Album of the Day-May 18
Buffalo Tom — Birdbrain
Buffalo Tom — Birdbrain
18.May.2020
Buffalo Tom
Birdbrain
1990
By 1990, the college rock sound was changing. Where it had always been guitar-driven, it was bands like Buffalo Tom that provided a little insight into the tsunami of grunge that followed.
Birdbrain is the Boston based trios (Chris Colbourn, Tom Maginnis, and Bill Janovitz) second full-length album. This second was again produced with pal J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. and Sean Slade (Lou Reed, Uncle Tupelo, Hole).
The album opens with the title track that’s a murky sounding ode to either a creepy stalker or an ornithologist. Or neither. Truth be told, all these years on, I’m still a little confused on that one.
At times chief songwriter Bill Janovitz can be a little obtuse.
The album as a whole contains moody rockers like “Skeleton Key”, noise rock gems like “Caress” that would be more at home on a Dinosaur Jr. album. And then along comes a little pop gem like “A Guy Who Is Me.” That’s just the first four songs.
“Enemy” is a slog of a song that, whether you want it to or not, gets your head moving back and forth.
The push and pull between ballad and distorted rock of “Fortune Teller” speaks perfectly to any relationship. In particular to those of a young man just learning how to fumble their way through them.
There’s not a bad song on Birdbrain and for a bunch of guys who were in their early 20’s when they recorded it, Birdbrain is a very mature album.
The hidden gem here is “Heaven”, a cover of The Psychedelic Furs song. Once you hear this, you’ll find yourself saying “more of this please”…and more of it you’ll get on their next album, Let Me Come Over.
But it’s here on Birdbrain that Buffalo Tom begins to spread their wings (a shitty pun, I know.)
Birdbrain is one of the better written and more consistent sounding albums of that era. This isn’t just a testament to the band but the production. That ability of Buffalo Tom to marry solid production to their songwriting prowess is something they’ve always been able to do.
Unfortunately, Buffalo Tom has never harnessed the zeitgeist. With that said, it doesn’t make any of their work any less insignificant, in particular Birdbrain.