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Track Listings
| 1. Truth Sets In |
| 2. What's In It For |
| 3. Coaxed |
| 4. Five Little Sluts |
| 5. Jessica |
| 6. Summer Cum |
| 7. One Last |
| 8. Can't I Know |
| 9. Remember Last Time |
| 10. Where's Your Dirty Mind |
Product Description
Review
There are moments in everybody’s life – moments buried deep in the blissful haze of departed childhood or misspent youth – which are always conjured up upon hearing a certain song. Whether it’s one that was around at the time, or one that sums up how you felt, just hearing a few seconds are enough to transport you back to a time and place that you hadn’t thought about for a long time – slices of life long gone, dreams long discarded, love long since faded, people long since dead.
Avi Buffalo is the adopted name of 19-year-old Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg, also the moniker of the band that he and three of his friends began some three years ago while in high school. Together – somehow – they’ve managed to create an album full of those moments, songs that evoke so precisely half-remembered summers and first loves that never existed, events and people in your life that never were, but which you can’t help but remember.
It’s very much a summer album, not just because of the (in)gloriously titled Summer Cum (“I got lost in your summer cum / Leave all your stains with me”), but because its songs glow with the warmth of that time of year. What’s in It For? almost starts from where The Shins’ New Slang left off, its surreal lyrics and falsetto vocals capturing the sense of a never-ending August night, albeit one imbued with teenage uncertainty. Then there’s the lilting One Last, which captures the last vestiges of sunset, and the gentle erosion of innocence through experience on the lovely Can’t I Know?
Throughout, Avi’s vocals coalesce remarkably with those of keyboard player Rebecca Coleman, who was originally Avi’s muse by way of an intense teenage crush. You can hear the tenderness of first love in their voices, which makes each song that much more fragile and brittle. Yet that frailty is strengthened by the band’s glorious sunlit melodies and obtuse imagery, all of which combine to turn this into a truly remarkable album that’s sad and wistful way beyond the band’s years. --Mischa Pearlman
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Avi Buffalo - Winning album of charming summer fun,
By
This review is from: Avi Buffalo (Audio CD)
Is youth wasted on the young? It seems not in the case of this new band from Long Beach California fronted by the 19-year-old songwriter called Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg who has behind him his school friends Arin Fazio and Sheridan Riley on bass and drums and Avi's unrequited (on and off) love on backing vocals, his girlfriend and source of teenage angst Ms Rebecca Coleman. The band's prime influences are Simon and Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, Neil Young and the Beatles who are of course all promising artists, and echoes of the whole gamut of them are to be found on this boisterous, flaky, cute, optimistic and charming debut of top notch summer fun.Its on the sub pop label which might account for why Avi partly sounds like J Mascis crossed with Wayne Coyne particularly on the rather lovely "One last" a sort of Sonny and Cher song for the twitter generation. When it you listen to "Summer Cum" it doesn't take to much imagination to work out its central theme when Avi exhorts that "I've waited for your love, I got lost in your summer cum, leave all your stains with me, And know that I will never be". "My Girls" by the Temptations its not, but it is a very sweet song when you listen to it; honestly! The two centre pieces of the album are the brilliant "What's in it for me" and the seven minute plus "Remember last time". The former has a surf guitar solo, one of the stupidest backing vocals you are likely to encounter and by any standards is a wonderful pop song. "Remember" alternatively is quite a polished affair of Avi's insecurities and mental torture knowing that he "seems to keen" about Ms Coleman. She of course sweetly responds by singing backing vocals on it and eventually it turns into a glorious guitar workout in the sense that someone who sounds like Neil Young's younger nephew has proved that the music lessons paid off. Isenberg's tales of love play out over songs with names like "Five little sluts" and "Where's your dirty mind". Avi Buffalo is one of those albums which might seem derivative but somehow it is also different enough to thoroughly engage and each time you hear these songs of superb harmonic indie pop you realise that this lot could steal your wallet and you could still forgive them.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You Can't Wash In A Buffalo, But You Can Bathe In This One,
By
This review is from: Avi Buffalo (Audio CD)
Quite wisely, Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg opted to shorten his moniker for the stage, and, along with three equally young bandmates and his crackling falsetto that more than recalls Wayne Coyne in places, Avi Buffalo is the concise result. With Arin Fazio and Sheridan Riley rounding out the ranks, these three also include one Rebecca Coleman with whom vocals are shared, and if the stories are true, much more in the past. The eyebrow-raising lyrics to the twee "Summer Cum" would seem to confirm it: "I got lost in your summer cum / leave all your stains with me".Coming on sweetly like Jenny Lewis, Coleman's country-tinged additions bathe the band's self-titled debut in an enviable summeriness. And it's a congruous haze, as the band call Long Beach, California home. Therefore, the waves of West Coast melody that really make the album come as little surprise. Blissful guitar solos such as those that ring out on the lengthy "Remember Last Time" add necessary character and backbone to the pleasantness, as otherwise more aimless offerings such as the fluttery "Coaxed" may have dominated. Zahner-Isenberg's chosen band name perhaps makes more sense as "What's In It For?" starts to plays out amid echo-y backing vocals. With the lingering embrace of a lost Neil Young track, it suggests a depth of schooling in and admiration for his material, maybe so much so as to even extend as far back as his Buffalo Springfield days. It seems the comparisons never stop either, as the tender, indie DNA of Mercury Rev becomes apparent in the fine strands of Avi Buffalo's make-up. This is perhaps best heard on the beautifully shuffling duet "One Last". Ultimately, Sub Pop know a good thing when they hear it and rightly they snapped up likeable unit-shifters The Shins when they had the chance. They say that lightening doesn't strike twice, but it seems to have done so in their Seattle stables, electrifying both bands with similarly gorgeous melody. The label readily concede to thinking they've a major talent on their hands in Zahner-Isenberg, and on this form they may be right.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Lost Gem,
By
This review is from: Avi Buffalo (Audio CD)
I found this album completely by accident but I'm very happy to have done so. This could have been another Oracular Spectacular moment But unfortunatly for Avi Buffalo the album didn't catch on the same way. The song writing is great thoughout and there are many highlights ('What's In It For', 'Truth Sets in' and 'Remember Last Time'). In the age of iTunes its a rare album that holds the attention all the way through and this is consistantly good. For anyone who likes MGMT/ Mercury Rev/ The Shins etc, this could be your soundtrack to any summer.
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