'Sleepy Eyed' has been expanded into a double LP, and the refreshed artwork includes new photos and images of ephemera plus notes written by the band and producer John Agnello about the recording of the album.

'Sleepy Eyed' marked a turning point for the band. Their previous album, 1993’s 'Big Red Letter Day' was a huge album for them, landing on the Billboard charts and bringing them to new levels of fame when 'Late At Night' was heavily featured in a pivotal scene of the short-lived mid-90s cult TV show My So Called Life which starred Claire Danes and Jared Leto. The song was not only in the episode, but the band was also shown performing it.

The making of that album was a massive, glossy undertaking, recorded in LA with huge producers, and as Bill Janovitz noted “It was a full-on, old-school peak-analog record production”. The band’s inclination for their follow-up was to bring it back to a more stripped down and raw recording situation. Bill said, “I was thinking of 'Some Girls' and 'Tonight's the Night', and those electric Dylan records like 'Highway 61 Revisited' and 'Blonde on Blonde', where you could hear instruments bleeding into each other, snare drum rattling from the guitars and bass, and off-microphone stuff, and even mistakes, where it just felt like you were in the room with the band.”

They found the perfect partner in this plan with producer John Agnello and the perfect place to make it – at Dreamland Recordings Studio in upstate New York. Tom Maginnis noted that “there were really no distractions, and we ended up spending long days into the night at the studio and just crashing at the house to sleep. We would do take after take to get the right basic track, so it felt like playing many live sets in a single day.”

The songs on 'Sleepy Eyed', which include an impressive opening trio of three of their most popular - 'Tangerine', 'Summer' and 'Kitchen Door' are amongst many fan favorites. Their trademark harmonies, timeless songwriting and guitar fueled passion is perfectly exemplified on this release.

Buffalo Tom (Bill Janovitz, Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis) formed at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1986 - a breeding ground of post punk guitar bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies. The three longstanding bandmates recognize the achievement of their longevity as a creative unit - 10 albums, 40 years as a band. Nice work if you can get it!

TRACK LISTING

1. Tangerine
2. Summer
3. Kitchen Door
4. Rules
5. It's You
6. When You Discover
7. Sunday Night
8. Your Stripes
9. Sparklers
10. Clobbered
11. Sundress
12. Twenty-Points (The Ballad Of Sexual Dependency)
13. Souvenir
14. Crueler
15. Tangerine
16. Summer
17. Kitchen Door
18. Clobbered
19. Hold Me Up
20. Don't Blow Your Wind

Buffalo Tom (Bill Janovitz, Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis) formed at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1984 - a breeding ground of post punk guitar bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies. The three longstanding bandmates recognize the achievement of their longevity as a creative unit. Initially offering a raw, propulsive sound that emphasized Janovitz’s imposing guitar squall, Buffalo Tom’s early approach gave way to a more melodic, yet no less distinctive, style. They have released ten studio albums and their most recent, Jump Rope, was released earlier this year.

In 1992 the band recorded their third album 'Let Me Come Over' with a varied group of songs they had been developing at home and on the road – mixing their live power trio sound with some more acoustic based guitar ballads. The album’s single 'Taillights Fade' became their signature song.

TRACK LISTING

1. Staples
2. Taillights Fade
3. Mountains Of Your Head
4. Mineral
5. Darl
6. Larry
7. Velvet Roof
8. I’m Not There
9. Stymied
10. Porchlight
11. Frozen Lake
12. Saving Grace

Buffalo Tom (Bill Janovitz, Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis) formed at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1984 - a breeding ground of post punk guitar bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies. The three longstanding bandmates recognize the achievement of their longevity as a creative unit. Initially offering a raw, propulsive sound that emphasized Janovitz’s imposing guitar squall, Buffalo Tom’s early approach gave way to a more melodic, yet no less distinctive, style. They have released ten studio albums and their most recent, 'Jump Rope', was released earlier this year.

'Birdbrain' is the band’s second album produced with help from by J Mascis. Released in 1990, songs from Birdbrain have become live favorites including the epic title track and 'Enemy'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Birdbrain
2. Skeleton Key
3. Caress
4. Guy Who Is Me
5. Enemy
6. Crawl
7. Fortune Teller
8. Baby
9. Directive
10. Bleeding Heart

Buffalo Tom (Bill Janovitz, Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis) formed at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1984 - a breeding ground of post punk guitar bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies. The three longstanding bandmates recognize the achievement of their longevity as a creative unit. Initially offering a raw, propulsive sound that emphasized Janovitz’s imposing guitar squall, Buffalo Tom’s early approach gave way to a more melodic, yet no less distinctive, style. They have released ten studio albums and their most recent, 'Jump Rope', was released earlier this year.

Released in 1993, 'Big Red Letter Day' found the band doing what they do very well indeed, but with more body and gloss to the production. The album was recorded in LA by The Robb Brothers and features numerous favourites, in particular: 'Sodajerk', 'I’m Allowed', 'Treehouse' and the classic 'Late At Night'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sodajerk
2. I’m Allowed
3. Tree House
4. Would Not Be Denied
5. Latest Monkey
6. My Responsibility
7. Dry Land
8. Torch Singer
9. Late At Night
10. Suppose
11. Anything That Way

Buffalo Tom (Bill Janovitz, Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis) formed at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1984 - a breeding ground of post punk guitar bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies. They thrived on college radio in the late 1980’s and toured extensively in Europe, the US, Australia and Japan. In 1992 the band recorded their third album Let Me Come Over with a varied group of songs they had been developing at home and on the road - mixing their live power trio sound with some more acoustic based guitar ballads. The album’s single “Taillights Fade” would become their signature song.

2017 marks the 25th anniversary of this album, and to celebrate, Beggars Arkive reissues it on vinyl + cd and package it with a live album. Recorded in London at ULU (University of London Union) in 1992, this marks the band’s first-ever live release. The double LP contains 10 live tracks, and the cd edition contains the entire show (17 songs).

Buffalo Tom have never really stopped making music or playing shows, and 2017 has seen them celebrating the album’s anniversary with commemorative live shows, including a date at Islington Assembly Hall in London on 9 June. For these shows, they have been performing two sets – the first being Let Me Come Over in full, and the second being favorites from throughout their career. They have also funded a new album via Pledge Music which will see release later this year.

On its first two albums, Buffalo Tom constructed towering guitar-scapes and mastered a naturalistic version of quiet-to-loud dynamics. So, for its third, we found Buffalo Tom shedding a bit, but not all of the skin it had worn and emerging with its charms more front and center. Let Me Come Over is the sound of the trio exiting the insular underground for the wide world of “alternative” rock--but more or less bringing its best moves along with it, too. Previously loosely linked with fellow travelers Dinosaur Jr. and Uncle Tupelo via a similar three-piece format, stunning depth of songwriting and association with Boston’s Fort Apache Studios--it’s not hard to imagine Buffalo Tom wanted to stake a claim stylistically. Yet, LMCO never feels like a break with the past, it’s a transition. Inside that abstruse cover are undeniably magnificent tunes.

“Staples” is emblematic of a band in flux with a grungy lyrical conceit rendered with hi-fi guitar squalls. It’s the first single “Taillights Fade,” however, where the band appears to find a new comfort zone, at an unhurried speed where Janovitz’s storytelling and car crash metaphors stand the best chance of making an impression. It plays with quiet-to-loud dynamics, and as for emotional expression, it swings for the bleachers--and a place on alternative rock radio. “Mineral” jangles in a similar vein and makes grand gestures. “Darl” and “Larry” (referencing the brothers from the Newhart show I always thought?) are solid but disparate cuts. Colbourn’s “Darl” feels a bit like an outlier with its thrashy feel--it sounds better louder. “Larry” has a sweetness to it that’s augmented by its busker’s strumming.

Released as a second single, “Velvet Roof” had given us a taste of what was newly possible, a hook-heavy stomper with a densely woven rhythm matched by tight lyric writing--each piece expertly crafted to go into the next, no frayed ends here--and a snazzy mix by Ron Saint Germain, a pro who would later bring out the best in Soundgarden. A wailing harmonica solo gives it all a swagger that’s kind of new for the band. “Stymied” summons the emotional intensity of Birdbrain--it’s probably the album’s darkest moment. Somehow both life-affirming and wistful “Porchlight” contrasts with the way “Saving Grace” blazes through the barroom like a ‘Mats tribute. There’s no filler to be found here. “Frozen Lake” sees the band caressing acoustic guitars in comedown mode.

Let Me Come Over is kind of a short story collection with equal parts thunder and intimacy, hills and valleys, last night’s mistakes and tomorrow’s contrition. Ultimately, it’s possibility, a sense of ‘hey, this just might work’ that makes it such a deep spin 25 years later. Let Me Come Over triumphs.

TRACK LISTING

2CD
‘Let Me Come Over’
Staples
Taillights Fade
Mountains Of Your Head
Mineral
Darl
Larry
Velvet Roof
I’m Not There
Stymied
Porchlight
Frozen Lake
Saving Grace

Live From London, ULU
1992
Birdbrain
Staples
Taillights Fade
Impossible
Enemy
Larry
Velvet Roof
Fortune Teller
Sally Brown
The Bus
The Crawl
Mineral
Sunflower Suit
I’m Not There
Bleeding Heart
Skeleton Key
Reason Why

2LP
‘Let Me Come Over’ + 10
Live Tracks (1-10) +
Download Of Full Live
Show

When they released their first album in 1989, the Boston-based trio Buffalo Tom were written off as Dinosaur Jr. junior. Admittedly, their debut was in debt to J Mascis’ thundering guitar and folk-tinged songs and it didn’t help that Mascis produced the record either. Over time, Buffalo Tom stripped away their grungier influences and developed into a straight-ahead rock group of the early 90s, capable of throttling rockers and beautiful ballads.

Buffalo Tom began to develop their own style with their second album, 1990’s ‘Birdbrain’, which featured a noticeable improvement in songwriting.

In 1992, Buffalo Tom released ‘Let Me Come Over’, a gritty set of driving rock and achingly melancholy ballads; several of its tracks became alternative radio staples, including the gorgeous ballad ‘Taillights Fade’. Despite an increased amount of critical praise and some radio airplay, the album didn’t sell.

The follow-up, 1993’s ‘Big Red Letter Day’, featured a more polished, radio-ready production, but the album received only a small push from radio and MTV. ‘Soda Jerk’, the first single from the album, became a minor alternative radio and MTV hit.

After a yearlong tour, the group returned in the summer of 1995 with ‘Sleepy Eyed’, a return to the more direct sound of ‘Let Me Come Over’, following it with ‘Smitten’ in 1998 before taking a decade long hiatus.

The albums are released in their original CD configurations.