"Don Caballero" has been added to your list of bookmarked artists
close
Don Caballero
Biography
Pittsburgh math rockers Don Caballero were one of the first bands to expand on the work of genre innovators like Bastro, B**ch Magnet, and (especially) Slint. Their music was entirely instrumental, and while their guitar interplay was as complex and dissonant as any of their peers, the real driving force behind their precisely calibrated attack was virtuosic drummer Damon Che. In essence, it was Che's manic explosions and stop-on-a-dime shifts in time signature that mapped out the trail his bandmates followed. His whirlwind of percussion helped pace the crashing din of the rest of the quartet, yet they also had a firm grasp of dynamics and often slowed things down into a heavy dirge. And despite the influence of jazz, there was no improvisation -- all the group's compositions were carefully structured, no matter how chaotic they seemed. Don Caballero recorded several albums for Touch & Go over the '90s to generally positive critical response, before going their separate ways in 2001.

Don Caballero was formed in Pittsburgh in 1991 by drummer Damon Che (b. Damon Fitzgerald), guitarists Ian Williams and Mike Banfield, and bassist Pat Morris. Individual veterans of the local scene, they had offers for gigs before they'd even found a lead singer, and simply wound up remaining instrumental.
report abuse