King Buffalo Post New Single “Balrog”; Tour Underway Now; 2025 Dates Announced
This past weekend, Rochester, New York, heavy progressive-psychedelic rockers King Buffalo embarked on their latest stretch of touring, setting out along the East Coast ahead of heading west in December with support from Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol. There are more dates this week — today’s the 11th; they had a couple nights off and will pick up tomorrow — ending off in Asbury Park, NJ, which is as good a place as any. That the band are touring isn’t news — these shows were announced a while back and they tour plenty — but that they’re bringing out new material is.
The song is called “Balrog,” and the studio version is out today. Banger of a build. I’m obviously still getting to know it, but to my knowledge this is the first output from King Buffalo since they built their new studio in Rochester, in addition to being the first new material since 2022’s Regenerator (review here) wrapped up their pandemic trilogy. Two years isn’t such a long time, but on the scale of King Buffalo dropping either a full-length or an EP during the course of all but one year between 2015 and 2022, two full years since then feels significant. It’s a question of scale I guess.
Fortunately “Balrog” accounts for multiple sides of their sound. The live video below was from the first show of this tour, in Washington D.C., and was filmed by Jay “The Renaissance Blann” Blann. The studio version is name-your-price on Bandcamp ahead of hitting other streaming services. To be sure, King Buffalo could be charging you a buck or two for their first new song in two years. That they’re not is yet one more reason to put them on your holiday card list. New 2025 tour dates don’t hurt either. You’ve heard of Elf on the Shelf. Now get ready for King Buffalo, pretty much everywhere.
New album? EP? Standalone single? Hell if I know. Here’s what I’ve got from the PR wire:
KING BUFFALO ‘BALROG’ IS AVAILABLE NOW & NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
Hey Friends,
We’ve just released a BRAND NEW song called “Balrog” and have announced some additional tour dates. You can download it FOR FREE at kingbuffalo.bandcamp.com right now! It will be available on all the streaming platforms in the coming weeks.
We’ve been hard at work on our studio and still have more to do. Even with things not quite complete we wanted to try tracking something to dial in the room.
What spawned is “Balrog” and we can’t wait for you to hear it! We will be playing it and some other album tracks we’ve never played live on all our remaining tour dates.
These will be our last shows in the US for the time being as we are going to finish the studio and continue working on new ideas. See you at the upcoming shows!
All the best,
KB
Tickets for all dates at kingbuffalo.com/tour
2024 – 2025 North America Tour Dates
11/12 Virginia Beach, VA @ The Bunker^
11/14 Asheville, NC @ Eulogy^
11/15 Charlottesville, VA @ The Southern^
11/16 Asbury Park, NJ @ Wonder Bar^ (low tickets)
12/4 Omaha, NE @ Slowdown*
12/6 Colorado Springs, CO @ Black Sheep*
12/7 Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre* (selling fast)
12/8 Santa Fe, NM @ Tumbleroot*
12/10 Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole*
12/11 Las Vegas, NV @ Swan Dive*
12/12 San Diego, CA @ The Casbah* (low tickets)
12/13 Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room* (low tickets)
12/14 Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s* (selling fast)
12/17 Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips* (selling fast)
12/18 Oklahoma City, OK @ Resonant Head*
12/19 Kansas City, MO @ Recordbar*
12/20 St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway*
12/28 Buffalo, NY @ Electric City w/ Handsome Jack
1/17 Brooklyn, NY @ TV Eye
1/24 Columbus, OH @ Skully’s
1/25 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
1/28 St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
1/29 Madison, WI @ High Noon
1/30 Milwaukee, WI @ Vivarium
1/31 Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue
2/1 Toledo, OH @ Frankie’s Inner City
^ w/ Ben Katzman
* w/ Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol
BALROG STREAM: https://kingbuffalo.bandcamp.com
Rochester, New York-based trio King Buffalo will issue a single, Balrog, on Nov. 11, 2024. Balrog is available now via https://kingbuffalo.bandcamp.com.
Written and recorded by the band with mixing and engineering by guitarist/vocalist Sean McVay and mastering by Bernie Matthews, the single is the first song recorded at King Buffalo’s new studio.
This is the first studio material since the ‘pandemic trilogy,’ following One of 2022’s Best Albums in Regenerator and Two of 2021’s Best Albums in The Burden of Restlessness and Acheron.
All of these albums – like 2018’s Longing to Be the Mountain, 2016’s debut, Orion, and the various EPs and other offerings they’ve made over the last eleven years – made bold declarations about who King Buffalo are as a band. As McVay, bassist/synthesist Dan Reynolds and drummer Scott Donaldson continue to explore the outer reaches of modern psychedelic songcraft, melding progressive rhythms, drifting atmospheres and accompanying surges of electricity, the new song only further establishes them as one of the brightest lights shining in underground rock today.
Balrog was written by King Buffalo in Rochester, NY at KB Studios in 2024. Produced, engineered and mixed by Sean McVay, and mastered by Bernie Matthews. The artwork was created by Thomas Tubiolo.
King Buffalo is:
Sean McVay – Guitar, Vocals, & Synth
Dan Reynolds – Bass & Synth
Scott Donaldson – Drums
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