In the Northeast, leaves are changing. The air has gone crisp, days are getting shorter, and it won't be long before college textbooks are carried with gloved hands. In this climate, it takes little more than one sloppy power chord to jog loose dormant memories of underground rock's mid-Eighties rise from the turntables -- and occasional disc player -- of America's college radio stations. |

Much of the noise at the time was being made in collegiate Massachusetts -- by the likes of now-familiar folks like Juliana Hatfield, J. Mascis, Evan Dando, Tanya Donnelly and bands like Galaxie 500 and the seedling Pixies -- as well as the power trio known as Buffalo Tom.

The band, still comprised of Bill Janovitz on guitar and vocals, Chris Colbourn on bass and vocals, and Tom MacGinnis behind the kit, has just released their sixth full-length album, Smitten, and they'll be hitting the road soon with new "permanent sideman" keyboardist Phil Aiken, whose playing pops up all over the new record. Of course, it's a different world out there. And perhaps one not so kind to guitar bands peddling pre-Nirvana pop. But that doesn't mean it doesn't strike a chord anymore. To one way of thinking, Buffalo Tom, now on Polydor after debuting on legendary SST and putting out the rest of their records with Beggar's Banquet, are finally ready for their close-up.

"[Beggar's was] very indie, and I think we were ready to say, well, let's get a little more ambitious," Janovitz says of their recent label switch. "They had very indie goals, [like], 'You guys are fine selling this many records.' I think it was really good that we had that freedom, but I think we've gotten to a point where we're like, we've done all that stuff. We're confident enough with what we do that we can invite some other people's opinions and take them or leave them. And that's sort of what happened with this record."

For Buffalo Tom, that meant inviting a traditional A&R person into the picture for the first time ("He told us what he thought, and we'd tell him what we thought ..."), working with a seasoned pop producer (Dave Bianco, who manned the boards on Teenage Fanclub's Grand Prix, engineered for superstar producer Rick Rubin and picked up a Grammy for his engineering work on Tom Petty's Wildflowers), and enlisting the sage advice of Belly guitarist/keyboardist Tom Gorman. The last step, it turned out, didn't develop beyond a ten-day workshop. But it did lead to the hiring of Aiken.

"I think [Tom] was a little perplexed as to why we asked him," Janovitz recalls. "It was working out for a while, but he pointed to the fact that what [we] wanted was a traditional keyboardist. 'I think you think you don't want one, but you do.' And I think he was right." It was a revelation that quickly propagated a change. Thumbing through the weekly alternative rag Boston Phoenix, Janovitz came across an ad that read like the perfect prescription. "It said something like 'Instead of getting a second guitarist, why not try me,' and it listed My Bloody Valentine, Stereolab and the Stones." Aiken picked up the line and the deal was done. The group was soon gigging and jamming. Eight months later, they hit the studio to record Smitten.

Wait a second ... Stereolab and My Bloody Valentine? Did we hear that right?

"We toured with My Bloody Valentine once," Janovitz replies. "I think we know we're a traditional rock band, but I think we try to mess with that a bit. We don't want to be an Americana band. I mean, I love a lot of that stuff that gets classified as that. And, yeah, I like more experimental stuff. Stereolab's not that out there. It's kind of loopy. I can hear where I've gotten influenced by My Bloody Valentine, but it might be via the Stones. I also see myself taking influences from bands I don't even like. That's why I try not to listen to that much bad music [laughs]."

Those influences duly noted, Smitten sure sounds like Buffalo Tom. It is more polished, more lush and layered, peppered with strings, horns and the like. But the guitar crunch, emotive vocals and explosive choruses that made the band underground heroes are in evidence on disc-opener "Rachael" and "White Paint Morning." And the dead-on balladeer instincts the band served up on Let Me Come Over are echoed in songs like "Wiser." Which begs the question: Does Janovitz really think the listening public is ready for more of the old formula?

"It's all Top 40 and watered down pop," he says of today's music scene. "I barely even listen to college radio anymore. I can't bear to sit through a bad song. I can't stand it anymore. Mainstream radio is just miserable right now."

At which point he adds, "Hopefully they'll play us," and laughs in spite of himself.

JOE ROSENTHAL(October 5, 1998)