The Buffali
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The Buffali

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"EP Review: "Truly awesome.""

In only about a year of existence, Madison's own duo, The Buffali, have not only generated an intensely loyal fan base and played lots of shows, but have also released a truly awesome EP. The six-song EP runs the gamut from poppy songs, perfect for singing along ("True Love," "Shittrain") to mellow, melancholy songs ("Stars Go On"). Most of the songs deal with love of some sort - there's unrequited love on "Sophie"; there's love on the run and on a train on "Shittrain," one of the highlights of the record; and "True Love" is about, as the lyrics so eloquently note, "true love - you know, the kind that doesn't work."

Influenced by that old-time, folky country music that people these days usually associate with O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000), the Buffali use simple instruments - just an acoustic guitar and an acoustic bass. Combining their instruments with a cool interplay of male and female vocals, they make all kinds of different sounds. "Big Sky Song" is definitely a product of that O Brother type stuff, while "Eizabethy"is reminiscent of the Barenaked Ladies (and I really do mean that in a good way), and "Shittrain" sounds like a '50s pop song by a teen vocal group. Overall, the EP is solid, fun, and just plain good music.
- Emmie Magazine (UW Music Review Magazine)


"Interview - Cover Story!"

Quote: "One of Madison's premiere folk-pop acts. . . The duo create songs unlike anything else in Madison, or even in the general music scene."

Full Text:
Pronounced "buffalo," but with an "eye" at the end, the Buffali are one of Madison's premiere folk-pop acts. Expanding on influences as diverse as Ella Fitzgerald, De La Soul, Elvis Costello, Bobby McFerrin, Mates of State and oldies and "old-time country and religious music," the duo create songs unlike anything else in Madison, or even in the general music scene. The group, made up of Andrew Yonda on vocals/acoustic bass and Clare Fehsenfeld on vocals/acoustic guitar, has drawn comparisons to other local folk and alt-country acts like Charlemagne and Mae Rae, but those comparisons can never quite express what the band actually sounds like. Blending sounds from "old-timey music," bluegrass, and what Fehsenfeld calls the "sweet harmonies that Andrew likes a lot" of 60s pop, the Buffali fill a void that most music fans in Madison probably didn't even realize existed. The pair met in 2001 at the Nottingham Co-op while both were students at the University of Wisconsin, and began playing together for the practice and to generate feedback. Yonda and Fehsenfeld soon formed the band, taking their name not from the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen song, but rather a night of drunken brainstorming, and played their first show only a year ago. The band celebrates their first anniversary with a special show Friday, which will fittingly be held at the Nottingham Co-op.

After putting out a six song EP in June, both members have high hopes for the future of the band. Yonda and Fehsenfeld both plan to pursue their music for the time being, but hope to have the opportunity to do other things because, as Fehsenfeld points out, "life's long enough that you can do more than one thing." Despite their short tenure as a band here in Madison, but thanks to their commitment to the band, the duo is earning quite a reputation, due partly to their performances at venues as varied as the Terrace, the Corral Room, the High Noon Saloon, and the Catacombs. The band's profile rose quickly last spring when they won not only the Wisconsin Union Directorate's Battle of the Bands, but the hearts of the judges and the crowd.

Their music is perfect for coffeehouses around the city. While the pair can and do play in bars, they prefer the coffeehouse setting with its lack of smoke and noise because, as Yonda says, "singing in tune and in harmony is so important for us; it's not like we can just screech out our rock and roll vocals." The two are also fans of their greater ability to interact with an audience in the cafe setting; that connection is one of the reasons, in addition to their fun music and engaging persona, the Buffali have won so many fans in and around Madison. Although not quite to the point where the members are unable to walk the streets without being approached and whispered about, they do occasionally notice people recognizing them at the grocery store. Yonda, for instance, fondly recalls the time he was playing ultimate frisbee one afternoon when a member of the opposing team stopped short and asked "Hey, aren't you in the Buffali?"
- Coreweekly (Madison Arts Paper)


"Kerfuffle No. 10 Review: "Treads the fine line separating cute and clever from zany and goofy.""

The Buffali’s debut comes with built-in lightheartedness and stock White Stripes-like photo jacket image. The Madison duo, Clare Fehsenfeld and Andrew Yonda, have put together an album full of gentle, elegant harmonies, upbeat bass plucking, acoustic folk strumming and rhythm guitar (eschewing drums completely). Soft piano and blues diversify the sound, however slightly.
The group is best defined by its comedic sense, which treads the fine line separating cute and clever from zany and goofy. The lyrics offer European flings and long-winding road trips in “a bright red but dirty Honda,” Harry Potter books, celestial tangos, broken water filters and remote controls. There is a strange obsession with bears of all sorts. Listening to Kerfuffle No. 10, it’s hard not to laugh at least once. - Willy Thorn
- Shepherd Express (Milwaukee, WI Indie Paper)


"Kerfuffle No. 10 Review: "The good humor that flows from whatever they touch is their secret weapon.""

On Kerfuffle No. 10, the irresistible local folk-pop duo filter old-timey, turn-of-the-last-century tunes through their cracked, neo-hippie sensibility and come up smelling like chocolate-covered rainbows. The boy/girl band's strangely innocent vocal harmonies are an obvious strength, as is a facility with language that allows them to write about getting laid in a "shittrain" without diminishing their cuteness quotient one iota. But the good humor that flows from whatever they touch is their secret weapon.

The Buffali are a natural for the jam/college circuit. And if they ever got the opportunity to breeze through "Yer Late" or "Throw Dirt Over the Fence" at Bonnaroo or some other major jam-band event, they'd kill. No doubt about it. - Isthmus (Madison Indie Paper)


"Kerfuffle No. 10 Review: "The duo likes to get down and dirty.""

A first listen to The Buffali's new Kerfuffle No. 10 reveals a surface sweetness, but in reality, the duo likes to get down and dirty. In fact, the band almost luxuriates in the kind of goofy, heartfelt exclamations that helped Violent Femmes become a sensation for generations of rebellious teens. But beyond acoustic guitar and bass, little else is analogous to the Femmes' rawkus acoustic punk. Instead, The Buffali take cues from vaudeville comedy teams, folk racounteurs, and a dash of indie rock. Andrew Yonda and Clare Fehsenfeld harmonize over scenes of humor and humanity, riffing on interband mishaps, alien landings, and the pitfalls of true love. - The Onion AV Club (Madison)


"Kerfuffle No. 10 Review: "One of the more interesting underrated bands kicking around Madison""

The sad thing about a word like Kerfuffle is that you can never use it in scrabble because the game only has two f blocks. It is one of those words you could throw down and just know that the others playing would want to challenge it, but just aren't sure. Dictionary.com gives this definition of the word kerfuffle: noun disorder, commotion; also written curfuffle, kafuffle, gefuffle.

Why is that important at this moment? It happens to be the name of Buffali's debut full length, Kerfuffle No. 10. Buffali is one of the more interesting underrated bands kicking around Madison. The duo's sound is a quirky mix of indie pop riding the edge of the Moldy Peaches squished neatly into a frame that could have been designed by Calvin Johnson of K Records and then coated with a sugary version of alt-country. Their website appropriately describes their live shows as having an "infectious glee". - Dane 101 (Madison arts blog)


"Kerfuffle No. 10 Review: "In a world gone wacko the Buffali are a strong musical antidote.""

Quote: "On the Buffali’s first full-length album, Kerfuffle No. 10, Andrew Yonda and Clare Fehsenfeld prove that the elusive appeal of their first EP was no fluke...In a world gone wacko the Buffali are a strong musical antidote. There is nothing quite like them."

Full text:
On the Buffali’s first full-length album, Kerfuffle No. 10, Andrew Yonda and Clare Fehsenfeld prove that the elusive appeal of their first EP was no fluke. This time they recorded at DNA and emerged with a fine Mark Whitcomb-produced recording that succinctly captures their quirky style. Inventive vocal harmonies are the Buffali’s strong suit. The accompaniments, although well executed (especially Yonda’s bass playing), are really just a canvas upon which the pair paint their musical nursery rhymes. Four of the EP’s tracks are reproduced here along with nine newer cuts.

While their music is harmless enough, mostly acoustic guitar and bass augmented by light percussion, the lyrics sometimes reveal a different story. Kerfuffle (a Gaelic-derived term) roughly translates to disorder or commotion, and though a winged buffalo jumps serenely over the moon on the album’s cover there is the occasional tension in the lyrics, which allows us to delve more deeply into the psyches of Fehsenfeld and Yonda. Alas, this is no easy task but the Buffali’s appeal lies in the contradiction they project. Pretty melodies softly sung do no always convey contentment or resignation, and in the mind of the Buffali there is little complacency. Some would dismiss the Buffali as cutesy and superficial, but that’s far from the whole truth.

There are plenty of witty takes on Kerfuffle. In “Sophie” a man longs for a married woman: “You make me think of things no man should / Domestic bliss and fatherhood.” It’s sung with such earnestness it can’t help but make you laugh, as does Yonda’s lyric about furnishing their imaginary home with rugs and flowers. “Yer Late” is another funny tune on its surface, but you get the sense that lateness is something that really does piss Fehsenfeld off. “True Love,” a folk tale of love’s inevitable collapse, is sung with plenty of humor as well but a bittersweet message lies between the lines. Other comical cuts on Kerfuffle: “Shittrain” is a hilarious story about getting laid on a train, with dialogue about Yonda’s “lucky shirt” woven between the verses. In “Beth Dances the Tango” he prefaces the story of a woman dancing with aliens with: “Here’s a true story / I don’t know if it’s true or not / I heard it last night / When I was talking in my sleep.” That statement largely sums up where the Buffali are coming from, especially Yonda, as one can virtually hear the shit-eating grin on his face throughout the record.

Things get a little more complicated on “Peach Lullaby,” the album’s vocal and melodic highlight, with Yonda on piano [correction: this track actually features Clare on piano, but Andrew plays piano on Shittrain]. Nearly nonsensical lyrically, the song is hypnotic, dreamy and could quite possibly trigger flashbacks. The album’s closer, “Throw Dirt Over the Fence,” is much the same, a longing plea seemingly produced from a lifetime of rebuke.

In a world gone wacko the Buffali are a strong musical antidote. There is nothing quite like them, especially in the independent music arena that focuses largely on the campus populations, where escapism is the order of the day.
- Rick's Cafe (Southern Wisconsin Music Paper)


"Interview: "Completely essential.""

Local Duo Reveals Riskier Side of Folk

Quote:"Ridiculously motivated and equally talented...The black sheep of the folk family and a conglomerate of jazz, blues, and hip-hop, drenched with lyrical humor, [The Buffali] create their own fantastic little kingdom. And this realm is something along the lines of a small-town summer festival. It is carefree and refreshing, perhaps verging on the bizarre, yet completely essential. Summer is not summer, and Madison music is not Madison music, without the Buffali wackiness."

Full text:
They say it takes a village to raise a child. Then what does it take to make a band? A guitarist and a vocalist? A well-connected agent? A full club? An active entourage? For Madison’s Buffali, the number is indeterminate. Sitting down to chat with the duo only offers the certainty that making a successful band includes far more participants than those making the music.

It takes a sister who can create some kick-ass cover artwork for the debut album Kerfuffle No. 10 and a friend who can maintain a kick-ass website. It takes the support of WUD Music Committee and consistent airplay on WSUM airwaves. It takes James Brown’s funky drummer Clyde Stubblefield calling them “one of the best artists in Wisconsin” and an amazing cover and two-page article from coreweekly.

With such an encouraging base here in Madison, the Buffali’s Clare Fehsenfeld and Andrew Yonda are set to extend their support system. Monday marked the embarkation of their first national tour, a two-week jaunt in a small van hitting venues in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio.

“Touring was the next step for a full-time band like us,” Andrew explained. “You look at and hear so many bands around Madison and think, ‘They could be famous. They could really be something.’ But they aren’t willing to take that risk. We just had to take the risks.”

The Buffali are no strangers to facing those uncertainties, especially as they take on the roles of manager, booking agent, accommodations coordinator and producers, in addition to musician and songwriter. In the two years since its formation — spawned in no small part by the creation of a 10-minute, “bombastic, rap, hip-hop” tune — Clare and Andrew have relied on those uncertainties as learning tools.

“Booking can be hit or miss. You have to be persistent. A lot of times the person booking bands is just an underpaid bartender or someone waiting on other bands,” Clare explained. “It took a while to get the system. Then I realized, putting it together, ‘Binder, tour info, CD. Oh, I get it.’”

While it can take numerous phone calls, repetitive e-mails for one booking, it took one attempt at contacting the music coordinator of New York City’s The Knitting Factory to gain the Buffali time onstage.

“My mom tells her friends, ‘My son is playing at the Knitting Factory,’ and they know.” Andrew chuckled as he elaborated. “They don’t ask about us, what the band is called or anything, but where we are playing means something to them.” And it might just be best not asking for an explanation of the Buffali’s sound. Clare’s classification of the tunes on the album was as “quirky … a little dorky. College-indie, I guess. We are not folk. We swear a lot more.”

Take one listen to the album. That truth of verbal fierceness manifests itself during the first track. The closing lines of “Yer late again / You are late again / I’m going to kill you / If you’re late again / You f-ckin’ piece of sh-t” contrast beautifully with the carefully harmonized a cappella opening sounds. “Yeah, we were banished from that kingdom,” Andrew interjected. “We were not folk enough."

As if there was fault in that. The black sheep of the folk family and a conglomerate of jazz, blues, and hip-hop, drenched with lyrical humor, create their own fantastic little kingdom. And this realm is something along the lines of a small-town summer festival. It is carefree and refreshing, perhaps verging on the bizarre, yet completely essential. Summer is not summer, and Madison music is not Madison music, without the Buffali wackiness.

It is a ride on the Ferris wheel. Reflectively poignant in one moment — the cage stopping, poised at the top of its trajectory — are such lines as, “The moment when everything got different all at once / There wasn’t any time for yes or no / They couldn’t help but fall into the beauty that was there” of the song “True Love.” Rushing in the next moment — movement resumes — is the entrance of driving and playful guitars.

It is winding through the House of Mirrors. Some listeners hate seeing the distortions, hearing lyrics that want to mock — “He told us to get off, I said ‘Buddy, c’est deja fait.’” Other listeners love the voices that strive to mimic some vein of the blues during “Awful Hot Baby.”

Some hate the honesty, others love those lyrics. Some need to get out, others do not want it to end. Either way, Andrew summed it up: “Whether people like us or they don’t, - Badger Herald (UW Campus Paper)


"Interview: "Witty...high energy, happy-go-lucky.""

Harmonies define The Buffali

The Buffali are a lively, acoustic guy-girl pop duo out of Madison, Wis.

The duo's trademark? Witty vocal interchange between members Clare Fehsenfeld (acoustic guitar, piano) and Andrew Yonda (acoustic bass guitar, upright bass).

"We try to do as much fun stuff vocally as we can, and incorporate funny back-and-forth banter and vocal lines," said Fehsenfeld.

An example? In the group's song "Yer Late," Yonda plays the role of the slacker boyfriend, late for every date: "In the song, he tries to justify his slacker attitude, while I'm not having any of it," Fehsenfeld said.

In other words, The Buffali's tunes often portray two characters who are having some kind of conflict, "and we tell the story by trading vocal lines back and forth, or talking over the music," said Fehsenfeld.

"When we interact with each other, telling a story, it really gets the audience engaged. It's total theater onstage."

The duo, which plays Magdalena's Tea House tonight, performs high-energy, happy-go-lucky originals, plus funky covers from current hip-hop/pop monarch the Black Eyed Peas to Gilbert O'Sullivan.

The band's new disc, "Kerfuffle No. 10," was recorded last spring and summer at Madison's DNA studios.

"Andrew and our engineer, Mark Whitcomb, encouraged me to try using my voice in new and different ways, which has really changed the way I sing onstage," Fehsenfeld said. "Before, I sang pretty and girly, now I'm more of a wailer."

The duo recorded the last song on the album, "Throw Dirt Over the Fence," live at Smart Studios - the same studio used by Nirvana and Garbage. -Anne Erickson

Show details: Frontier Ruckus and The Buffali, 8 p.m. today, Magdalena's Tea House, 2006 E. Michigan Ave., 487-1822, $7.
- Lansing State Journal, Lansing, MI Newspaper


"Full-page interview:"

Original Folk

In the band picture in The Buffali's debut album's sleeve, the duo looks like a younger, slightly less edgy but equally stylized version of The White Stripes. Both band members - singer and acoustic bass guitarist Andrew Yonda, and singer, pianist and guitarist Clare Fehsenfeld - are dressed in white clothes and sit in white chairs in front of a warm, orange background. On the wall in between them hangs a painting of a holy woman. Underneath the painting stands an orange vase with purple flowers on the hardwood floor. The picture is appealing, and makes its observer curious to hear the music that goes with it.

Upon hearing the opening song "Yer Late," The Buffali, who will be playing at Juna's Café in Ithaca on Thursday, Dec. 8, seemed to me like one of those quirky and weird bands that go overboard with attempts to be humorous in order to hide lack of musicianship. The album, with the odd title Kerfuffle no. 10, is full of songs like that. After a few spins, though, the listener slowly starts seeing through the silliness and understands that The Buffali are actually two skilled musicians who aim to provide their audience with a pretty original take on folk music that one either hates or loves.

Yonda and Fehsenfeld met while attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He graduated a couple of years before she did, with a major in photography and a focus on jazz saxophone. Fehsenfeld studied biology and took music theory and performance classes. Both of them have been musicians since they were kids, playing in school bands, orchestras and choirs. Yonda's first band was called Der, a band with an indie-rock vibe. The Buffali is the first band Fehsenfeld has been in officially.

Ever since they started The Buffali, Fehsenfeld and Yonda say they have had specific and ambitious plans. "Our goal is to make a living off of playing music, and every step we have taken since beginning the band has been in that direction," says Fehsenfeld. "Andrew is 27, I'm 25, and we've both forsaken the working life now for full-time musicianhood. We partly live on our savings and occasionally take part-time jobs to help pay the bills. We both have great significant others who are very supportive of our endeavors."

"Once The Buffali started getting busy," Yonda adds, "I couldn't work evenings and weekends anymore. So I saved up some dough and quit. Now I work one day a week printing large-format photographs to supplement my income."

Even though the album is all about having a lot of fun, the members of The Buffali seem to be very well aware of the business end of their musical endeavor. "Of course, when we started we had no idea what the route was to achieving our goal," explains Fehsenfeld, "But over time we've refined our plans and broken our larger goal down into smaller objectives, like selling a certain number of CDs per week and increasing our fan base through touring and promo. We divvy up the tasks so each of us has equal responsibility in the band."

Adds Yonda, "Of course, the ambition doesn't stop there. The minimum is to make a living, which is difficult but feasible, at least if you're willing to starve for five or 10 years. I will feel that I've achieved my goal if I can pay all my bills from playing our music, but it would be nice to go farther. We are probably too quirky to ever be MTV-popular, but I can see us someday succeeding on the level of some of the people I look up to, like Camper Van Beethoven or Robbie Fulks."

According to Fehsenfeld, part of the reason why the band has been developing into a serious project so rapidly is that they won the University of Wisconsin-Madison battle of the bands in 2004. "This was a huge turning point for us," she explains. "We were competing against five other bands, some of which were more well-known and had a big audience following. At that time, we felt unsure about the fact that we are quieter, without drums, and not a rock band. It was a big confidence boost that the judges picked us. We won a show opening for the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash and a day of free recording at Smart Studios, which helped us figure out what we wanted to get out of recording our album and how to work in a studio." - Jairo van Lunteren - Ithaca Times (Ithaca, NY Indie Paper)


Discography

Kerfuffle No. 10 (full-length album)
The Buffali (self-titled EP)

Selected In-studio radio & TV appearances:
Urban Theater, UPN14 TV, Madison
Higher Ground Radio Show, Wisconsin Public Radio (two appearances)
WSUM 91.7 FM, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
WORT 89.9 FM, Madison, WI
WMMM 105.5 Commercial Radio, Madison
WRGW 540 AM, George Washington University, Washington, DC
WLUW 88.7 FM, Loyola University, Chicago IL
KUMD 103.3 FM, Duluth, MN
Radio K 106.5/100.7 FM, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
WOJB 88.9 FM, Hayward, WI

Radio Airplay: The Buffali are receiving airplay across the United States and Canada. For a complete list of more than 130 stations, check our website www.buffali.com.

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

The Buffali are a bombastic acoustic indie-pop duo from Madison, WI. This irreverent girl/guy outfit romps through everything from heartbreak to alien abduction with quirky vocal interplay and catchy melodies. Their songwriting incorporates influences ranging from the Beatles to Tenacious D, with a healthy dose of country and blues thrown in. The duo brings an infectious glee to their live show, combining originals with an eclectic mix of covers from hip-hop to oldies. They play acoustic guitar, acoustic bass guitar and keyboard, with occasional miscellaneous percussion and a looping pedal.

Shortly after their inception the Buffali won the 2004 UW-Madison Battle of the Bands, an impressive feat for an acoustic duo. 2005 saw the release of their full-length album, “Kerfuffle No. 10”, followed by a national tour including a stop at New York’s famed Knitting Factory. The band continued their winning streak this year with nominations for best pop album and artist at the Madison Area Music Awards. They recently played at Wakarusa, a gigantic festival in Kansas, and at North by Northeast, Canada's largest music festival.

The Buffali have shared the stage with Clyde Stubblefield, Johnny Dowd, the Ditty Bops, Tally Hall and the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, among others. They regularly play live on radio and television, and they receive airplay on stations across the nation. In the next year they plan to expand the band and will begin work on another full-length album.