Buck 65
This Right Here Is Buck 65
V2

Buck 65 was born Richard Terfry in Nova Scotia, and grew up a B-boy. In '89 he moved to Halifax and began his first radioshow, "The Basement". This got his foot in the door of the local music scene, and he bagan to pick up experience in clubs. 1992's Chin Music got him signed to his first label, local Halifax's Murderecords. His next record came in 96. Called Psoriasis, and droped under the moniker Sebutones, it was a collaboration between him and friend Sixtoo, who would turn out to have plenty success of his own and continue to collaborate with Buck 65.

Buck 65's first mass circulated record came in 97, and was called Language Arts. This album's lo-fi and experimental approaches and ability to use country and rap tendencies all at once were a fresh sound, and the big boys didn't take long in noticing it. Mr. Dibbs was perhaps the first of the major players to notice Buck, asking him to join the seminal collective 1200 Hobos not long after Language Arts was dropped. This taste of success did nothing but inspire Buck 65, as his 1999 follow up, Vertex was hailed across the board as a great record that is able to juggle neurosis and charm in perfect balance. 65 found himself on the Anticon label with his 2001 record "Man Overboard", which pitted his many lyrical personalities against each other. After garnering a bunch of ridiculous mainstream critical comparisons to Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen because he sounds like he smokes cigaretts and can tell stories , Buck 65 was signed to Warner in 2002 and released Square and Talkin Honky Blues.

Now we have This Right Here is Buck 65, released on The United Kingdom's V2 records (who also has released the wonderful Mercury Rev album in January and the critically acclaimed Bloc Party album a few weeks ago). A retrospective, it's a compilation of a few tracks from Talkin' Honky Blues and Square, a few songs available only as b-sides and online exclusives, and reworkings of older material in Buck 65's current style. While this is meant to introduce even more mainstream listeners to Buck 65, my recommendation to anyone new to Buck 65 is to actually buy one or two of his oldest albums in lieu of this release. This is something that will be far more interesting to people who've been following Buck 65 for awhile.

Copyright © 2005 Bill Banks