“Casual Victim Pile = an anagram of “Live Music Capital”. You can safely assume that with all due respect to the City of Austin’s attempts to promote itself as such, the town’s most exciting cultural activity exists outside the confines of the Blues Hammer circuit and is not is generally the concern of Lance Armstrong’s managers. So now that we’ve established a rather knee- jerk “us vs. them” stance, the 19 bands represented on ‘Casual Victim Pile’ are not part of the same musical community, nor can it be claimed they’re all pals. This compilation is only meant to reflect what I like in Austin circa 2008-2010 But there’s something to be said for a highly arbitrary take on things.. There probably wasn’t a focus group employed to select the reper- toire for Matako Mazuri’s ‘Bands On The Block’ , Ward 9’s ‘Cottage Cheese From The Lips Of Death’, and certainly not for the comp. which ‘Casual Victim Pile’ mostly closely recalls (in my head anyway), Matador’s 1991 opus with the ripped off title, ‘New York Eye & Ear Control’. Whether or not there’s a genuine tie to the region’s musical history is up for debate ; there’s only one former member of Glorium on this compilation (and no former members of Dangerous Toys). To make things even more confusing, two of the 19 bands represented are based in Denton (Tre Orsi, Bad Sports), but play in Austin often enough that the self-imposed “no ringers” rule was tossed in the trash. Corrections and suggestions for the cassette-only Vol. II can be sent to our 304 Hudson St. address (or left on my lawn, whichever is more convenient).” – Gerard Cosloy, Austin TX, 9/2009