It's A King Thing - Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

Artist Website: It's A King Thing

Track list:

1 - Old Hobbies

2 - Mush Mouth
3 - Baby Tantrum
4 - Everything Backwards
5 - Kira
6 - Bill Haverchuck
7 - Number One Option
8 - Vegetarian
9 - Hanging Out
10 - Wine and Ponies
11 - Tammy Faye
12 - Triple Jump

Download links: [MP3]

Hooray, another free indie album! Seriously though, I'm always happy to stumble upon new free music that isn't electronica (not that I don't like it, but it seems free rock/indie music is much more rare).

This week's album entitled Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo comes from the group It's A King Thing. On their website, they list their "sounds like" counterparts as "The first 2 Weezer albums, The Lemonheads, Nada Surf, Ben Kweller, Superdrag, The Shins, Guided By Voices." Unfortunately, the only one of those artists that I have listened to for an extensive period of time is Weezer so I can't agree or disagree with their other choices. I will admit that there were several points during the album that were reminiscent of The Blue Album and Pinkerton, if not in the songwriting, then certainly in the sound they managed to achieve. The distortion used on the guitars in Baby Tantrum could have come from Rivers Cuomo, and the 3-beat feel of Vegetarian reminded me of the classic Weezer tune My Name is Jonas. Other than those songs, however, I think it'd be a real stretch to draw any more similarities between the two groups.

The only thing I can think of that I didn't really care for in this album are the lead vocals. For the most part they seemed rather wispy and breathy, although I suppose that type of singing complements this kind of music better than someone with a really heavy tone.

I suspect that those of you who are certain that they don't like music that can be put in the "indie" genre are not going to get much from listening to this. You can tell the guys in It's A King Thing are fans of the genre and made this album specifically for people who also enjoyed their type of music. However, the tunes are easy enough to listen to and if you don't feel like actively analyzing the album, it makes a great background soundtrack for whatever it is you happen to be doing at the time, whether you're surfing the Internet or driving in your car.

Overall, not one of my favorite release, but I did enjoy listening to it several times through for this entry. If you aren't totally opposed to this kind of indie rock, give 'em a listen.