Stream: Buffalo Tom, ‘Quiet and Peace’

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Buffalo Tom
Buffalo Tom

For most of the late 1980s and early ’90s, Buffalo Tom were the nice boys down the block among the outsized personalities of the Boston rock scene — artists like the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., Morphine, the Lemonheads, Juliana Hatfield, Throwing Muses and Belly. (Only a minority at the time preached what history has now made evident: Artistically, the New England scene put Seattle’s to shame.) Buffalo Tom seemed the kind of fellows who’d turn down their sweetly abrasive racket if you asked real nice, then scratch out an aching ballad and, after you’re out the door, go right back to their prickly, wall-rattling catharsis, with Bill Janovitz’s voice sounding like he’d just been chased down the street after committing some small misdemeanor.

Their new album “Quiet and Peace,” out today, is their ninth, their first since 2011 and only their third since 1998’s “Smitten.” These days, principals Bill Janovitz, Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis are dads with day jobs, with the band relegated to part-time passion project. And there still is an abundance of passion, along with their signature balancing act between world-weariness and hope. At their age, few would have blamed the trio for wanting some peace and quiet, but “Quiet and Peace” — which arrives as Buffalo Tom winds up a celebration of their acclaimed 1992 album “Let Me Come Over” — sees them mixing their bittersweet cocktails in new ways. Brash, then sorrowful, then swirling in bliss, Buffalo Tom approach their 30th birthday sounding every bit the precocious outfit they did in the early ’90s. Where there might have been prescience then, there is experience now.

||| Stream: “All Be Gone”

||| Also: Stream their cover of “The Seeker,” a bonus track on the deluxe edition

||| Live: Buffalo Tom headline the Teragram Ballroom on Saturday night, playing two sets. One will be an album performance of “Let Me Come Over,” the other comprised of selections from their catalog. Tickets.

||| Also: Stream the whole album via Spotify