Jomo & The Possum Posse

The story of this series of viral videos may start in middle 19th Century America. A man named Buffalo Jones roamed the range hunting, and eventually trying to preserve, North American bison.
Jones became legendary and one manifestation was a 1978 movie very loosely based on his life called “Buffalo Rider.” Here’s a link to the trailer. What the movie lacks in cleanly executed shots and plausibility, it gains in a guy riding a freaking buffalo.
Jomo Edwards, leader of the Austin-based band The Possum Posse, came across the movie on a website for public domain films. As he explains, inspiration took over. Last month, Edwards started posting videos aptly titled, “Guy on a Buffalo” with songs Edwards wrote and recorded to accompany clips from the movie. They are a blend of wagon trail story-songs and a funny drunk guy narrating the late-night feature. But the notion of drunken rambling is belied by Edwards’ unifying theme in each of the four pieces: there is, indeed, a guy on a buffalo and he should not be messed with. Combined, the quartet recently crossed 2 million views. Take a look at my favorite, “Episode 2 (Orphans, Cougars & What Not):”
In this email interview, Edwards talks about his inspiration for making the videos, how their popularity has helped his band and why buffalo capture our imagination.
How did you find this movie? And how did the idea of retelling this story in music start?
I found the movie (Buffalo Rider – 1978) through a website that offers public domain films for free. I had previously done a “music video” to one of our songs, Baptist Girls, set to an episode of the original Tom and Jerry cartoon (not the cat and mouse) that I found in a similar fashion. It’s here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZd_QH-AuU8&feature=related. I didn’t have the means to go out and shoot new video for our music, so I decided there was probably plenty of ridiculousness residing in the public domain to feed our appetite. We recorded 4 songs on our debut E.P., “What’s Goin’ On With Grandpa?” and I was looking for something to use with another of the remaining three songs. The free download of the E.P. is here: soundcloud.com/contact-208-2/sets/whats-goin-on-with-grandpa-e-p/
I don’t recall the specific site I was on, but once I saw the movie, I knew it needed to be put to good use somehow. I showed the video to my wife and asked her which of our songs would fit best with it. She recommended writing a completely new original song because the video was so over the top and amazing. The following Saturday she went to work and I stayed home and devoted way too much time to editing the video. After cutting all the boring parts out, I was left with about 10 minutes of video… which was too long for one song, but too captivating to leave out. I decided it would be best to break it into episodes. I also decided a fairly literal and overly specific retelling would be funny, since there are some very absurd, but slightly subtle things that happen in the film (stepping on people’s feet, etc).
That’s exactly what I love about it. It reminded me of those old storytelling country songs, but also comedy bands like Flight of the Conchords and even Mystery Science Theater 3000. Do you track your inspiration to any particular influences?
I think that when they were shooting Buffalo Rider (1976 or so), film was a much rarer commodity. So when they shot something and captured it on film, I think they felt some sort of obligation to not cut it. That’s my theory on why so many superlative acts are included in the movie – and that really was the inspiration for the extremely-literal version of the song. I felt like there was so much funny stuff going on, and that pointing them out as if they were an important part of the storyline would be fun.
As far as the singing, I think it was an amalgamation of old narrators from those old Disney-esq films, with a little Johnny Horton thrown in there. I’m from West Texas, so the accent and terminology comes a little too naturally. I think there might also be a little bit of The Gourds in there as well. They’re an Austin institution, and probably my favorite band ever.
I’m a huge fan of both Flight of the Conchords and Mystery Science Theater 3000. Both are amazingly brilliant in their own ways. What I love about the Conchords is that the music is really good. The humor in their songs could easily stand on its own, but it’s amplified by the fact that the music gets stuck in your head (My #1 gauge for how good a song is). And I’ve always been dumbfounded by how smart MST3000 is. It evokes nostalgia, but also acknowledges how ridiculous those old movies were. I never realized it until now, but MST3000 was probably a huge influence on why I thought this was funny. It’s a similar idea, just with music.
You uploaded the first video about a month ago? Did you have any guess it would take off?
I uploaded the video in mid September and had a feeling that it was more appealing on a broad - Forbes.com

TRANSCRIPT:

[Candace Bailey]
The wild frontier gets even wilder with guy on a buffalo!

[Kevin Pereira]
Yeah, seems musician Jomo Edwards of the witty bluegrass band, The Possum Posse, got his hands on a 1978 movie called buffalo rider.

[Candace Bailey]
Then he made it much better by adding his own descriptive soundtrack... [video plays]

[laughter]
[Kevin Pereira] buffalo... kick?
[Candace Bailey] I like that song! - G4 TV

TRANSCRIPT:

[Candace Bailey]
The wild frontier gets even wilder with guy on a buffalo!

[Kevin Pereira]
Yeah, seems musician Jomo Edwards of the witty bluegrass band, The Possum Posse, got his hands on a 1978 movie called buffalo rider.

[Candace Bailey]
Then he made it much better by adding his own descriptive soundtrack... [video plays]

[laughter]
[Kevin Pereira] buffalo... kick?
[Candace Bailey] I like that song! - G4 TV

That's right, two days of Guy on a Buffalo in a row. And guess what, if part three comes out tomorrow it'll be Today's Big Thing, too. We love Guy on a Buffalo. - Today's Big Thing

It all started when I came across these hilarious videos. Seriously, if you can watch these without howling, dial 911 immediately, because your brain isn’t working right.

I haven’t laughed that hard since that iPhone video. Straight-up got mauled by a cougar. Epic.

Being the curious sort, I discover that those videos were made by The Possum Posse, an Austin band, as a way to generate interest in their music, and to finance a record.

That led me to their SoundCloud page, where I discover some fantastic music, including the excellent Pocket Dial. This is some seriously great music. Going through this discovery process was reminiscent of the day I stumbled onto the Wrinkle Neck Mules, who remain my all-time favorite alt. country band.

From there, I went back to The Possum Posse’s YouTube page, where I see even more audio video excellence, in the form of a video mashup of another one of their excellent songs and a really old Tom & Jerry cartoon.

Humor in songs, especially humor that doesn’t rise to the level of complete stupidity, is an under-utilized tool, that works. Remember this song, one of my favorites from last year?

Ultimately, I ended up on The Possum Posse’s Kickstarter page, where they are seeking funds for their next record. Having just kicked in for my upper case Friend Mary Lou Lord’s (I’ve not met her IRL, but we have mutual musician lower case friends) next record, I gladly pledged a few bucks.

Any time we can reward hilarity, great music and smart marketing, we should do so. It’s like the anti-Twitter.

And, finally, for an added bonus, here’s the entire Buffalo Rider movie, that helpfully provided the raw materials for the (much better) Guy on a Buffalo videos.

So, I just fixed you up for humor, music and movies. Enjoy.

And support these artists:

The Possum Posse

Mary Lou Lord - Newsome.org