Follow That Bird! |
The notion that regional musical flavors exist independently in American cities is quickly becoming an archaic truism, seeing as how the world really is a stage these days, at least in the digital sense. Nevertheless, Austin remains a perennial bastion of hip, notable for industry festivals that fast-track Great Indie Hopes to the Big Time.
So even though there are plenty of worthy bands in countless towns around the country, the Texas capital is an obvious choice for a Matador compilation of new rock upstarts. Casual Victim Pile (an anagram of "Live Music Capital") opens with the gothic inverse rockabilly of Follow That Bird! (the breathtaking "The Ghosts That Wake You") and closes with Lost Controls' Attractions-esque "Entirely Wired for Sound."
In between, a host of hungry bands call to mind go-to archetypes like X (Kingdom of Suicide Lovers), the Ramones (Flesh Lights), Captain Beefheart (Elvis), and the New York Dolls (Love Collector), all the while issuing brief statements of forward-looking, garage-ready innovation. In the end, it doesn't matter where this music comes from, only that it rocks hard and rings in 2010 right.
