Don Caballero 8211 For Respect LP

Rare is the rock band that can make a strong impression on the listener without the benefit of a vocalist, but Pittsburgh\’s Don Caballero comes roaring out of the gate on its debut album. The quartet showcases its instrumental wizardry on the opening title cut, a skull-crushing groove monster that finds evocative drummer Damon Che leading the band through a succession of stop-time breaks. The energy builds for the chaotic dissonance of \”Chief Sitting Duck,\” then dissipates on the Slint-like dirge of \”New Laws,\” which shows a subtle mastery of dynamics. Songs like the thundering \”Nicked and Liquid,\” the heavily distorted \”Rocco,\” and the psychotic jamming of \”Got a Mile, Got a Mile, Got an Inch\” (which reveals the origins of the band\’s name in an SCTV sketch) reach out and grab you by the cojones, shaking you around like a rag doll without resorting to headbanger clichs. With Midas-touch production from Steve Albini, For Respect is one of the better instrumental rock records of the early \’90s.