Young Buffalo
Jan 30, 2011
Tracks
- 1 Welcome to Daytrotter
- 2 Speak EZ
- 3 Full Metal Whacket
- 4 Catapilah
- 5 It's In The Linen Part 2
All The Fire For Health
Words by Sean Moeller, Illustration by Johnnie Cluney, Recording engineered by Mike Gentry
We should begin by just saying, "Watch out for Young Buffalo." It's not often that on the first listen of such a young band that the phrase "a force of nature" zooms to the tip of your tongue, but that's what happens when we listen to this Oxford, Mississippi band's early output. It's all heady and tuneful, feral and precise. It banks on the very real understanding that our hearts, minds, ears and legs are all connected by the same veins, the same muscles, tied together with our own fleshy, gristly and bloody wiring. They act as one, in congress and Young Buffalo exploits that, making every moment in every one of its songs feel like a bursting, like the top popping off of a fire hydrant in the middle of July: there's energy getting displaced, busting through the air, there's surprise, there's refreshment and a cooling respite and there's all kinds of joyfulness as we rush to splash under the gushing waterfall. The trio mounts harmonies upon harmonies and we feel as if we're no longer in control of our taping feet and our bobbing heads, our swiveling midsections and we've come to really, really, really like how we feel when we've gotten out of control. We want to keep feeling uncontrollable. "Catapilah," the band's debut single from its forthcoming first record on Fat Possum Records, is a song that feels like a graceful streaking, as if those doing such were sparklers or fireworks in slow motion, caking the black night with a sweep of bright color, punctuating the stillness with a brilliant abstraction. It's a song that lies somewhere between the Arctic Monkeys, Dodos and something coming out of one of Levon Helm's Midnight Rambles. It's a furnace and it runs the course of a full circuit, swinging us on a live rocket. They sing, "You've got your health, I've got myself," but there's no doubt that these guys got the better end of the deal. They've got something better than health and there aren't many things better than that. You're always hearing people talk about how, at least they have their health, but it's all a crock. It's better to have fire inside. Fuck health.
Young Buffalo Official Site
Fat Possum Records
