BY BRIAN BAKER

Photo By Courtesy the band

Don Caballero

Don Caballero
Thursday · Northside Tavern

When Don Caballero coalesced 17 years ago in Pittsburgh, band members had no illusions about starting a musical revolution. Funneling the swing of freeform Jazz, the precision of Prog and the visceral abandon of Punk into a tightly composed and executed singularity, Don Caballero became the avatars of what ultimately came to be known as Math Rock.

While the band despised the appellation, there is little doubt that Don Caballero (named for Joe Flaherty's running character Guy Caballero and the joke-within-a-joke of his Godfather spoof on SCTV) was the springboard for the '90s Indie trend toward jittery time signatures, looping, outward spiraling melodic excursions and highly focused and structured compositions disguised as loud, meandering jams.

Don Caballero (originally comprised of drummer Damon Che, guitarist Ian Williams and bassist Pat Morris) was responsible for some of the most dynamic instrumental music of the '90s on their five albums (up to their 2000 dissolution) and the band's influence throughout the decade is clearly traceable.

Don Cab planned to call it a day after their 2000 tour, but their final show in Detroit was derailed by a van accident on the way to the gig. Che -- once dubbed "The Octopus" for his flailing drum approach -- ended Don Cab at that point and each member went on to interesting and similarly structured projects. Five years ago, Che reformed the band with members of Creta Bourzia, a group with obvious debts to Don Caballero. The reconsituted Don Cab (Che, guitarists Jeff Ellsworth and Gene Doyle, bassist Jason Jouver) released World Class Listening Problem two years ago. The band has since followed that up with the just released Punkgasm, a return to musical form with (gasp!) vocals.

While never hugely successful, Don Caballero's influence continues to ripple through Indie Rock's ranks and their fans are loyalists of the first stripe, that adulation reinforced every time they take to the stage.

Nine Pound Hammer with Stacie Collins
Thursday · Southgate House

To see the name "Nine Pound Hammer" on a gig listing is to wonder if the world has fallen head first through the looking glass. It has been nearly a quarter century since Owensboro, Ky., natives Scott Luallen and Blaine Cartwright assembled the original band (first as Nine Pound Hammer, then Raw Recruit, then the Black Sheep, then back to the Hammer) back in 1985. Since then, Nine Pound Hammer has had more turnovers than Pepperidge Farms, changing bassists and drummers with metronomic regularity.

After 12 years of captivating audiences with a sonic assault that made the Rev. Horton Heat seem like Pat Boone, it felt like the end of Nine Pound Hammer when founding guitarist Cartwright took his leave in 1997 to create the equally unique Nashville Pussy with his wife, Ruyter Suys, leaving Luallen to his own devices during a nearly five-year hiatus.

Courtesy the band

Nine Pound Hammer

While the Hammer was idle, fans were appeased with the release of the double album Live at the Vera in 1999, the testament of a wild Swedish gig recorded five years previously. In 2000, the band reconvened for a pair of reunion shows and became sporadic staples on the festival circuit thereafter. New material started creeping into the set lists and it seemed inevitable that a new album would follow at some point, but no one could have imagined that the band would actually stick together for inconsistent touring and semi-regular releases.

Nine Pound Hammer dropped Kentucky Breakdown in 2004, Mulebite Deluxe the following year and Sex, Drugs and Bill Monroe just months ago. In the relatively recent past, the Hammer has contributed a song to a Tony Hawk video game and was tapped by the geniuses behind Aqua Teen Hunger Force to compose the theme for their latest creation, 12 Ounce Mouse. Nine Pound Hammer is cocked and loaded and ready to drop ... again!

E-mail Brian Baker

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