Nothing did more to further the cause of Alternative Nation-building than 120 Minutes, MTV’s Sunday-night video showcase of non-mainstream acts. For nearly two decades, the program spanned musical eras from ’80s college rock to ’00s indie, with grunge, Britpop, punk, industrial, electronica and more in between. MAGNET raids the vaults to resurrect our 120 favorite and unjustly forgotten videos from the show’s classic era.
#55: Buffalo Tom “Taillights Fade”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GohsvUBhldY
MAGNET’s recent interview with Buffalo Tom frontman Bill Janovitz puts the lie to the tempting myth of a tightly knit late-’80s/early-’90s Boston indie-rock scene. The city was embarrassingly rich in talent: The Pixies, Dinosaur Jr, Lemonheads, Throwing Muses, Cavedogs (yeah, they belong in the conversation), Juliana Hatfield and more resided within a few miles of each other but … that’s about it. Buffalo Tom always seemed like more of a heartland outfit anyway, scrapping its way onto the radar with 1992’s Let Me Come Over. That album’s “Taillights Fade” is an all-time great, so choked-up with emotion that it’s best not to analyze it too much.
One reply on “120 Reasons To Live: Buffalo Tom”
Thanks for remembering such a great tune. I probably still have it on cassette somewhere!