Various Artists

Add Date: January 19

Artist: Various Artists

Album: Casual Victim Pile

Label: Matador

Genre: Indie, Punk

Comments: One of the things I love about punk music is that while shitty amateur indie is basically awful without any redeeming qualities, as long as a punk band knows how to hit a guitar and limit their tracks to a minute, their music is pretty fun to jam out to. Casual Victim Pile, which is an anagram for something, is Matador's collection of up and coming talent from Austin. While there's a few quiet songs on the album, the dominant sound is classic punk rock (though this ranges from proto-punk ala the Modern Lovers to LA hardcore influences). Some highlights:

Tre Orsi - The Engineer (Track 6): Probably the closest thing to straight indie, but there's something I really like about it.
Kingdom of Suicide Lovers - Hoboken Snow (Track 8): According to the facesheet, this band features members from some vaguely known band, and it sort of shows, in that it's definitely the sleekest song on the album. It's mostly a complete, if competently done, of every Sonic Youth song you've ever heard, for better or worse.
Harlem - Beautiful and Very Smart (Track 13): Probably my favorite song in the album, though I'll probably be in the minority for that. But I can't resist a good chorus line, and this song blew my mind on that count.
The Stuffies - No One's Gonna Miss You (Track 14) - Probably the best "fast-paced" punk song in the whole mix.