White Comanche picked as a top 10 Madison album!
Songs like “The Death of Jay Mendez,” one of the standout cuts on the instrumental trio’s cinematic third album, come across like the band’s attempt to soundtrack a modern Spaghetti Western remake. If Ennio Morricone were reborn as a gritty rocker with an affinity for big riffs, he might make music that sounded something like this.
-Andy Downing, 77 Square/Capital Times


Review of White Comanche performance at Summerfest:
Next up for me was a stop at the stage sponsored by The Onion’s A.V. Club for the biggest surprise of the day, Madison’s El Valiente. With barely a hundred people at this little venue, this three-piece instrumental rock band showed impressive chops as they mixed spacey-spaghetti guitars, bass grooves, and a drummer who also played xylophone. It worked. They played the title song off their new cd, “White Comanche,” taking us on a journey through prog-rock territory, angular rhythms, and jammy telecaster shredding. Their engaging set made it clear why these guys were voted Madison’s best new band a few years ago. I’m glad to have them on my radar.
- Rock Chicago Magazine


El Valiente celebrated the release of its third album, White Comanche, with a March 31 show at Mickey's Tavern. Guitarist Eric Caldera is still writing twangy, mournful guitar parts, and drummer Joe Bernstein, impressively playing glockenspiel with a free hand, helps him build those out into intricate instrumentals. It's the band's first recording with a new bass player, Kris Hansen. As always, the trio knows how to craft a good hook but otherwise tries to establish its own little language, abruptly moving from slow and spooky to swinging rockabilly on the title track.
-The Isthmus