• Biography 2021


    Buffalo Daughter

    Buffalo Daughter is a three piece group consisting of Sugar Yoshinaga, Yumiko Ohno and MoOoG Yamamoto, often accompanied by percussionists and other guests. Their sound is heavily influenced by German progressive rock and techno pop, but also includes bits of dub, club, shoegaze and post-rock influences. Given their mix and match style and mid-90s origin, they are often considered part of the Shibuya-kei movement.

    Before putting together Buffalo Daughter, Yoshinaga and Ohno played together in a band called Havana Exotica. Buffalo Daughter’s 1994 debut EP Shaggy Head Dressers was released on the Cardinal label, a spin-off of the popular indie magazine Beikoku Ongaku.

    When the American group Luscious Jackson were touring in Japan they met Buffalo Daughter, and, impressed with their music, passed samples along to the their label, the Beastie Boys owned Grand Royal Records. As a result Buffalo Daughter signed with Grand Royal in 1996, and releasedCaptain Vapour Athletes internationally.

    The band spent a good deal of 1996 in the States, first playing a few East Coast dates in March, then doing an extended tour with Butter 08 in September, followed by dates in November with Luscious Jackson. Their impressive live shows had a great deal to do with breaking the band both in Japan and internationally.

    In 1997 Grand Royal issued a remix EP, with Buffalo Daughters remixed by the likes of Alec Empire, Money Mark and U.N.K.L.E. That year Buffalo Daughter also played Grand Royal events in London and Paris with labelmates Ben Lee, BIS, and Luscious Jackson.

    In 1998 the band returned with the debut studio album “New Rock”, and toured the US and Europe with Money Mark. They also performed at the Tibetan Freedom Festival in Washington DC in June 1998 along with the Beastie Boys, Radiohead, REM, Sonic Youth and Herbie Hancock. They returned again to the US in July and August to tour with Boys Against Girls.

    In 2001 Grand Royal suddenly shut down, and the band moved to LA based label Emperor Norton, where they released their second studio album, I. Later in the year, Buffalo Daughter played Japan’s top electronic music event Electraglide on a bill with Fatboy Slim, Aphex Twin, and Plaid.

    In 2003 they released Pshychic on V2 Records, touring America with Blonde Redhead, and in 2006 released another LP, Euphorica.

    In July 2010 Buffalo Daughter released The Weapons of Math Destruction, on their own Buffalo Ranch label, their first release in four years. For Weapons, they again collaborated with support drummer Atsushi Matsushita, who also plays with Zazen Boys. They played at Fuji Rock 2010 and did a national tour that November.

    In 2013, Buffalo Daughter released their 20th anniversary greatest hits album ReDiscoVer. Best, Re-recordings and Remixes of Buffalo Daughter. This album includes some notable past songs alongside a mix of new recordings, covers, concert performances, and remixes.

    In 2014, the double album Konjac-tion was released worldwide (physical release through U/M/A/A in Japan and Modulor in France/EU). The album features guests such as Kahimi Karie, Shintaro Sakamoto (ex. Yura Yura Teikoku) and remixes by Cibo Matto, Sean Lennon, Varo, Yoshinori Sunahara, and more over the nearly two hour runtime. The album was supported with a world tour throughout 2015, including some major rock festivals/ showcases, including SXSW (USA), The Great Escape (UK), Micro Festival (Belgium), Off Festival (Poland), V-Rox (Russia), Fuji Rock Festival (Japan), Big Mountain Music Festival (Thailand), and Lobo Jam (Taiwan).

    Over the course of their nearly 30 year career, Buffalo Daughter has collaborated with a wide range of artists, including the French ambient pop group Air, former members of techno-pop pioneers The Plastics, idol Ami Suzuki, veteran Mari Natsuki, Takako Minekawa, Cornelius, Naoko Yamano of Shonen Knife, and Cibo Matto. Sugar also sometimes plays in the side project band Metalchicks, and has toured with them across the US and Europe.

    They have had their music used in ads for Listerine, Minute Maid, Minolta, Panasonic, and 7-11 Slurpees, among others. In 2007 they played the Formosa Festival, their first live show in Taiwan

    While keeping themselves busy with touring, Buffalo Daughter also finds time to collaborate with visual artists.  The band has a history of maintaining close relationships with artists, which has led to a spate of performances at various galleries and museums. The most recent of these performances took place in January 2016 during the illustrator Ed Tsuwaki’s exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Tsuwaki’s live-painted while the band improvised with avant-garde cellist Hiromichi Sakamoto. It was their second museum performance, the first being their 2012 appearance at British artist Peter McDonald’s Exhibition at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. The band has even been featured in art exhibitions of their own; recently at a Tokyo and Osaka gallery, an exhibit was created documenting the band’s lengthy history.

    In 2021, Buffalo Daughter released new EP, Continuous Stories of Miss Cro-magnon (20 Years Later), on Bandcamp, and is now releasing the first new full record in 7 years: We Are The Times.

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