Buffalo Tom’s 2007 release, Three Easy Pieces, showed the Boston trio still hand the skills when it came to penning catchy, three-minute, alt-rock pop songs.  With “Arise Watch,” Bill Janowitz, Chris Colbourn, and Tom Maginnis go back even further, showing they’re capable of producing the kind of screech first heard on their SST releases, the kind that led to early comparisons to fellow Northeasterners, Dinosaur, Jr.  Of course, those comparisons weren’t quite right.  Janowicz and company were always just as interested in emotional volume as they were in amp volume.  Here to, “Arise Watch,” delivers with one part pained reflection and one part eliminating that pain with the gusto of unrestrained guitar squalor.

MP3: Buffalo Tom – Arise Watch

Buffalo Tom’s eighth album, Skins, will be available on the bands own Scrawny Records on Feb. 15th.