"I think the roots of rural American music shared some of the values of the stoner and doom crowd in its rawness and largeness, written with performance at its core and a lack of expectation of any mass commercial viability," said Daniel Pruitt of Lord Buffalo. "That is the music we are interested in, whatever you want to call it."
Austin, Texas band Lord Buffalo has done a good job of creating music that seems to elude description. Though many have tried, the band themselves continue to create a unique aura of sound with a foothold sinking deeply into the dark side of folk music. They are eerie sonic drifters that have been compared to the likes of legendary composer Ennio Morricone, the works shared by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, as well as Neil Young who wrote the lyric "What is the color when black is burned" (from "I Am A Child") which Young wrote when he was in Buffalo Springfield in 1968.
Just in case you had any doubts Neil Young had a dark side. This all concocts a desirable sounding mix for a band looking to take on Lemmy and the gang's jam about believing in God and Heaven being a massive waste of your time. For this, they looked to Motörhead's eighteenth record, Kiss of Death (2006), and the track "God Was Never On Your Side." When asked what he has learned as a musician from Motörhead, Lord Buffalo Pruitt had this to say:
"An important lesson for me from Motörhead is that it doesn't have to be this massively complex thing. It doesn't have to be overly produced. Sometimes the first take is the best take. And just shoot from the hip. There's an ethos there that just permeates their (Motörhead's) whole catalog. There's a rawness and a hugeness to it that for me as someone who is making music that is very different, that's the thing that I take from Motörhead. And, Lemmy made playing the bass cool for so many kids. You know, everyone wanted to be the shredder in the band, but Lemmy was like 'Nah.'"
Lord Buffalo's cover of "God Was Never On Your Side" is grimy, brooding, and rather cinematic–an element that leads us back to the band's comparison to Italian composer Ennio Morricone who has created some of the greatest horror film soundtracks in Italian cinema. It is the latest track we've featured from Löve Me Förever: A Tribute to Motörhead which you can stream now, download digitally or grab a physical copy of the vinyl pressed on oxblood-colored waxx at PsychoWaxx.Com.
God might not be on their side but Lemmy surely is. A-fucking-men. You can also catch Lord Buffalo live as they go on tour with British prog-rockers Church of the Cosmic Skull starting on August 5 in Chicago. You can also see Lord Buffalo deliver a special Sunday Sabbath performance at Psycho Las Vegas on August 21 at Resorts World.
