Search - Don Caballero :: For Respect

Super!

11/18/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Backed by the ferocious polyrhythms of drummer Damon Che, Don Caballero is a snarling rock beast, if such a metaphor can make sense, and For Respect remains the definitive Don Caballero release. All their albums are very good and well worth getting, but For Respect is more concise then the other two: all instrumental, with great musicianship put to making music that is as hard-rockin' as could be imagined. Think Helmet, but with integrity; or maybe Jesus Lizard meets June of '44; or something. Just buy it; you'll be grateful."

What punk could have been...

ifutureman | 06/23/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The punk movement has always made a claim that's hard to come up with a decent argument against (I know because I tried for years)--that their sound is the undistilled essence of rock'n'roll. Rock'n'roll is as much a nation at perpetual war as it is a music. From those first days back during the '50s when the World War II generation tried to have it banned, through an ongoing effort over five decades by pretentious moralists to demonize it, rock'n'roll has been like that old veteran of a major war--the guy who still can't think like a civilian. The war will never be over for Old Sarge. Rock'n'roll is the young tough who zeroes in on a bewildered bystander; "Whadda you lookin' at? You lookin' at somethin'?". Confrontation is the fuel the machine called rock'n'roll runs on--93 octane in-your-face. In one of his more recent hood flicks, Robert DeNiro comments to a friend; "I don't see anything special about love. I'd rather be feared than loved." Punkers can relate to that. The only problem is that the whole ideology also includes pretending you don't know how to play because talent is a "middle-class value" and all good musicians are sellouts. From the sound of Don Caballero, they choose to ignore that last rule. If you can play good, why pretend you can't? And Don Caballero is all-instrumental--why should they subordinate their hard-learned playing skill so that some 'ludes freak who only knows how to sing two kinds of songs; "the world sucks..." and "bleep you..." can use them as sidemen? Their sound isn't mellow, it's as high-energy as heavy metal. Even the quiet numbers have the atonalty needed to avoid a Nutra-Sweet aftertaste. Nope, Whitney Houston fans had best not spend the fifteen bucks. But there's complexity to go with the atonality, and as such, the band poses the same question that today's King Crimson lineup does--who the hell says all art rock bands must have a keyboardist? A reviwer for Jazziz magazine recently referred to King Crimson as "thinking-man's metal". Which I suppose makes Don Caballero...."thinking-man's punk"."

Vocals would be superfluous

ifutureman | NJ | 07/15/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Don Caballero are one of the greatest bands of the last twenty years. They are also among the very few acts out there that play entirely instrumental music without ever getting boring. A somewhat simplified description of their sound on this album would be Helmet meets Sonic Youth.



Recorded by Steve Albini, For Respect contains the band's most "conventional" song structures. This means that even without vocals, the songs generally have verse/chorus structures and even occasional bridges. Although the band obviously has a goofy sense of humor - just look at the song titles - make no mistake, these guys are ferocious musicians. Songs like "Nicked and Liqued" feature great stutter-beat grooves straight out of Helmet's playbook, while the soft, creepy "Subdued Confections" shows the band understood restraint.



The bass is a tad low in the mix for my taste, but overall the sound is astonishing. Two Les Pauls trade weird lines and riffs, the bass plods along underneath, and what grabs you the most is Damon Che, my favorite drummer of the modern age. The drums are very much the lead instrument in this band; although there are not "solos" per se, the insane stuff this guy plays throughout the songs will have you picking your jaw up off the floor.



It's heavy, it's complex, it's weirdly melodic, and it's unique. I have never heard another band like this. Ever since I first heard this album when it came out, I have been a die-hard Don Cab fan. Listen to it once and you'll never hear music the same way again."