Various Artists
Casual Victim Pile
Matador; 2010
Guest Contributor: Michael Dallas Miller
Editor’s Note: “Casual Victim Pile” is an anagram for “Live Music Capital,” the name given to Austin, TX by many to describe its healthy, active, prodigious live music scene.
Today is beautiful in only a way that Seattle and the Northwest could be beautiful. The same idea is true for a town’s music. I like Seattle music and most of the Seattle music scene for its unique, rain-soaked delivery and cold hope for a mellow sunshine. But, I am outsider to Austin. I’ve never been there. I’ve only been Texas three times and two of those trips were for the express purpose to watch the Dallas Cowboys play football. So, it is with great respect for America’s “Live Music Capital” that I listened to and now review the compilation known as Casual Victim Pile, due out this Tuesday from Matador Records.
Some of the collection goes over my head. I don’t get it. Post-punk rock tunes like “The Ghost That Wakes You” (Follow That Bird) and “Hoboken Snow” (Kingdom of Suicide Lovers) hit me as sloppy and overdone with little direction. Now, I know these are good bands. I can tell they put on a great show, because despite any misgivings I have for their structure, I sure do like the enthusiasm. And I’m assuming that it is what it takes to stay alive in the Austin scene: a small dose of crazy and a pint glass of jump-rock-don’t-stop rock and roll. Now, perhaps I only say this because the Northwest moves slow and our great heroes of pop music are David Bazan, Ben Gibbard, and The Fleet Foxes: acts that I’m sure much of the country (and perhaps especially Austin, TX) thinks are kind of nice and mostly boring. And I’m okay with that.
My melancholy tendencies (and subconscious attraction to anything lead by an acoustic guitar) probably led me the songs I did enjoy most. And I enjoyed much of this collection: a collection put together by Gerald Cosroy of Matador Records over the course of the last few years. “Beautiful and Smart” by Harlem made my ear perk when I first heard that clicking drum-beat and the bubble-gum guitar lick. Like Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” I did not want this song to end for another six minutes; this is why I listen to it twice for every one time it comes on my stereo. The middle section of the beach-pop tune, “Older Than You” (The Golden Boys), complete with every guitar and soaring organ note surrounding it like a warm Texas morning, could bring the Puget Sound to a happy boil. Not to be outdone, “Nobody’s Fool” by The No No No Hopes, with a gritty melody and mudflap hook, makes me angry and happy all at once.
Cosroy claims that this compilation could have been much longer than 19 songs from 19 bands. But I say it could have been shorter. Because this only seems to represent a small side of what I imagine to exist in Austin. I hear zero country or bluegrass influence where I thought their might be plenty. I hear music from kids who hated their father’s Hank Williams collection and saved allowances to buy up The Smiths and rare singles from London Calling. And that’s cool. But I keep wondering why all the folk tales and high harmonies were put to pasture from 2008 till now. And I get a pass to say this: I am an outsider. My opinion (at the same time) is both important and doesn’t amount to pile of pig turds.
So, please keep being weird, Austin. And I’ll keep being a proud, soaked, sad bastard from the Pacific Northwest.
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Michael Dallas Miller lives and works in Seattle, Washington. He spends most of his time writing for various online and print magazines, working at the Pike Place Market in an oil and vinegar shop, going to the many shows available in town, playing basketball, training for his first marathon, and trying to find the best Pad Thai in Seattle (the best omelet search ended two years ago at Katina’s Kitchen in Magnolia). His work has appeared in Sound NW Magazine (both print and online editions), Geez Magazine, and Burnside Writer’s Collective, as well as one poem in The Lingua Journal.