In explaining how he came to cut the new Don Caballero album, "World Class Listening Problem," as the only link to Don Cab's pioneering output of the early '90s, drummer Damon Che compares his situation to the Steelers' prospects after winning this year's Super Bowl.

"It's like if Jerome Bettis wants to retire, you need a new running back, you know?"

		Don Caballero/ Zombi/Blunderbuss" What: Triple release party with Kalon. Where: Garfield Artworks, Garfield. When: 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets: $7; 412-361-2262. Music Preview: 'Surface to Air' shows a Zombi can fly

It's not the first time Che has had to draft new players for the local indie heroes whose all-instrumental debut, "For Respect," touched off an avalanche of critical acclaim that's seen their best work cited as the apex of a complex, prog-inspired school of indie rock frequently saddled with the abstract label math-rock.

In the year 2000, Alternative Press responded to the band's fourth album, "American Don," by proclaiming that "Don Caballero have become, if not the planet's greatest all-instrumental rock band, one of the only such bands worth noticing."

While "World Class Listening Problem" has been billed as Don Cab's re-emergence, Che is quick to point out that it never technically broke up.

"I like to just say took some time off," is how Che prefers to put it. "These dinosaur monster rock bands, they break up and say it's their last show and then they have to say it's a reunion because they were really just trying to get out of a record contract nine out of 10 times. So I just hate the whole concept of 'Hey, it's a reunion show!' If that's the case, OK, fine. But I don't really think that is the case with us. Thriving and existing is pretty much what we always aimed for. It's just that sometimes there's a lot of time off in between the thriving and existing as a musical entity."

Formed in 1991 with Che on drums, Mike Banfield on guitar and Pat Morris on bass, Don Cab became an instrumental band, in part, because they couldn't find a singer. Two years later, by which point they'd added another guitarist, Ian Williams, Touch and Go released the aptly titled "For Respect," produced by Steve Albini. Morris left soon after that first album hit the streets, and by the time they greeted Y2K with "American Don," only Williams and Che remained from that first lineup.

Che won't work with Williams anymore, but says he did approach the other founding members of the band about getting together and making some music.

"I asked Mike if he'd be interested," he says. "And I told Pat he's always welcome 'cause he seems to be the one who's most upset about the fact that I'm doing the band without him. We're still friends and everything, so I told him, 'Hey, if you want to play bass in the band, we'll just move [Jason] Jouver over to guitar or something."

But they both declined, and the "World Class Listening Problem" edition was born, with Che on drums, Jouver on bass and Gene Doyle and Jeff Ellsworth on guitar.

To Che's ear, that new blood has shaped the music quite a bit.

"I probably have a bit more than the role of your average percussionist in a group," Che says. "But even though that's always been the case, everyone really has plenty of opportunities to step up to the plate and knock one out of the park on their own. I'm acting like the ball club manager. I'm not a tyrant when it comes to the artistic stuff, 'cause I don't think I could come up with enough good ideas all by myself. So I'm glad there's three other guys that are really creative and awesome too."

He credits the other three players with having strengthened what he likes to think of as the "Pittsburgh-ness" of Don Cab.

"There may have been times in the past," he explains, "where Don Cab was going kind of corporate-global maybe. No, that's not correct. How would I explain it? We were blowing off our Pittsburgh roots, I think, at a point in time and I think the new lineup has brought them back a lot. We just feel real hometown, whereas before, we were just like 'Ehh, let's move to Chicago,' you know? We weren't valuing Pittsburgh before and I think we value our hometown roots more than before."

It should be pointed out, perhaps, that while he has moved back to Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh isn't technically his hometown in 2006. He lives in Smicksburg, out near Punxsutawney.

"Heavy duty Amish country" is how he describes it. "Lots of horses going up and down the road."

In short, it's exactly the sort of rural setting you couldn't imagine inspiring the densely textured post-progressive sound of "World Class Listening Problem."

"And that's fine," says Che, "because I'll be the rest of my life figuring me out. I'm sure there's all kinds of details that would confuse a lot of people if they were really analyzing me and what the hell I'm doing with my life."

The current lineup came together after Che sat in on bass with Pittsburgh's Creta Bourzia. He could see they had a chemistry, so one day he suggested that they "do another version" of Don Cab. Although that lineup logged a lot of miles in 2004, this album marks the first Don Cab release in six long years.

His goal going into the sessions was "to make a better loaf of bread," he says. "We're not trying to reinvent sliced bread. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel. We just want a smoother ride, you know? We're just trying to put the quality on the line, raise the standards, set better examples of how to kick ass in a rock 'n' roll situation. I know that sounds like a vague goal, but it's usually a good enough one if you consider all the wimp music out there."

As heavy as the sound can be, from the punishing post-metallic crunch of the rhythm guitars to the thundering sound of Che's percussion as he drives the band through unexpected rhythmic shifts, there's also a bit of a jazz feel to the drums on several tracks.

"As far as the trap set work goes, yeah, there's a lot of jazz happening," Che admits. "Was that intentional? Yes. But was it intentional just for the sake of jazz? No. The inspiration goes where it goes."

And if some people want to call it math rock, as critics have done from "For Respect" through Delusion of Adequacy's review of this one, well, he's lost the will to fight it.

"We've outlived so many different labels that people have put on us," he says. "You want to say we're jazzy? Go ahead and say we're jazzy. You want to say we're math metal? Go ahead and say that. We're probably going to outlive the label you put on us because we've done it so many times before. At this point, I don't mind if we're perceived that way. It's like how is a certain film perceived? Is it a sci-fi fantasy? What is it? Some may say, no, it's more dungeons and dragons than that. And somebody may say no, it's more stem cell research-y than that."

As for how this latest album, cut in Detroit's Rustbelt Studio's with Al Sutton producing, holds up to the work that put Don Cab -- and, in many ways, Pittsburgh -- on the indie map, Che says, "I think this new ensemble very gracefully touches on all the themes that had ever existed in the past and brings in new ones at the same time. But that's just my opinion. You can disagree with that."