Buffalo Tom-Big Red Letter Day (1993)
Artist: Buffalo Tom
Title: Big Red Letter Day
Label: Beggars Banquet/Megadisc/EastWest
Format: CD
Cat #: 7 92292-2
Year of Release: 1993
Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1993
Listed Condition: VG+/VG+
Sell Date: 8/28/25
Sell Price: $4.85
Discogs Last Sold: 7/5/25 NM/VG+ $1.88
Low: $0.88
Median: $2.00
Average: $2.53
High: $8.80
Current low price: $0.74
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 60
Have/Want: 836/31
Where Sold: Glen Allen, VA
Time it took to sell: 2 years
Where and When Bought: Facebook marketplace $2 lot
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+
Sad To See It Go: No
I was playing catchup with 90's Buffalo Tom recently with some cheap CD lots. I bought the album before this in real time as I did the first two, but for me there were a bit of diminished returns going on that made me lose interest in the band by the time this came out. Of course, as far as commercial success and the bands live performance that album was the peak and this was number two.
In October 1993 I got to see the opening track "Sodajerk" recorded live at Conan O'Briens show at NBC Studios as a guest of their guest Billy Ruane. There were no seats in the audience for me so I had to watch backstage. on closed captioned TV. The neat and memorable thing about this experience was not Buffalo Tom, but to see fellow guest Louis Gossett Jr. shaving and Conan in orange TV makeup up close and personal. I had seen Buffalo Tom plenty in Boston on the way up even before SST put out their debut. I was a huge fan of that album as well as the follow-up Birdbrain.
I haven't seen Buffalo Tom since they came back from a 5-year hiatus at the Bowery Ballroom in 2007. I was happy to see them then and I was going to see them last May, but something came up. I'm sure I'll see them again in a year or few.
So I'm catching up a bit with their 4th album Big Red Letter Day 32 years after release. It was sitting in my "recently purchased" CD box in my storage room along with their 5th album Sleepy Eyed and 6th entitled Smitten. At least with this one I have some forgotten exposure. Whatever I saw that night on Conan or played at WFDU were long forgotten. The music is in the standard Bill Janowitz format plaintive vocals, chiming guitar. Maybe missing the earlier crunch of the first record I loved so much. Really this sound started to take shape once Beggars put them out with Birdbrain. The trio stayed together through their first run and reformation so you can't blame shifting bandmembers. That said, the sound didn't really change all that much. Maybe some acoustic strumming that seems more prominent.
So now I've put 3 listens into this back-to-back then watched the videos they did for the first three tracks. "Sodajerk" and "Tree House" are indeed in the Tom template. "I'm Allowed" reminded me a bit of "One" by U2. The closer "Anything That Way" was probably my favorite track on the third listen until I heard "Sodajerk" and "Tree House" again.
As usual it's really nothing to turn off.
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