Avi Buffalo

Avi Buffalo was once just the kid named Avi (short for Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg). He's now singing and playing guitar, but was then a vaguely aspirational skateboarder living in Long Beach, who figured between hip trauma and a never-quite-conquered fear of dropping into a half-pipe that he might need to come up with something else to do with the rest of his life. (Maybe journalist If there were gonna be any left) His parents never got around to getting him the Game Boy he wanted, so he turned to a handily local guitar. Years of 12-hour days attacking that (plus lessons-to-mentoring with seriously iconoclastic local blues guys) revealed a pretty preternatural talent for making a very special kind of bent but lovely pop song. 'You know why it's good Because it sounds OLD, but it's NEW!' said Blues Mentor, sparing the world more labored analysis. And that is the connect-the-dots story of how Avi Buffalo became a band-boy meets guitar. It's a good old story. Then boy meets rest of his band at Millikan High in Long Beach-Sheridan Riley on drums, Rebecca Coleman on keys and piano and Arin Fazio (the old man at almost 21, whose dad was a session musician during L.A.'s glossier days) on ... more...