Public Freakout Compilation

Embracing an ethos of profundity through absurdity, Big Bill takes deadly serious the perspectives of the unsatisfied, theoverworked, the unfairly (or perhaps fairly) misaligned. Big Bill has evolved across many lineup changes, stretching from the rawest, weirdest punk into shades of country, new wave and even quasi-classic rock.

When the world’s burning, and our existence seems more puny and senseless than ever, the only thing left to do is to lean into the absurdity. Enter: Big Bill—Austin’s part beautiful, part ridiculous freak-punk four-piece who are coaxing their listeners from numbness to exhilaration, even while the world’s crumbling before us.

Listening to their second album Public Freakout Compilation, which opens with singer Eric’s Cartman-core vocals, you’ll feel a bizarre yet aching appreciation for being alive. While it might sound like a sonic shitpost—”or a shitty YouTube compilation you might stumble onto late at night,” in Eric’s words—the message at its core is unassumingly earnest. Produced by a dream team of Erik Wofford, Stuart Sikes, Danny Reisch, Michael Landon, and Dan Duszynski in studios in and around Austin, their second album offers a much broader palette and emotional range.