Don Cabellero - World Class Listening Problem

What an awesome album.  I want to tell you how awesome this album is, but first we need to get the definition of "awesome" straight.  Dark Side of the Moon is not awesome, it's "amazing."  OK Computer is "incredible."  Antennas to Heaven is "unbelievable."  But none of those albums are awesome, except maybe for little bits.  Let me tell you what is awesome.  Starship Troopers is awesome.  Reigning Sound is awesome.  Metal Slug is awesome.  Awesome is where you are watching, listening, reading, and saying to yourself the whole time, "Man... this is awesome."  It's a special and specific sensation, awesomeness.  And Don Caballero nailed it with World Class Listening Problem - or at least most of it.

This band has been around for a long time, but the lineup in the early 90s was completely different than the current one; only the drummer remains, but that's a good thing in my opinion.  I got some of their tracks off Audiogalaxy maybe 7 years ago, and they were, as math-rock bands often are, baffling and disharmonious.  So I thought that it was a mistake when Mike told me the awesome song he was playing was Don Caballero.  Not a mistake at all - Don Caballero hadn't just gotten good, they'd gotten awesome.

The music makes a real impression - and you can't really figure it out at first.  But as it turns out, it's the drums.  They're fast, they're complex, and they're doing things you didn't think they could.  Hey, what's that time signature?  I don't know, I'm just a guy - but it sure sounds awesome.  The first track is a little noisy, but the second basically bites you in the solar plexus with how great it is: "Sure We Had Knives Around" changes course several times, making you think it's longer than it is - and by 2 and a half minutes it's already covered more space musically than the entire last Godspeed album, bless its anarchic little heart.  The next track starts out good, trips a little, but then catches itself and becomes awesome again all within 2 minutes.  The rule by which you should listen to this album is "just wait": songs usually salvage themselves if they drop into sludge or wankage.  I can say, though, that some songs are way better than others, mainly because they all have totally different sounds.  You'll swear you're listening to a Motown bassline in "Palm Trees in the Fecking Bahamas" and a Tool one in "I Agree... No! I Disagree!" and they're both awesome.  The final three tracks, by comparison, are pretty weak and sound more like the old, careless Don Cabellero than the new, awesome one.

Anyway, it's ridiculous to try to describe the music when you should just hear it.  I dare you not to furrow your brow and say "Dude" once.  Ha, good luck!

Here's "Sure We Had Knives Around," by Don Caballero.
Wow, that's a big file for a 5 minute song.  What the hell?

Comments

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wow...it's unfortunate that it seems no one has benefited from this site and how much u have to offer in terms of spreading out extremely unheard yet incredibly beautiful artists/albums

i just wanted to say thanks for helping me accelerate my exploration of the vast post-rock / indie world...i especially enjoyed Tarentel and Yume Bitsu

keep up the awesome work....i will definitely come back here often to discover more bands

[Robosexual sez: my pleasure! if you use an RSS feed you can always come when I update.]

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I got some of their tracks off Audiogalaxy maybe 7 years ago, and they were, as math-rock bands often are, baffling and disharmonious.

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