BUFFALO TOM Spring Floor 1996

 
Discogs

Alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1986.

Spring Floor was recorded Live at The Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, Canada, October 15, 1995.

Live bootleg from a show back in 1995 on Kiss The Stone, a well-known Italian bootleg "label" that was operating back in the 1990's. The sound quality on this is an 8 out of 10. - Blogatrix


Tracklist

1		Velvet Roof
2		Clobbered
3		Kitchen Door
4		Sparklers
5		Summer
6		Tangerine
7		When You Discover
8		Late At Night
9		Your Stripes
10		Latest Monkey
11		Mineral
12		Treehouse
13		I'm Allowed
14		Impossible
15		Crutch

BILL JANOVITZ Lonesome Billy 1997

by request

 

Discogs

Artist Biography by Mark Deming

Bill Janovitz is best-known as the guitarist and lead singer with Buffalo Tom, one of the few bands that sprung from the American underground scene of the '80s who weathered the alternative rock boom of the '90s with their talent and integrity intact. Born in Queens, NY, Janovitz spent most of his childhood living in Long Island. At the age of 16, Janovitz moved with his family to Massachusetts and, after graduating from high school, he enrolled at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Janovitz began playing music while in elementary school when he took up the trumpet; at the age of 12, Janovitz moved on to guitar, and at 14 had formed his first band, the Plastic Peach, who played covers ranging from Neil Young to Talking Heads. Several years later Janovitz joined what he's described as "a tragically named high school band," the Rambunctious Llamas, who specialized in new wave and jangle pop covers. Janovitz was still playing with the Llamas during his early college days when he met fellow UMass students Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis, who were also playing in local bands. The three became friendly after running into each other at local rock shows, and after discovering a shared admiration for bands such as Hüsker Dü, Mission of Burma, and the Replacements, they decided to join forces, with Colbourn on bass and Maginnis behind the drums.

Calling themselves Buffalo Tom, Janovitz, Colbourn, and Maginnis began playing out in 1986, and soon gained an important ally when J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. befriended the band and loaned them equipment. In 1989, Mascis produced the group's self-titled debut album, which clearly displayed the producer's influence. However, the band's own musical personality -- tighter, cleaner, and more heartfelt -- began to manifest itself on their second album, 1990's Birdbrain. The band began to develop a following in Europe, and gained considerable college radio airplay with 1992's Let Me Come Over, a striking set of songs that included several heart-wrenching ballads and showed just how strong and dynamic the band could be. Buffalo Tom's fourth album, Big Red Letter Day, finally earned the band some well-deserved commercial radio exposure with the propulsive single "Soda Jerk," which also popped up on the acclaimed television series My So-Called Life. After Big Red Letter Day, Buffalo Tom opted to take some time off, and Janovitz decided to make use of a backlog of unrecorded songs by making a solo album. Lonesome Billy, recorded at a tiny studio in Arizona, found Janovitz playing alongside Joey Burns and John Convertino of Giant Sand and Calexico, and Chris Toppin from Fuzzy, on a set of material that displayed a surprisingly rootsy style. Janovitz returned to Buffalo Tom for 1998's Smitten, but in 2001, with the group on hiatus, he released a second solo set, Up Here, which found Janovitz exploring his interest in folk-rock and singer/songwriter-oriented material. The musicians Janovitz assembled for the Up Here sessions -- which included Toppin, bassist Josh Lattanzi, and drummer Tom Polce -- eventually evolved into a separate band, Crown Victoria, who began playing live shows and in 2004 shared billing with Janovitz for the album Fireworks on TV!. Janovitz also has a second side project, the Bathing Beauties; formed originally to play covers for fun at the occasional bar gig the group (besides Janovitz and Toppin) includes noted producer Paul Kolderie on bass). 

 

Tracklist  

1	Girl's Club
2	Think Of All
3	Shoulder
4	Gaslight
5	Ghost In My Piano
6	Strangers
7	My Funny Valentine
8	Peninsula
9	Talking To The Queen
10	Red Balloon

 

BUFFALO TOM Sleepy Eyed 1995

by request

Discogs

Tracklist

1	Tangerine
2	Summer
3	Kitchen Door
4	Rules
5	It's You
6	When You Discover
7	Sunday Night
8	Your Stripes
9	Sparklers
10	Clobbered
11	Sundress
12	Twenty Points
13	Souvenir
14	Crueler

BUFFALO TOM Birdbrain 12 inch 1990

Discogs

Here was another nice record I received in the mail from back in my college radio days. Birdbrain was a 12 inch promo record with 2 acoustic tracks and the title track, released by Situation Two in the UK.

 

And for those who get titillated at the mention of Dinosaur Jr., this release was produced by J Mascis.

Tracklist

A   Birdbrain
B1 Reason Why (Acoustic)
B2 Heaven (Acoustic)

BUFFALO TOM Let Me Come Over 1992

Discogs

Buffalo Tom Biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Emerging just as the college rock of the 1980s metamorphosed into the alt-rock explosion of the '90s, Buffalo Tom have withstood shifts of fortune and style to become one of their generation's enduring rock bands. Over time, the Boston trio tempered the full-throttle guitar roar that got them pegged as "Dinosaur Jr. junior" upon the release of their eponymous debut in 1988, an evolution that happened quickly: Let Me Come Over, the 1992 album that broadened their audience in the U.S. and the U.K., was anchored by the aching ballad "Taillights Fade." During the '90s, Big Red Letter Day and Sleepy Eyed kept Buffalo Tom in the orbit of the alt-rock mainstream on both sides of the Atlantic. Following the 1998 release of Smitten, the band went on a hiatus that lasted nearly a decade. After the 2007 release of Three Easy Pieces, Buffalo Tom remained an active band, touring periodically and releasing such new albums as 2018's Quiet and Peace and 2024's Jump Rope every few years.

Tracklist

1		Staples	3:34
2		Taillights Fade	3:45
3		Mountains Of Your Head	3:22
4		Mineral	4:32
5		Darl	2:50
6		Larry	5:32
7		Velvet Roof	3:55
8		I'm Not There	4:06
9		Stymied	4:18
10		Porchlight	4:06
11		Frozen Lake	3:43
12		Saving Grace	3:14
13		Crutch	4:03