Heavy guitar rock that echoes the James Gang
You wouldn’t be alone in thinking this Cincinnati band’s third album was a long-lost James Gang platter. Not only is the band a power trio, but the vocals have the same keening tone Joe Walsh brought to “Walk Away,†and the band’s rhythm section finds the sorts of grooves once laid down in “Funk #49.†All of which isn’t meant to suggest that the Buffalo Killers are a carbon copy, but that their music is anchored unapologetically in the rock (not rock ‘n’ roll) music of the post-Woodstock ‘60s and pre-punk ‘70s. It’s the moment just before rock music became bloated and faced a DIY backlash, a time when the hangover from psychedelia, thick guitars, heavy bass, instrumental prowess and production craft hadn’t fallen into self-seriousness and arena bombast. A similar strain of rock emerged in the mid-90s, but egos and self-consciousness quickly overwhelmed the music; the Buffalo Killers avoid these pitfalls by remaining relatively unknown (and thus not fashionable), and more importantly, more interested in music than the congratulations. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com] 