Buffalo Tom are not afraid to turn their live shows up to ear-bleed levels

``A big part of developing the group was just learning to play,'' says Colbourn. ``We still feel like we're learning to play our instruments. For a very un-punk-rock band, it's a very punk-rock element.''

For a very un-punk-rock band, Buffalo Tom are not afraid to turn their live shows up to ear-bleed levels and offer brutally physical sets.

``We see these fratlike guys coming to our shows,'' says Janovitz. ``And I keep thinking: `These are the guys that I used to be afraid of. These are the guys who used to head-butt me for no reason.' Now they're in the front row. We call it the idiot factor.''

To create their latest offering for the idiot factor, the three friends from Boston headed West. In Los Angeles, the band worked with the Robb Bros., the three-sibling production team that once served as Del Shannon's backing band and that has brought the world Alice Cooper's Zipper Catches Skin, the Lemonheads' It's a Shame About Ray and John Davidson's Every Time I Sing a Love Song, among many others. It was there that Buffalo Tom encountered the other folks sharing studio space: Lita Ford, Gene Simmons, David Lynch (who was producing an LP for Julee Cruise) and, as if the surreal ante weren't upped just enough, thank you, funkster/ alleged kidnapper and torturer Rick James. Buffalo Tom - who cite meeting Lynch as the two-month period's biggest thrill - were happy with the bizarre quotient.

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