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Buffalo Tom’s Tom Maginnis Would Not Be Denied: “Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser”

Nothing if not a model of consistency, Buffalo Tom has been making the same decent-to-great music since 1992’s Let Me Come Over. Actually the Massachusetts trio’s third album, Let Me Come Over feels more like a debut, as it zeroed in brilliantly on the group’s strengths, namely the earnest, imagery-laden, acoustic-gone-electric songwriting of guitarist Bill Janovitz and bassist Chris Colbourn and the propulsive punk undercurrents supplied by drummer Tom Maginnis. Judging by the band’s latest, Skins (Scrawny), it’s a formula that still has legs. Skins is the group’s eighth album and second since reuniting after a 10-year (sort-of) break, and its world-weary lilt and been-there/done-that themes make it the perfect grown-up companion piece to Let Me Come Over’s reluctant coming-of-age angst. It may be the best thing the band has done since that LP. Buffalo Tom will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with Janovitz and Colbourn.

Maginnis: This is one of my favorite documentaries. It follows Thelonious Monk around New York and on a European tour in 1967. I’m fascinated by the intersection of genius and madness and art. What more could you want? I love the part where he strolls into the studio, starts playing with the band and is incredulous when he learns that the tape was not rolling. He may need help getting dressed in the morning, but he knows that magical moment of grace when he hears it. I just learned that it was directed by Charlotte Zwerin, who also worked with the Maysles brothers on the amazing Gimme Shelter, perhaps the best rock documentary ever.

Video after the jump.