Avi Buffalo, “Avi Buffalo”(Sub Pop) – There are a lot of “out-of-the-mouths-of-babes” moments on the unblinkingly frank and heartrendingly tender debut album from the mostly teenaged Long Beach quartet. From the stains in “Summer Cum,” to the dialogue with death in “Where’s Your Dirty Mind” to the confessions in “Jessica,” singer-guitarist Avi-Zahner-Isenberg (his vocals sometimes doubled with keyboardist Rebecca Coleman) lays bare his every motion and motive, all in a voice that sounds as if the wind carried it from a junior high playground. Just as jaw-dropping, though, is Avi Buffalo’s vintage rock stew, a psych-folk-blues concoction that suggests a young Neil Young or rawboned Mercury Rev. Zahner-Isenberg, who learned at the knee of veteran bluesmen and admires Nels Cline, delivers guitar licks that would make all of them proud, ticklish one moment, torrid the next, and always tasteful. The single “What’s In It For” reverberates with yearning, and the 7-minute “Remember Last Time” finishes in a roar for the ages. Coleman’s piano adds an innocent twinkle throughout; it’s a disarming musical smile before Avi Buffalo bears its fangs. In some ways, “Avi Buffalo” sounds like a debut album, but even forgetting the audacity of a 19-year-old singing about things he’s known “since my childhood,” this is cherub rock that’s anything but young. Recommended.
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