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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2010 > February > 04 > Entry
Meet the Casual Victim Pile band: Dikes of Holland
Ricardo B. Brazziell/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Ahead of tonight’s release show for Austin-centric Matador Records compilation “Casual Victim Pile” (see our interview with compilation architect and Matador co-owner Gerard Cosloy here, review here and photo gallery of the bands here), we’ve talked with three of the compilation’s most notable bands. Tonight’s performers the Dikes of Holland are featured below, you can check out Follow That Bird here, and tune back in tomorrow for an interview with Friday performers Woven Bones.
Most bands are lucky to have one skilled songwriter. The Dikes of Holland have three.
John Paul Bohon, Trey Reimer and Christopher Stephenson share the spacey, psychedelic punk band’s songwriting duties, each penning their own individual songs. Instrumentally, the band is every bit as adaptable — Stephenson alone plays the drums, guitar, bass or keyboards, depending on the needs of the song.
Although that variable approach gives the Dikes of Holland a certain freewheeling energy, it also meant that when Cosloy approached the band to participate in “Casual Victim Pile,” they had three songs to pitch, with one from each of its writers — and wanted some outside help to make a choice.
“We had like three songs recorded at that time, and we just kind of showed them to some close friends of ours and asked which one they thought was the best, and it was kind of unanimous,” says Stephenson, 27. “We talked to people we had made music with in the past and people that had similar tastes to us who could make a judgment about what sounded best. Because sometimes a song that feels good to play live doesn’t really translate to the recording, and what you’re not too excited about comes out sounding great.”
The unanimously chosen song was Reimer’s “Little City Girl,” a blast of psychotropic, atmospheric, hard-driving rock that clocks in at less than three minutes.
Stephenson has no idea what — if any — fallout “Casual Victim Pile” might have for its featured bands. But his hopes are modest. Inquire about what he’d like to see emerge as a result of the compilation’s release, and he doesn’t talk about label deals or added publicity. He’d be happy if it gave everybody more excuses to hang out.
“It would be great if it just brought bands to each other’s shows. It was really cool to see everybody there for the photo shoot,” Stephenson says. “With all the bands there it was like a packed show without anyone playing. It was cool to see everybody in one place at one time, and it’d be great if that happened more as a result.”
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