Texas Platters

Casual Victim Pile II

"Bullshit" is the first word sneered on Casual Victim Pile II – by Orville Bateman Neeley III on "Do My Thing." Neeley then shows up on A Giant Dog's dive bar rave-up "The Grand," plus he also recorded Naw Dude's hardcore hive "Steal From Your Parents." That six degrees of separation informs Matador Records' Southern bureau chief Gerard Cosloy's second installment of Beerland-centric punk, picking at the threads of 18 Austin acts. The vinyl-only LP, out this time on his revived 12XU imprint, shows the local graveyard is still full of warm bodies, and the variations on rock & roll, much like last year's debut collection, come up at six degrees too: Simple Circuit's "Sattrash" is jittery surf-punk; Hatchet Wound's "Fuck the Past" is a lovely slice of K Records heaven; the French Inhales' "All Bed & No Breakfast" is heavy-lidded psych. Elsewhere, Literature's tart pop "Man Made Man" squares off against Women in Prison's acid-gargled "Kill Kommie Kops." Expensive Shit's "Jah Six Pack" bookends OBN III's "Do My Thing," sealing the deal with good old-fashioned noise. CVP2 nails the punk rock trinity of booze, weed, and bullshit, and it's comforting to know that last year's compilation wasn't just some flash in the pan, that Red River's being documented – in a yearbook of sorts – even if it doesn't want to be remembered that way. Happily, after close to three decades sniffing out the bullshit, we can trust Cosloy's judgment. (Pick a pile at Beerland's CVP2 release party, March 3-5.)