Buffalo Tom (Bill Janovitz, Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis) formed at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1984 - a breeding ground of post punk guitar bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies. The three longstanding bandmates recognize the achievement of their longevity as a creative unit. Initially offering a raw, propulsive sound that emphasized Janovitz’s imposing guitar squall, Buffalo Tom’s early approach gave way to a more melodic, yet no less distinctive, style. Birdbrain is the band’s second album produced with help from by J Mascis. Songs from Birdbrain have become live favorites including the epic title track and “Enemy”. Bill Janovitz spoke about their songwriting process on this record and said “I think the interesting stuff about Birdbrain is that the songwriting was changing. I had written everything on the first record. “Birdbrain” is kind of a melancholy track but most of it, like “Fortune Teller, “Skeleton Key,” “Enemy,” “Directive,” those are very angry songs in a lot of ways. It was way more punk rock feeling to me but we moved in that direction and I don’t know why. But Chris was starting to write. Chris sings and wrote “Baby” and the way we wrote—we didn’t write in the same room together—but we brought these ideas to each other and kicked them around.”
