“Born in a small house in the country” of Oxford, Miss., Young Buffalo released their first EP, Young von Prettylips, on July 19. 
And from this debut, it’s clear this two-year-old band is anything but small town.
They are currently on tour in the U.S. and Canada – opening for the Arctic Monkeys on select dates – and signed to Fat Possum Records, which houses bands like Band of Horses, Dinosaur Jr. and The Black Keys.
While they may not take album or track titles (and probably themselves) too seriously, their music is another story.
As a three-piece band, they each play guitar, bass and drums, and they all sing, a talent that they exploit on all five tracks by stacking harmonies on top of more swelling harmonies.
And they constantly keep the energy alive, even on the slowest track of the EP – the opener – “Only We Can Keep You From Harm,” which starts out with a more simple guitar and low chanting vocals that lead into a schizophrenic layered vocal pattern and guitar riff that I swear gets so stuck in my head, I’ve heard it in my dreams.
They sustain this same building effect over blended various styles, one never standing so far out from the others that you can pinpoint it. They list their genre as “Soul Vibez” – meaning, “If this doesn’t sum it up, you’re thinking too hard.”
So don’t think – just enjoy this assortment of surf rock, pop rock, indie rock – and all of the other little glints below the surface that make Young Buffalo indefinable.
Visit Young Buffalo at Facebook.com/YoungBuffalo.
Track Listing:
1. Only We Can Keep You From Harm
2. Speak EZ
3. Full Metal Whacket
4. Catapilah
5. Bury Me
