Big Red Letter Day (LP)

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. They have released ten studio albums and their most recent, Jump Rope, was released earlier this year.

Big Red Letter Day was released in 1993. Their fourth album found them doing what they do very well indeed, but with more body and gloss to the production. The album was recorded in LA by The Robb Brothers and features numerous crowd favorites, in particular: "Sodajerk", "I'm Allowed", "Treehouse" and "Late At Night." The band was brought to new levels of fame when "Late At Night" was heavily featured in a pivotal scene of the short-lived mid-90s cult TV show "My So Called Life" which starred Claire Danes and Jared Leto. The song was not only in the episode, but the band was also shown performing it. Rolling Stone, in a feature of the band called it a "collection of inspired, straightforward power pop" and Spin said "the passion feels genuine and the music sublime."