If you’ve kept posted on Austin quartet Big Bill, you know they’re in somewhat of a post-pivot position. Yeah, after years of establishing their space in the oddball-deadpan-art-punk sector, Big Bill pulled off a risky switch to more of a ’90s-style indie rock sound with their Summer 2022 full-length Public Freakout Compilation. And while we’d never go so far as to call our bbs in B.B. “inoffensive”, the exploration of indie does add a sense of mass accessibility to Big Bill’s idiosyncratic, off-kilter aural antics and intoxicating melodies.
So given their ongoing path in that same direction, we’re already drooling over Big Bill’s upcoming third LP Strawberry Seed. See, in carving out a more “mature” niche in indie rock, Strawberry Seed actually seeks to emulate the childhood nostalgia of a kindergarten art project – less the acceptance of anxiety in adulthood and more the abstract incipience of early, blissfully unaware expression. In that pursuit of fuzzy warmth, Big Bill’s included backup singers, acoustic guitar, synthesizers, and piano to their traditionally straightforward punk arrangements.
We won’t be able to harvest the fruits of Strawberry Seed until it hits streaming June 14th, the same day Big Bill plays a free in-store performance 5PM at Waterloo Records. But if you want to get an early taste, Big Bill’s set to share some samples 9PM tonight at The Mohawk as part of a big bill that also includes Tied Up and Gustaf. And if you want to blow your mind with how much Big Bill’s sound has evolved, fire up “Emotions” – which is decidedly less like Suicide and more akin to The Black Keys trying to out-weird The Minutemen. It’ll leave you feeling a way for sure.
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