The free download of the day when you call **BLAST (**25278) on your mobile phone is “Arise, Watch” by the alternative rock band Buffalo Tom. Remember: there’s a different song by a different band available every day for free when you call **BLAST.

About Buffalo Tom:

Buffalo Tom released its eighth studio album, Skins, on February 15th, 2011. Produced by the band in their hometown of Boston, MA, and mixed by long-time friends Paul Q. Kolderie (who produced the band’s breakout third album, 1992’s Let Me Come Over) and Tom Polce, Skins is the follow up to 2007’s acclaimed Three Easy Pieces, which brought Buffalo Tom back into the spotlight after a nine-year hiatus. Skins is the first release on the band’s own Scrawny Records via a worldwide partnership with The Orchard, and features guest Tanya Donnelly of Belly, Breeders and Throwing Muses fame singing on the song “Don’t Forget Me.” Besides the standard CD, a deluxe edition will be available with demos and b-sides, as well as a vinyl version with a download card featuring the additional songs. The first song from the album, “Arise, Watch,” debuted this week on Stereogum.

Skins is everything you want from a Buffalo Tom album – its rock pummels and its ballads ache – and it reminds you why they hold such a strong place in so many people’s hearts, including Jon Stewart, who had the band play on the final airing of his late-night syndicated talk show in the late 90s. Still comprised of the original trio of Bill Janovitz (guitars and vocals), Chris Colbourn (bass and vocals) and Tom Maginnis (drums), the songwriting is as sharp and poignant today as it ever was. From the signature interplay of Janovitz and Colbourn’s vocals to the scorching guitars and rolling thunderous drum arrangements, few other bands have been able to master depth and sensitivity at such volumes.

Writer/actor Mike O’Malley, whose star has recently risen higher as a result of his work on Glee, loves the band so much that he asked to write the bio for Skins. In it, he writes of the moment he discovered the band when they released 1994’s Big Red Letter Day:

“Here were men my age making music about things that mattered — how we navigate our lives amidst the messes we get handed and the messes we’ve made – and they were doing it with an authentic sound that had heft, texture and drive. They did what we want our rock and roll to do – distill potent observations about life and disguise any sentimentality — eliminate it – by backing up the observations with guitars and drums.”

He continues:

“And for those who fell for the Buffalo Tom of “Taillights Fade,” “Soda Jerk,” “Tree House” and “Summer,” this document exists, in part to proclaim that Buffalo Tom’s new album Skins is worthy of your attention. It has all the things that Buffalo Tom does well. Songs about situations and subjects that the average human can relate to — with all the gravity you’d expect from a band that still has something to say. Throughout Skins, Buffalo Tom is unafraid to go deeper than the surface layer, and they spend much of this record bringing forth warnings, laments and admonishments.”

The tracklist for Skins is below:

01 Arise, Watch
02 She’s Not Your Thing
03 Down
04 Don’t Forget Me
05 Guilty Girls
06 Miss Barren Brooks
07 Paper Knife
08 Here I Come
09 Lost Weekend
10 The Hawks & The Sparrows
11 The Big Light
12 The Kids Just Sleep
13 Out of The Dark