Buffalo Daughter
New Rock
Grand Royal

Welcome the New Rock from Tokyo! Presented by Sugar Yoshinaga (guitar, vocals, synth, short wave radio), Yumiko Ohno (bass, vocals, electronics), and Moog Yamamoto (turntables). Two girls and one boy - together they're Buffalo Daughter, which they have been since 1993.

They claim to be inspired by Americans like Sonic Youth and Beastie Boys. Maybe more of the latter, I'd say, but the sound is sonic now and then. New Rock is their 4th album, and it's released on Beastie Boys' own label Grand Royal. Buffalo Daughter is un-pretentious and naivistic. Especially the lyrics show a great deal of healthy humor. They experiment, they put in elements of electronic music, rock, rap, blues, hip-hop and tecnho. Like in the song Autobacs. Imagine a mixture of Beck, Sonic Youth and Chemical Brothers. It's indeed a strange brew of sound.

The laidback Socks, Drugs and Rock and Roll (not to be confused with the minialbum Socks, Drugs and Rock and Roll which had remixes of songs from their 1996 album Captain Vapour Athletes, also on Grand Royal), says about what is to be said on tour-life:

How many clean socks remained in my suitcase
Did I take vitamins enough for today
That's our concern of every single day
For making our days alive

Buffalo Daughter blips and bloops, they steal and borrow, they tumble and play on. Sky High f.i., could have been Stereolab on a good day. Even if most of the album is the sound of the 90's, there are traces of sounds reminiscent of bands/artists of the 80's, such as, say, Talking Heads, Pylon, and Snakefinger. So, in their quest for seeking the New Rock (they play both New Rock and No New Rock), do Buffalo Daughter finally find what they're looking for?

This is new rock
I'm tingling
That's new pop
Popping up
That's new rock
We found it
That's new pop
It's fun!

Yes, New Rock is most of the time great fun. The Buffalo Daughter blend of rock is definitely cute and quirky.

Copyright © 1998 Håvard Oppøyen