Buffalo was a heavy riff-laden rock band from Sydney, Australia. Rockin hard before Angus and Bon started boogiein', they put out 5 albums from 1972-1977, "Volcanic Rock"(1973) & "Only Want You For Your Body"(1974) being their 2nd and 3rd respectively. These 2 records have a reputation for being 2 holy grails of obscure 70's heavy rock and unlike some, fully live up to that reputation. Packed full of serious early 70's heaviness, there are no ballads and no lightweight poppy songs at all. Unlike many records from the 70's where you might get 4 or 5 rockers out of it, this is 2 full albums of great rock and roll.
"Volcanic Rock"(love the name) consists of only 5 songs, but 3 of those are over 7 minutes. The 1st song, "Sunrise," opens with an intro that sounds very much like Atomic Bitchwax's "Liquor Queen" that says you're in for a killer ride. Then in come Dave Tice's cool rough vocals, oddly enough reminding me of Dave Wyndorf in Monster Magnet(even more so on "Only Want You For Your Body" ). Next Up, "Freedom" is a long slowly building smolderer with lengthy guitar soloing. It's definitely one of my favorites of both of these albums. After dirty bluesy "Til My Death", "The Prophet"(about Moses) is another slowly building rocker that starts with a cool repetitive riff that evolves and morphs and gets heavier and darker as we get closer to the end, never to return. The album closes with "Shylock"(think Shakespeare), which gives us a couple minutes of spacey guitar noodling over hypnotic drums and bass. Then our dreamstate is abruptly shattered by an evil intruding Sabbthesque guitar that opens the door for the next 6 minutes of heavy rockin'.
"Volcanic Rock" has a very live feel, with mostly just 1 guitar track throughout. It feels like they played it all live in the studio with very few overdubs. Good guitar tones and the bass player, Peter Wells and drummer Jimmy Economou are just killing it, especially behind the guitar solos. Great sprawling expansive record.
"Only Want You For Your Body" is a different beast. Also great, but a much more compact focused record. Much shorter songs, more uptempo rockers, less jammy. There are also doubled rhythm guitars and doubled vocals. Not as dark and heavy as "Volcanic Rock", but chock-full-o-riffs and smokin jams nonetheless. The studio they recorded in must have just gotten the new(at the time) Eventide Instant Phaser because everything gets a little phaser action at some point during the record; drums, vocals, entire mix, etc. Drummer is once again slamming. Highlights include: midtempo head-nodder "I'm Coming On" -even in the shorter song format, they don't shy away from long guitar soloing. "Dune Messiah" -rolling, loping sci fi tune about Frank Herbert's "Dune". The hard shuffling "What's Going On" with the psychedelic ending. "King's Cross Ladies" and "United Nations": both very similar uptempo palm mute Montrose style jams. And yes, the old Instant Phaser is pulled out again for the "United Nations" guitar solo.
Don't know much about these guys, but looking at the picture of them from "Only Want You.." they seemed like some wacky dudes. Dave Tice is wearing a vaguely S & M-ish pair of leather pants and suspenders brandishing a whip with an evil grin on his face. A couple of them are sporting proto-mullets, looking a couple of years ahead of their time. But the most classic thing is John Baxter(guitar) and Economou(drummer) both have their pants rolled up to their knees so you can see the full glory of their wicked platform boots. They're not messin' around.
If you can find these albums, check them out. They definitely rock.
Riff Caliber 8
Post Blues Factor 9
Groove Factor 8
Dig It 9
2 comments:
Another album I haven't fully heard; it's been pretty pricey for years. Love "Sunrise": first thing that really caught me were those big, chunky vocals. Second thing was that thick, open sounding E5 chord the guitarist pounds away at (on this and "Shylock"), with the open bottom E-string. It's such a pretty sound; enormous sound.
Then I hear "Shylock." One of the best hard rock songs of the 70's, as far as I'm concerned. Is it a little anti-Semitic? Probably not.
In short, I miss great hard rock vocalists. Bring 'em back.
In my recent delving into the lesser known hard rock of the late 60's/early 70's, I discovered this album in the fall of 2010, and it's been kicking my ass ever since.
I had a concern at first about the anti-semitic angle when I originally heard Shylock, but they also have a song about Moses on the album, so I'm comfortable in my belief that these songs are about characters, and are not meant to be perceived as anti or philo-semitic.
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