Photo courtesy of Smash

Although first dismissible as another Japanese girl group riding the kitsch bandwagon to success in the West, Buffalo Daughter's solid performance at last summer's Fuji Rock Festival proved otherwise.

Their groovy-but-sophisticated sound collages made their set one of the more memorable of the weekend, and it became clear that Beastie Boys label Grand Royal hadn't signed them for their cute-Japanese-girl-ness alone.

Formed in 1993, Buffalo Daughter consist of vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Sugar Yoshinaga and Yumiko Ohno along with turntablist Moog Yamamoto. Debuting their funky, futuristic approach with Shaggy Headressers in 1994, they went on to release Amoeba Soundsystem in 1995, before being picked up by Grand Royal for the seven-inch Legend of the Yellow Buffalo in 1996. Their second full-length, Captain Vapor Athletes appeared later in '96, paving the way for the effortlessly catchy Socks, Drugs & Rock N Roll in '97.

Buffalo Daughter soon became darlings of the college/indie scene, toured the US, and - with the Western stamp of approval - returned to Japan for a series of headlining shows at Liquid Room and other marquee venues. They went on to release New Rock in 1998, and overseas interest led to further outings with an allstar cast of international remixers, resulting in 1999s WXBD.

Buffalo Daughter play the Tibetan Freedom Concert on May 15. See listings for details.