I fucking love this band. And they’re from my hometown of Cincinnati. It’s nice to see what amazing music can be created on a Skyline Chili and UDF milkshake diet, assuming they dig that shit like I did!
One of my favorite things about them is their obvious influence from another Ohio band, the James Gang. Buffalo Killers’ harmonies are beautiful, the melodies take you on a ride and the songwriting is unique and assured.
Today, they’ve decided to share a free tune that they just recorded last week. Hot off the press, if you will.
Buffalo Killers are on tour now with North Mississippi All-Stars. Dig the dates here. And grab their insanely-good new album 3 on vinyl, right here. And watch out for the Buffalo Killers on the January Bang Bang Boogaloo/Beyond Beyond is Beyond compilation! More on that later. For now, dig Buffalo Killers brand-new “Oh My Word”…
Buffalo Killers – Oh My Word
Right-click on it to download.
From their upcoming Thrill Jockey debut release, West, out in September…
Wooden Shjips – Lazy Bones
(download it here… http://www.thrilljockey.com/assets/freedownload/Wooden_Shjips-Lazy_Bones.mp3)
ROIR Records has just re-released some excellent live and historic Skatalites music on CD, LP, and digital download, which was previously only available on cassette. Stretching Out, from 1983, is historically significant because it is from the year when the band had just reconciled the differences that had driven their 2-year career apart in 1965. Peter Tosh’s manager, Herbie Miller tracked them all down to play at the 1983 Jamaica Sunplash. Prior to the big gig, the band got together for some rehearsal nightclub gigs at Miller’s Blue Monk Jazz Gallery in Kingston before a crowd of local fans, friends, and fellow musicians. There were no restrictions on the length of their sets, no barriers on soloing, and no boundaries in general…which led to a stretched out, spontaneously joyful Ska reunion.
You can feel the small-room vibe of the club in the recordings and you can almost smell the ganja smoke and feel the heat and the sweat created by those in attendance, who were most likely moved by the endless backbeat skank to dance the night away. The Skatalites are a large group of players (9 of them, with 3 guests) whose playing is as smooth as cocoa butter over the 2 hours. There never seems to be any confusion as to who is soloing and when the band comes back in; this is a group of musicians who fully support each other. And the results make it all sound so easy, as the best musicians do. The band cooks its way through classics like “Guns of Navarone”, “Confucius”, and “Lee Harvey Oswald” and flow like melting moonlight over stretched out numbers like “Black Sunday” and “Ska Ba”.
The Skatalites horn blowers are stunning throughout. They were clearly inspired by the bebop players (like John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker) and the musical freedom and boundary-bursting those players pioneered. And the Skatalites, in turn, helped pioneer the sound that would later morph into rock steady and reggae. Unfortunately, all but one (Lester Sterling-alto sax, who still blows with the band) of that original horn section has joined that big band in the sky, with the passing of Johnny “Dizzy” Moore in August of this year. But the music certainly lives on and the live music on Stretching Out is just about as lively as it gets!
And be sure to check out this review published on Blog Critics and leave me some nice comments there
I’ve got an offer that you can’t refuse right here! I found this over at Gorilla v Bear (indie people like animals) and it’s the music deal of the year so far. It’s The Walkmen‘s new album, You & Me, which is supposedly their best yet and one of the best albums of the year for a measley 5 bones. Not only is it only $5, but that $5 will go towards helping kids with cancer. Really, you almost can’t not do this, unless you’re a true grouch who doesn’t like music or kids. This from the press release:
“All donations go to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in honor of Luca Vasallo, a friend to the band and a current patient who is seven months old and doing a great job fighting a very difficult disease,” said Peter Bauer of The Walkmen. “This is a very good organization that certainly deserves the attention.”
So, it would behoove you to head on over to Amie St. and make your donation, and receive a fine musical album at 320 kbps DRM-free mp3′s! Oh yeah, and it doesn’t officially drop until August 19th. I haven’t heard it yet, but I’m going there now to get mine.
Sample the song “In The New Year” from You & Me… [audio http://www.frannysilverman.com/NewmRadio/04-In_The_New_Year.mp3]
