Posted in Whathaveyou on June 29th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Rochester heavy psych rockers King Buffalo will return to Europe for the second time in 2023 this Fall. They were last there, oh, earlier this month for a stint that wrapped on June 17 at Hellfest in France, but they state in the quick announcement below that their October tour will be their last time in Europe until 2025. That’s kind of surprising considering we’re only halfway through 2023 and King Buffalo has been going hard before and after the pandemic, but no doubt they’ve got plans, whether that’s touring in other places — Australia/New Zealand comes to mind — or recording, or both, or neither. We’ll see.
The band recently put their 2013 Demo (review here) up for a 10th anniversary edition vinyl preorder (info here), and they’ll be supported for most of this tour by Bergen, Norway-based labelmate upstarts Slomosa. Their announcement of the tour draws together prior confirmations for Keep it Low, Desertfest Belgium and Lazy Bones Festival, each weekend but one of the tour anchored by a fest date, which is not a thing to be taken for granted. We live in a golden age. King Buffalo are a part of what makes it so very shiny.
Also, anyone notice how King Buffalo, Slomosa, Elder and Iron Jinn have all had announcements this week? It’s like the entire Stickman Records roster all decided it was time to get out. Good fun.
Thee dates:
KING BUFFALO – OCTOBER EUROPEAN TOUR ANNOUNCE!
These will be our last European Tour Dates until 2025. If you want to see us, this is your last chance!
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 30th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
I was on social media the other day, scrolling for band news which is pretty much what I do on there at this point, when I saw something or other about King Buffalo — they’ve been on tour in Europe ahead of returning to Freak Valley next week, it might’ve been that, it might not — but I was skimming the comments and there were people ragging on the band.
It was a little surprising, but it’s actually a sign that all the work they’ve put in, whether it’s on tour, or the pandemic trilogy, or even just their own online presence, is starting to pay off. People who don’t even like them know them and feel strongly enough about their work to have an opinion either way, and to express that opinion. That doesn’t happen for bands who don’t matter. Most bands nobody talks about at all. So I took it as a positive, even though it was someone basically being like, “grr here’s a thing on the internet I don’t like so I’m saying I don’t like it.” So it goes.
The Rochester trio have Copenhell and Hellfest to look forward to in addition to Freak Valley in June, more UK/EU shows this Fall, and US festival stops between as they continue to support last year’s Regenerator (review here). They’ve just sent word along the PR wire that their 2013 Demo (review here) will see a one-time limited vinyl pressing and that preorders go up on Friday. I remember when that came out, they were a four-piece and I was stoked because I’d been into Velvet Elvis, in which drummer Scott Donaldson and then-guitarist/vocalist Randall Coon had featured, while guitarist/vocalist Sean McVay and bassist Dan Reynolds had played in Abandoned Buildings Club.
I knew at the time they were a cool band. I’m not sure I knew they’d put themselves at the forefront of American heavy psych rock, or be the kind of act people feel compelled to express opinions about on socials, but when I think (or listen) back to that demo, you can definitely hear the roots of what they would and have become in the decade since it came out. Maybe a fan-piece or a curio, but I’m a fan. I guess I felt like saying so on the internet.
From the band:
KING BUFFALO – Demo LP
DEMO Preorders start THIS FRIDAY 6/2/23 at 12pm EST.
For the first time available on vinyl, our “Demo”! These were the first 3 songs we ever wrote and finally decided to give it a proper pressing on the 10 year anniversary.
THIS IS A ONE TIME PRESSING! After the Test Presses, Deluxe and Standard Editions are sold out, that will be it. THESE SONGS WILL NEVER BE PRESSED ON VINYL AGAIN… EVER!
These songs have been remastered for vinyl with new artwork by Ryan T. Hancock.
Tracklisting: 1. Pocket Full Of Knife 05:22 2. In Dim Light 06:08 3. Providence Eye 11:15
October 17.10. (UK) London @ The Dome 18.10. (UK) Leeds @ Brudenell Social 19.10. (UK) Nottingham @ Bodega 20.10. (UK) Brighton @ The Arch 21.10. (BE) Antwerp @ Desertfest 28.10. (DE) Hamburg @ Lazy Bones Festival
North America Tour
6/28 Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s 6/29 Quincy, CA @ High Sierra Festival 8/25 Cleveland, OH @ Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 8/26 Lexington, KY @ Expansion Fest 9/23 Austin, TX @ Ripplefest Texas
King Buffalo is: Sean McVay – Guitar, Vocals, & Synth Dan Reynolds – Bass & Synth Scott Donaldson – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 22nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Rochester’s King Buffalo would be well within their rights to spend the entirety of 2023 on the road continuing to support this year’s Regenerator (review here), but I wouldn’t necessarily put it past the three-piece to have something new at least announced if not out by the time they embark on this European tour in Spring, even with previously announced US dates preceding this winter. Is that me being greedy? Yeah, at least a bit, but with a string of EPs and LPs behind them at this point, King Buffalo have never been ones to let momentum slip. I don’t know anything, I’m just speculating, but they’ve shown already in the last few years that they’re not screwing around in terms of productivity. Or progression, for that matter.
Note the festival appearances amid the Euro days, Sonic Whip, Desertfest London, Soulstone Gathering, Desertfest Berlin, Freak Valley, Copenhell and Hellfest. One does not expect these will be the only festival dates the band play in 2023. A Fall return to Europe or another stint in North America? Australia and New Zealand? Have to figure these dudes are welcome just about everywhere at this point.
From the PR wire:
KING BUFFALO – JUST ANNOUNCED 2023 EUROPEAN TOUR DATES!
More dates will be coming soon…
04.5. (DE) Aschaffenburg @ Colos Saal 05.5. (NL) Nijmegen @ Sonic Whip 06.5. (BE) Izegem @ Headbanger’s Ball 07.5. (UK) London @ Desertfest 09.5. (FR) Wasquehal @ The Black Lab 10.5. (FR) TBA 11.5. (FR) Paris @ Glazart 12.5. (CH) Aaarau @ Kiff 13.5. (DE) Ludwigsburg @ Scala 15.5. (IT) Milano @ Legend Club 16.5. (AT) Innsbruck @ p.m.k. 17.5. (AT) Vienna @ Arena 18.5. (PL) Krakow @ Soulstone Gathering 19.5. (DE) Berlin @ Desertfest 20.5. (DE) Hannover @ Faust 22.5. (SE) Malmö @ Plan B 23.5. (SE) TBA 24.5. (SE) Gothenburg @ The Abyss 25.5. (NO) Oslo @ Parkteatret 26.5. (NO) TBA 27.5. (NO) TBA 09.6. (DE) Netphen @ Freak Valley 15.6. (DK) Copenhagen @ Copenhell 17.6. (FR) Clisson @ Hellfest
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES ON SALE NOW!
1/13 Cleveland @ Grog Shop 1/14 Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi 1/15 St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway 1/17 Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s 1/18 Milwaukee, WI @ Colectivo 1/19 Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig 1/20 Pittsburgh, PA @ Cafe Club 1/21 Pittsburgh, PA @ Cafe Club 2/16 Brattleboro, VT @ Stone Church 2/17 Albany, NY @ Empire Live 2/18 Lancaster, PA @ Tellus 360 2/19 Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall 2/21 Charlotte, NC @ Snug Harbor 2/23 Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub 2/24 Miami, FL @ Gramps 2/25 Tampa, FL @ Crowbar 2/26 St. Augustine, FL @ Cafe 11 2/28 Athens, GA @ Hendershots 3/1 Asheville, NC @ Asheville Music Hall 3/2 Knoxville, TN @ Pilot Light 3/3 Huntington, WV @ The Loud
We’re so excited to finally release the 3rd record of the “plague trilogy”. It’s some of the coolest stuff we’ve ever done and we’re stoked to be playing these songs live for the first time!
Please come out and support if we are in your area and spread the word. We look forward to seeing you all soon!
King Buffalo is: Sean McVay – Guitar, Vocals, & Synth Dan Reynolds – Bass & Synth Scott Donaldson – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 7th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
By the time they embark in January on this newly-announced stretch of Midwestern and East Coastern touring, Rochester, New York, heavy psychedelic forerunners King Buffalo will have already on doubt reaped a slew of album-of-the-year-type praise for their work on their latest long-player, Regenerator (review here), and who would argue? Jerks, maybe. But those jerks are jerks, so whatever.
Regenerator, the third installment in the band’s pandemic-era trilogy behind 2021’s Acheron (review here) and The Burden of Restlessness (review here), is a culmination of everything the band have done to-date, and it has been widely hailed as a landmark for a group whose influence is already beginning to be felt in the work of others. No, that is not likely to stop as they continue to go town-to-town spreading their own take on prog-informed heavy psych, or as they move into 2023 with the inevitable announcement of European tour dates to follow-up on recent confirmations of performances at Desertfest Berlin and Freak Valley Festival. Let’s see… DF Berlin happens May 19-21, and Freak Valley happens June 8-10, so if they start at the one and end at the other, that’s the better part of a month on the road abroad. No guarantee it won’t be more than that by the time the tour is announced, and I have no doubt there are more fests as a part of it as well. This is a band everybody (rightly) wants a piece of right now, and that’s something they’ve earned no matter how you want to look at it.
They’re out with REZN and The Swell Fellas, at least for some shows, and still wrapping their Fall run in the meantime:
KING BUFFALO – 2023 TOUR DATES ON SALE NOW!
**JUST ANNOUNCED** 1/13 Cleveland @ Grog Shop 1/14 Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi 1/15 St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway 1/17 Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s 1/18 Milwaukee, WI @ Colectivo 1/19 Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig 1/20 Pittsburgh, PA @ Cafe Club 1/21 Pittsburgh, PA @ Cafe Club 2/16 Brattleboro, VT @ Stone Church 2/17 Albany, NY @ Empire Live 2/18 Lancaster, PA @ Tellus 360 2/19 Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall 2/21 Charlotte, NC @ Snug Harbor 2/23 Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub 2/24 Miami, FL @ Gramps 2/25 Tampa, FL @ Crowbar 2/26 St. Augustine, FL @ Cafe 11 2/28 Athens, GA @ Hendershots 3/1 Asheville, NC @ Asheville Music Hall 3/3 Huntington, WV @ The Loud Buy Tickets!
We’re on Tour RIGHT NOW! Come see us on our last shows of the year.
11/7 Portland, OR @ Douglas Fir Lounge 11/8 Boise, ID @ The Olympic 11/9 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge 11/11 Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre 11/12 Fort Collins, CO @ Aggie Theatre 11/14 Omaha, NE @ Slowdown Front Room 11/15 Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line 11/16 Madison, WI @ High Noon 11/17 Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village 11/18 Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village 11/19 Grand Rapids, MI @ The Stache 12/10 Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
We’ve announced our return to Freak Valley Festival and Desertfest Berlin in 2023! More to be announced soon.
King Buffalo is: Sean McVay – Guitar, Vocals, & Synth Dan Reynolds – Bass & Synth Scott Donaldson – Drums
Posted in Reviews on September 10th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Handsome Jack were on when I got in. It had been about three and a half hours of road time to get me to Outer Space Ballroom in Hamden, Connecticut, but I’m well familiar with this particular segment of the I-95 corridor, so it was alright. Dropped The Patient Mrs. and The Pecan off with family, sat for all of 15 minutes, then back in the car to the venue, which is tucked just far enough off the main drag to feel a little out of the way. The kind of place where people can probably tell you about the shit they used to get away with in the parking lot.
Anyhow, Handsome Jack. Band has some vibe for sure. Strengths include blues groove, guitar and bass tone, three-part harmony and that includes a singing drummer, so yeah. A lot going for them, I guess is the bottom line there. They were low-key-rockin’ the joint, and said joint was fairly packed. I didn’t know what to expect — I almost never do anymore; it was easy when nobody ever showed up — and I caught maybe the last 20-25 minutes of it, but that was enough to make me feel like, okay, the music’s on, everything’s alright. That message was well complemented by the last song Handsome Jack played, which was “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright.” I mean, the oceans are gonna rise up and swallow us all, and the world is full of war, rape, and pestilence, but at least the tunes are good. You hold onto what you can.
This was the second night of a just-beginning domestic touring cycle for King Buffalo‘s newly-issued fifth album, Regenerator (review here), and really, the three-piece are also out to support all three LPs in their unofficially-titled ‘pandemic trilogy,’ with 2021’s The Burden of Restlessness (review here) and the subsequent Acheron (review here) no less fresh in mind for not actually being their newest releases anymore. And yeah, I’d seen King Buffalo at Desertfest New York (review here), but that was a whole album ago. In any case, if Regenerator and the promise of a full set — they went about 90 minutes total — weren’t enough to justify the sit-on-ass in Friday traffic on the way north, certainly Dan Reynolds‘ bass in “Mammoth” alone made it worth the trip.
The set drew mostly from the recent LPs, with the title-track, “Mammoth,” and later “Hours” representing Regenerator, “Shadows” — during which someone by the board remembered the lights could flash — and regular-set-finale “Cerberus” taken from Acheron and opener “Silverfish,” “Hebetation” and the penultimate “The Knocks” coming from The Burden of Restlessness. Filled out by “Eta Carinae” from 2020’s Dead Star EP (review here), the slide-guitar-inclusive “Kerosene” from 2016’s debut full-length, Orion (review here), and “Sun Shivers” from its 2018 follow-up, Longing to Be the Mountain (review here), the regular set was largely unfuckwithable, and yes, I mean that.
It’s a very I-know-touring-bands thing to say that the second night of the tour they’re probably still getting their feet under them. And maybe it’s true that after another four or five nights in a row of gigs, King Buffalo will be more on fire than they were, but there was no doubt they delivered, and the crowd was way into it. It was like one of those movies where the actors in the audience are just told to keep cheering. No, I’m not saying it’s a false flag operation, I’m saying the band is unreal. I stood right in front of the stage, could see and hear them feeding off that energy. They owned the pandemic. Defined it in large part for my listening habits and I’m sure for many others as well. They should be and are right to be reaping their due acclaim, and that includes for the Regenerator just arrived.
Of the several times I’ve been lucky enough to see King Buffalo at this point, this was the best to-date. They played with confidence, and I could feel the intensity of Donaldson‘s drums keeping step with the chug of McVay‘s guitar in “Hours” better, Reynolds‘ bass laying one smooth groove after the other to coincide. I’m sure I’ve said this before, but Reynolds is the one holding it together. The band? It’s all three of them. They all have a pivotal role to play. They are all essential personnel in making King Buffalo arguably the best heavy psychedelic rock band in America right now. Part of Reynolds role in that is that groove, and he played like he knew it.
Same could be said of the whole band, too. McVay and Donaldson as well. King Buffalo? They’re a great band. Great. I can’t urge you strongly enough to go see them. They’re better than they know, and they know damn well they’re good. Just watch them. There’s some strut there. Seeing their dynamic as up close as I was — I think I spent most of the set closer to McVay than his bandmates in the middle and on the other side of the stage, respectively — and hearing Reynolds‘ basslines under the guitar solo in “Sun Shivers,” the breadth in “Kerosene” and the precision intensity of the fuck-yes-hammer-it-into-my-god-damn-skull stops at the end of “The Knocks,” there was no mistaking the sense of being in the presence of a band who have arrived. A special, important moment.
30 years ago, King Buffalo, Elder and All Them Witches would all be signed to Atlantic Records and putting out albums that would influence a generation. That industry infrastructure doesn’t exist anymore, and while DIY, semi-DIY and even outright signed-to-label acts don’t have the same kind of marketing power, they’re out there doing it anyway. I could see it in the crowd too. Some younger heads, some older ones, and I think that speaks to the transitional generational moment we’re in. In a couple years, those older heads are gonna keep phasing out. And the younger ones are going to bring friends next time King Buffalo roll through. I hope I’m there to see it.
The encore demanded by the room was received. “Orion” will be in my head for the next week and I have no problem with that, and “Centurion” from 2018’s Repeater EP (review here) was a surprise finish, but worked well enough. I’ll allow that the record is still really new, but at some point, they’re going to have to start closing with “Avalon” from Regenerator. Sorry guys, you don’t get to write a song like that and not stick it at the end of the set. Gotta play fair. Same could be said of “Cerberus” coming after “The Knocks.” Both songs are about the build into the payoff, as a fair amount of King Buffalo‘s work is, but that finish in “The Knocks” is another level. The proverbial hard act to follow.
They head up to Buffalo, New York, next, then pick up the tour on Sept. 16 in Ohio before spending a decent portion of the next two months on the road. I wholeheartedly encourage you to make the effort. They’re a band you need to see and now is the time. That’s it.
[Click play above to stream King Buffalo’s video premiere for ‘Hours’ from their Regenerator LP, out Sept. 2 through the band and Stickman Records in Europe.]
Regenerator is a culmination. As the third in King Buffalo‘s pandemic-era trilogy behind 2021’s Acheron (review here) and the prior The Burden of Restlessness (review here), it caps a narrative of growth and exploration while also offering its own persona in sound and the promise of even further creative evolution on the part of the Rochester, New York, trio. Their movement across these three albums, written together and each captured in a somehow-differing manner — the seven-song/43-minute Regenerator was recorded at their usual writing/rehearsal spot, the Main Street Armory, and adds a new thread to the emergence of guitarist/vocalist Sean McVay (also synth) as a producer, engineer and mixer as well as frontman — is such that King Buffalo‘s sound is likewise able to incorporate hard-hitting heavy prog rife with tension in its chugging and lyrical seethe, and ultra-fluid, colorful and organic acid jams fueled by the chemistry between McVay, bassist Dan Reynolds (also synth) and drummer Scott Donaldson, far-out space rock and more terrestrial songcraft. Patient or urgent, Regenerator, Acheron and The Burden of Restlessness — all culled from a single, tour-less period of writing during covid-19 lockdown in Summer 2020 — demonstrate that even in the lowest of times, art can provide release, escape, comfort, catharsis and perspective.
Consider the interplay of McVay‘s drifting guitar on “Avalon” here, or the way in which the sweeping back and forth of “Mercury” earlier speaks to the ethereal prog of The Burden of Restlessness with a brighter point of view. These songs may have come from the same general time of construction, but the material on Regenerator harnesses a breadth that even for King Buffalo feels new no matter how it might draw from what they’ve done before. The leadoff title-track — longest inclusion at 9:38 (immediate points) and a bookend with closer “Firmament” (9:16) — throws open the doors of expectation, fading in on a line of ambient keys that become the preface to what seems like a steady-enough-for-them procession through a verse and a few wah-drenched leads and instead departs those structural confines for an undulating and animated jam.
“Regenerator” is peppered with McVay‘s nuanced soloing, pushed through by Donaldson‘s drums, and held together by Reynolds‘ bass in a way that is a classic power trio dynamic and thoroughly King Buffalo‘s own as they shimmer into fifth-album maturity in the entirely instrumental second half of the song, hypnotically jamming so as to carry the mood over into the subsequent pairing of “Mercury” (4:30) and “Hours” (4:57), two shorter pieces, which one might argue for as the most straight-ahead on the record, but ultimately present their own intentions, as “Mercury” converges lightly anxious noodling with more surging choruses, flowing into “Hours,” which careens through its own kosmiche temporal dimensionality, the depth of mix allowing each instrument its place while manifesting the sense of forward-going of the whole.
Like much of what surrounds, it makes its not-insignificant momentum a part of the greater atmosphere, Regenerator seeming to reach out to new ground in melding prog and psych, structured heavy rock songcraft and more open jamming — a keys-and-drums (maybe that’s guitar) break in the middle of “Hours” bringing around a satisfying resurgence before an instrumental return to a modified version of the verse rounds out, subtly reaffirming the plotted nature that underlies all but the most willfully out-there King Buffalo jams. That is to say, they’re a band with rules until they decide to break them.
So much the better, since “Interlude” seems to do precisely that. With a guitar figure at its core that reminds of some of the band’s shared stylistic space with All Them Witches — whose Ben McLeod produced 2018’s Longing to Be the Mountain (review here) — it is also a showcase for McVay vocally, volume swelling and receding behind him as he quietly but confidently sings through subdued lines, more in their presentation than the title of the song might lead one to believe, but something that on, say, the synthy interlude “Ecliptic” from 2020’s Dead Star EP (review here), the group weren’t yet so bold as to attempt. Always changing, persistent in their evolution.
And at the close of the vinyl’s side A, “Interlude” further serves to set up the masterful execution of the final three tracks of Regenerator, the six-minute pair of “Mammoth” and “Avalon” and the aforementioned nine-minute finale, “Firmament,” a title that’s suitably evocative of both celestial and foundational premises. In these songs, King Buffalo effectively summarize the movement that’s taken place over the last year-plus as The Burden of Restlessness has given way to Acheron and Regenerator, encapsulate the band they’ve become and keep their eyes focused on their future. In the 21 minutes of Regenerator‘s side B, King Buffalo are more progressive, richer and more realized in their sound than they’ve ever been. It begins as “Mammoth” unfurls with sway and swing toward the vocal-driven-but-sans-lyrics ending that inevitably comes to define the entire song.
This is clear evidence of McVay‘s burgeoning stage and studio presence as someone who is as much vocalist/guitarist as guitarist/vocalist, and is soon enough confirmed by the layered harmonies of “Avalon,” the psych aspects of which feel directly linked to Acheron for more than the similar verbiage, but are duly broadened in scope to match the moment of arrival that stands for all three records as much as this one alone. I don’t know if that’s hyperbole or not and I don’t care. If this is King Buffalo in 2022, and the obvious message is that it is, then they are the most essential band under 40 in the American heavy underground.
They have put in the work to become so on every level, whether that’s pushing themselves stylistically and physically as players to grow and grow together, or touring and handling the business management realities of being a full-time group. “Firmament” closes Regenerator with a structure not so different from its counterpart title-track back at the beginning, but the soft-guitar/vulnerable-vocal intro nonetheless is a standout moment before a thicker and finally more driving shove takes hold with the entry of Donaldson and Reynolds. The hook, “I have become one with the (great eternal blue) sky/Everything’s one/Made new by the sun (firmament’s eye),” is likewise meditative and memorable, clever in its rhyme swap, and true to an ongoing thread in McVay‘s lyrics of ethereal communion with the natural world. Delivered twice in succession — the lines slightly changed as indicated by the parentheses — it leads to a telltale chug that acts as dogwhistle to let the audience know there’s no coming back from where they’re going next.
“Firmament” indeed speaks of heavens in its instrumentalist drift and recalls restlessness in its still-vibrant repetitions. A current of synth running alongside, the guitar weaves into and out of solos while Reynolds punches out highlight bass work, and at 8:02, the pace of the snare picks up to signal the change to the last stage of the build. It is not overblown, or hackneyed, or telegraphed, but its gallop is vital and its cold finish completes the statement of Regenerator so as to lay claim to the entirety of King Buffalo‘s past to this point as a launchpad for what they might do next. Five full-lengths in six years, plus various EPs and other recordings, unflinching tour-born chemistry, and so on, and their potential still seems to be among their greatest assets as they close this trilogy and invariably continue to progress. Regenerator is beautiful, and complete.
King Buffalo on tour
UK/EU 7/21 London, UK @ Oslo 7/22 Nijmegen, NL @ Valkhof Festival 7/23 Lille, FR @ THE BLACK LAB 7/24 Selestat, FR @ Rock Your Brain fest 7/25 Munich, DE @ Free & Easy 7/27 Dresden, DE @Chemiefabrik 7/26 Passau, DE @ Zauberberg 7/28 Herzberg, DE @ Herzberg Festival 7/29 Hamburg, DE @ Lazy Bones Festival 7/30 Michelau, DE @ Rock Im Wald 7/31 Berlin, DE @ Lido 8/2 Warsaw, POL @ Hydrozagadka 8/3 Krakow, POL @ Klub Alchemia 8/4 Vienna, AT @ Arena 8/5 Waldhausen, AT @ Lake On Fire 8/6 Beelen, DE @ Krach Am Bach 8/8 Karlsruhe, DE @ P8 8/9 Zurich, CH @ Mascotte 8/10 Bruson, CH @ PALP Festival 8/11 Moledo, POR @ Sonic Blast Festival 8/12 Kortrijk, BE @ Alcatraz Festival 8/13 Horsens, DK @ JAILBREAK
US/Canada 9/8 Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground 9/9 Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom 9/10 Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom 9/16 Columbus, OH @ A&R Music Bar 9/17 Cincinnati, OH @ Madison Live 9/18 Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar 9/20 Nashville, TN @ Exit/In 9/22 Dallas, TX @ Club Dada 9/23 Austin, TX @ Antones 9/24 Houston, TX @ White Oak 9/25 New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa 9/27 Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade 9/28 Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle 9/29 Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar 9/30 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church 10/1 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 10/13 Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground 10/14 Ottawa, ON @ Club SAW 10/15 Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz 10/25 Bloomington, IL @ Nightshop 10/26 Kansas City, MO @ Recordbar 10/28 Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad 10/29 Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge 10/31 San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar 11/1 Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram 11/2 San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel 11/4 Seattle, WA @ Neumos 11/5 Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw 11/7 Portland, OR @ Douglas Fir Lounge 11/8 Boise, ID @ The Olympic 11/9 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge 11/11 Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre 11/12 Fort Collins, CO @ Aggie Theatre 11/14 Omaha, NE @ Slowdown Front Room 11/15 Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line 11/16 Madison, WI @ High Noon 11/17 Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village 11/18 Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village 11/19 Grand Rapids, MI @ The Stache
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 6th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Rochester, New York, heavy psychedelic rock King Buffalo are hitting the point where you’re going to start hearing bands coming up working under their influence. You already can somewhat, but that’s not going to stop in the next few years. They’ll release the third-of-three in their pandemic trilogy, titled Regenerator, on Sept. 2 through themselves in the US and the venerable Stickman Records in Europe. It arrives as the follow-up to two of 2021’s best albums in Acheron (review here) and the prior The Burden of Restlessness (review here), and though I wrote the press release below, let me reiterate that I sincerely believe King Buffalo are one of the most crucial bands right now in the American heavy underground. I would put them on tour, US and Europe, with Elephant Tree from London and tell them both to keep going until they’re 50.
Alas, nobody puts me in charge of that kind of thing and probably for good reason. Regenerator is, however, a fitting summation of King Buffalo‘s prog-edged psychedelia, and you can see below that they’re ready to get out and tell everyone about it one head at a time.
Album announcement follows here, from my keyboard to the PR wire and back again:
KING BUFFALO ANNOUNCE ‘REGENERATOR’ TO BE RELEASED SEPTEMBER 2ND & TOUR DATES
Rochester, New York-based trio King Buffalo will issue their fifth full-length, Regenerator, on Sept. 2, 2022, as a self-release in North America and through Stickman Records in Europe. Preorders will be available on June 10 via http://kingbuffalo.bigcartel.com.
Written and recorded by the band with mixing and engineering by guitarist/vocalist Sean McVay and mastering by Bernie Matthews, the seven-song outing is the third in King Buffalo’s stated ‘pandemic trilogy,’ following Two of 2021’s Best Albums in The Burden of Restlessness and Acheron.
Both of those 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 eight years – made bold declarations about who King Buffalo are as a band, and Regenerator is no different. 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 collection only further establishes them as one of the brightest lights shining in underground rock today.
As the third of three, Regenerator seems inherently to tie together the two LPs most immediately before it, and as King Buffalo unfold the leadoff title-track across nine and half minutes, it becomes clear just how truly they have marked out their own sonic presence. The later melodic highlight “Mammoth” – with McVay’s most confident vocal yet – shimmers with hope that somehow doesn’t come across as desperate, and as “Hours” engages classic space rock and the closing “Firmament” summarizes the first, second and third series installments, the final chapter of this trilogy becomes the essential cornerstone of King Buffalo’s work to-date.
The band returned to live activity late last year, touring alongside Clutch and more recently a full North American spring tour with Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats. By the time Regenerator arrives, they will have completed a UK and European headlining tour with festival appearances in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Belgium and Denmark.
Regenerator was written by King Buffalo in Rochester, NY, at the Main Street Armory in 2021. Produced, engineered and mixed by Sean McVay, and mastered by Bernie Matthews. The artwork was created by Mike Del Rosario and the album layout by Scott Donaldson.
7/14 Wiesbaden, DE @ Schlachthof 7/15 Riegsee, DE @ Raut Oak Festival 7/16 Erfurt, DE @ Stoned from the Underground 7/17 Deventer, NL @ Burgerweeshuis 7/19 Manchester, UK @ Rebellion 7/20 Bristol, UK @ The Exchange 7/21 London, UK @ Oslo 7/22 Nijmegen, NL @ Valkhof Festival 7/23 Lille, FR @ THE BLACK LAB 7/24 Selestat, FR @ Rock Your Brain fest 7/25 Munich, DE @ Free & Easy Festival 7/27 Dresden, DE @Chemiefabrik 7/28 Herzberg, DE @ Burg Herzberg Festival 7/29 Hamburg, DE @ Lazy Bones Festival 7/30 Michelau, DE @ Rock Im Wald 7/31 Berlin, DE @ Lido 8/2 Warschau, POL @ Hydrozagadka 8/3 Krakau, POL @ Klub Alchemia 8/4 Vienna, AT @ Arena 8/5 Waldhausen, AT @ Lake On Fire 8/6 Beelen, DE @ Krach Am Bach 8/9 Zurich, CH @ Mascotte 8/10 Bruson, CH @ PALP Festival 8/11 Moledo, POR @ Sonic Blast Festival 8/12 Kortrijk, BE @ Alcatraz Festival 8/13 Copenhagen, DK @ Jailbreak Festival
9/16 Columbus, OH @ A&R Music Bar 9/17 Cincinnati, OH @ Madison Live 9/18 Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar 9/20 Nashville, TN @ Exit/In 9/22 Dallas, TX @ Club Dada 9/23 Austin, TX @ Antones 9/24 Houston, TX @ White Oak 9/25 New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa 9/27 Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade 9/28 Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle 9/29 Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar 9/30 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church 10/1 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
10/13 Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground 10/14 Ottawa, ON @ Club SAW 10/15 Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
10/26 Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar 10/28 Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad 10/29 Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge 10/31 San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar 11/1 Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram 11/2 San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel 11/4 Seattle, WA @ Neumos 11/5 Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw 11/7 Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom 11/8 Boise, ID @ Neurolux 11/9 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge 11/11 Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre 11/12 Fort Collins, CO @ Aggie Theatre 11/15 Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line 11/16 Madison, WI @ High Noon 11/17 Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village 11/18 Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village 11/19 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
Posted in Questionnaire on May 26th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Scott Donaldson of King Buffalo
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I define myself as a musician and small business owner. It started from a desire to play music with friends and organically grew into a full-time job.
Describe your first musical memory.
Watching music VHS tapes at my dad’s. The three that come to mind to mind are Styx and Van Halen Live concerts. I remember Alex Van Halen making his drumset sound like a helicopter which blew my mind at the time and Tommy Shaw having a shiny metallic guitar that changed colors (it was just the stage lights). My tiny brain thought a color changing guitar was the ultimate. It’s kinda hilarious that I now have a drumset that can “change color” haha. The 3rd was all the Def Leppard music videos through Hysteria. I loved and completely wore through that tape.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
That’s tough. I’ve been extremely fortunate to meet a lot of super talented musicians and even luckier to be able to call many of them friends. I honestly can’t pick just one but it’d involve touring with them.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Probably when Sean said I should start playing certain songs to a click. A lot of his delays are mapped out and for some of the synth work, I have to be exactly on. I didn’t like the idea at first and now I love it. It’s comforting to know I’m in the right place and kinda liberating. Thanks Sean!
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Does anyone know? I think everyone’s journey is different. Each person has their own views and ways of moving forward. I think it depends on the person and the environment they develop in.
How do you define success?
I think definitions of success change as you grow musically and as a person. Success to me when I first started was to make four records with my name on it and to do a West Coast tour. Now we’re approaching 10 records with KB so, I think we’ve achieved some success, but I also think there’s a lot more to go.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
A dog at a live show without ear protection. Please protect your animals!
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
It’d be cool to have some KB tunes in a video game haha.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
For me it’s trying to have fun. Music has become my full time job and I’m lucky to be able to say that. I think it can become easy to get jaded and forget how far you’ve come. I don’t want to take anything for granted and enjoy things for as long as they last. Having fun while creating is essential, because if it stops being fun I think it can stifle your creativity.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Dune Part 2. I read all the books over the pandemic and always had a campy appreciation of the David Lynch film. Part 1 was close to perfect for me and I’m excited to see what the next one brings. Fingers crossed they make a 3rd as well.
