Big Bill is a band.

Clockwise from Left — Jeff (drums), Alex (guitar), Alan (bass), Eric (vocals).

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. But more than any other, the track ‘Picture’ provides insight into the heart of the band, as it takes the perspective of an artist in a post-apocalyptic world, trying to find meaning among the Earth’s scorched remains. “That is, trying to keep looking at things in that way which isn't cynical, but open and, ya know, kind of like trying to see deeper,” says Eric. “ A tree isn't just a tree; it's a bundle of cells, it's the result of a seed collecting water and CO2 and building itself; it's a recycler of energy; a translator of matter.” Even when the subject matter could be dreary, Big Bill always lands on a positive conclusion; a way to lift themselves, and their listener, out of despair and into hope.
--Emma Madden