Two longstanding clichés among musicians: drummers make lousy bandleaders, and most bands have to wait a while before they really latch on to their sound and approach. Neither of these old saws have a lot to do with
Don Caballero -- Damon Che's over the top percussion skills and his ability to put his precision bursts of rhythm and color at the forefront of a song made it clear he was the musical core of this band, which he held together with merciless drive and talent. And while one might reasonably expect that it would take years for a band as complex and dependent on precise interplay as
Don Caballero to hit its stride, it seems the group was pretty amazing right out of the box. In December 1991, only a few months after they started playing together, the members of
Don Caballero (just a trio at this point) spent a few hours in a recording studio on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University, and these first demos are receiving a belated release on the album
Five Pairs of Crazy Pants Wear 'Em: Early Caballero. What's here isn't quite up to the level of
Don Cab's remarkable 1993 debut album
For Respect, but given that the bandmembers had considerably more experience under their belts at that point and a world-class recording engineer (Steve Albini) at their service rather than the competent but unexceptional audio on this set, it's rather remarkable how similar the two records sound. The taut communication between Che, guitarist Mike Banfield, and bassist Pat Morris is already there, the skittery but powerful musical frameworks already sound like manna from math rock heaven, and the physical power of this music and these players inspires a very genuine awe.
Don Caballero re-recorded nine of these 11 songs for their early singles and/or on the
For Respect album, and some fans might wonder how badly they need the otherwise unavailable "Schuman Center '91" or "Waltor" in their collections, but if you're a
Don Caballero follower who likes to be reminded of how crazy good they were when they first emerged,
Five Pairs of Crazy Pants Wear 'Em: Early Caballero does just that, and it's an impressive barrage of sound and fury. [A special edition of the album also includes Look at Them Ellie Mae Wrists Go!: Live Early Caballero, a recording of the band's second live show from early 1992; the performance is excellent, the fidelity is good if not spectacular, and this should well please ardent fans without troubling more casual admirers should they miss it.] ~ Mark Deming