Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010

Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010
Various Artists
Matador
2xLP/CD

Gerald Cosley of Matador Records spent some time in the home of the SXSW festival and brought some of the local flavor back to New York with him. One should always be curious of collections like this. When you curate an album made up of bands from one scene that exist concurrently, you sometimes end up with a record with all very similar songs. There is plenty to like in this group of tunes and it starts instantly.

The record starts off with its bar none standout track, "The Ghosts That Wake You," by Follow That Bird!. Imagine PJ Harvey singing with the Vivian Girls and you're just getting close to the potential greatness of this band. There are other fine tracks here and in a wide variety of sounds. The advantage of trying to take an indie snapshot of Austin is that you'll find no limitations of creativity because no band is trying to sound like another band. I have no handy Frankenstein-like comparison for The Persimmons but I really like them. If nothing else, this collection should be treated as a map to finding your favorite new band. There's plenty to choose from.

Track Grades:

1. "The Ghosts That Wake You," Follow That Bird! - 9.7
2. "Blister," The Young - 7.8
3. "Spirits Roam," Woven Bones - 7.4
4. "Crush On You," Flesh Lights - 7.5
5. "Little City Girl," Dikes Of Holland - 7.0
6. "The Engineer," Tre Orsi - 8.0
7. "Akron Bureau," The Distant Seconds - 7.0
8. "Hoboken Snow," Kingdom Of Suicide Lovers - 7.4
9. "Mommy's Little Soldiers," Elvis - 7.1
10. "First 48," Love Collector - 8.5
11. "Can't Remember Your Name," Bad Sports - 8.3
12. "Drink It Dry," Wild America - 7.7
13. "Beautiful & Very Smart," Harlem - 7.1
14. "No One's Gonna Miss You," The Stuffies - 7.2
15. "Older Than You," The Golden Boys - 9.0
16. "Nobody's Fool," The No No No Hopes - 7.3
17. "Nazis On Film," The Teeners - 8.1
18. "The Notice," The Persimmons - 9.2
19. "Entirely Wired For Sound," Lost Controls - 8.0

Overall Grade = 7.86