tom'' (2000) *''Besides: A Collection of B-Sides and Rarities'' (2002)

Singles and EPs

*"Sunflower Suit" (1989) *"Enemy" (1989) *"Crawl" (1990) *"Birdbrain" (1990) *"Fortune Teller" (1991) *"Velvet Roof" (1992) *"Taillights Fade" (1992) - No. 51 in NL *"Mineral" (1992) *"Sodajerk" (1993) - reached No. 7 on ''Billboard''

Alternative Songs Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-play ...

*"Treehouse" (1993) *"I'm Allowed" (1994) - No. 37 in NL *"Would Not Be Denied" (1994) *"Summer" (1995) *"Tangerine" (1995) *"Wiser" (1998) *"Knot In It/ Rachael" (1999) *"

" (1999) - reached No. 6 in the UK as a double A-side with Liam Gallagher and Steve Cradock's version of "Carnation" *"Bad Phone Call" (2007) *"Guilty Girls" (2011) *"Helmet" (2024) *"New Girl Singing" (2024) *"Autumn Leaves" (2024)

References

External links

Official websiteThe Kitchen Door - discography and tour history
{{Authority control Musical groups from Boston New West Records artists Musical groups established in 1986 Musical trios from Massachusetts 1986 establishments in Massachusetts SST Records artists Situation Two artists Beggars Banquet Records artists Polydor Records artists Caroline Records artists Rough Trade Records artists