Avi Buffalo's Long Beach Proud (opening slot for Blitzen Trapper)

In the course of trying to comprehensively cover the recent tourstop of Blitzen Trapper I was curious about who turned out to be their labelmates Avi Buffalo. I am to say the least a huge devotee of Eric D. Johnson and the various incarnation's of Fruit Bats (who also share a perennial bond to Portland, Oregon and SubPop) - a bond it turns out is shared by their forthcoming tourmates Blitzen Trapper (despite the label and geographic affiliation both groups are oddly but unsurprisingly unfamiliar with one another personally despite a deep kinship and respect) and as such am very grateful to their - well to whoever the fuck the A&R guy or gal is at SubPop these days.

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As it turns out Avi Buffalo was a solo project (born Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg). I have to admit when first meeting what turns out is the very young (18) Avi I did think one of two things: a) this man is incredibly small possibly a little people or person or whatever the PC term is or b) perhaps the combined affects of fatigue, pneumoniatic infection, seratonin/neuroepinephrin/dopamine/adrenaline depletion, stress, despair, moral and spiritual turpitude and occasional flirtations with pure amphetamine usage had warped my perspective ever so slightly. As it turns out he's just an incredibly talented kid and thank fucking god for that.

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I had the great fortune of meeting his band in particular his drummer Sheridan Riley who met Avi along with some of his former and current bandmates at Millikan High in Long Beach. I expressed to the young Sheridan in their sparse backstage beneath the Opera House's stage that she truly impressed me as an improvising drummer in a rock context particularly a female improviser. For whatver reason - and I don't believe this is misogyny- it tends that women perhaps by industry dictates move often towards singer/songwriter roles and that there are to my eye very few strong improvising female musicians working on stages today. For instance this spring and summer I can count on perhaps two hands the noteworthy female improvisers I've encountered and they include: a women whose name I've forgotten that played in a husband/wife ensemble with members of The Decemberists called Blue Giant who played a really tasty slide guitar, Lizzie Powell (of Land of Talk, whose drummer Andrew Barr - The Slip, Barr Bros. and Surprise Me Mr. Davis - is my hands down favourite improvising drummer drummer in a rock context) and a young drummer who frequents The Dakota Tavern and other stomps named Dani Nash who plays in an ensemble called The Sure Things.

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I was happy in the least that the young Sheridan was familiar with the important work of singer/songwriter Lizzie Powell and her nineties lo-fi inspired (but not in the least derivative) ensemble Land of Talk.

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If Malcolm Gladwell is right, that it takes 10, 000 hours of practise to master a particular art form or skill, then that certainly that means that men (particularly of Mr. Buffalo's stature) need to practise that long just to get laid- all women need to do is say 'yes'. That's not mysogyny that's sociobiology.
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Here are 33 stills taken with my RIM Blackberry 9630 and synced to the recorded version of Avi Buffalo's Remember The Time. As they are taken in a strict chronology (no shots were omitted) and as the group I believe closed with Remember The Time and it's monstrous outro guitar solo where Buffalo can be seen 'pedal stompin' like a Dinosaur' - the photos and the audio oddly sync up literally although this singular guitar solo is best seen live and outstrips even it's expansive recorded rendition.