Thee Speaking Canaries

Thee Speaking Canaries initially started in Pittsburgh; Damon Che of Don Caballero decided to change things up and play guitar and sing, rather than punish the drums. It also features Noah Leger on drums (he also played with Hurl, Milemarker, and Taking Pictures) and Karl Hendricks (of the Karl Hendricks Trio). This lineup existed from about 1991-1995. The band was on hiatus for a while and Che relocated to Chicago. They reformed in 2004, however only Che remains of the original lineup. The new lineup includes Adam Crane and Eugene Doyle (who plays guitar in Don Cab, but drums for TSC).



Songs for the Terrestrially Challenged (1995)
This is the second album released by the band. Two versions of this album were released on different labels. There was a hi-fi and a lo-fi version. The lo-fi is more rare and some believe to be the superior version. It was only limited to 500 copies and the liner notes were hand written with polaroids pasted inside. This is a rip of the hi-fi version. Where Don Cab can be described as prog-rock-metal-jazz, Thee Speaking Canaries is more of a 80's heavy metal-indie rock-van halen-esque sound. Che has some great songwriting. His ability to play the drums and guitar well is rather sickening. I guess it gives him a reason to throw cymbal stands at people (I'm looking at you Juice). Nevertheless; this is a great album and I'll always be on the lookout for the lo-fi version in the used bins...