Slack Capital 2 Breaks Out Go Fever

Compilations are the Chinese lunch buffets of albums. They’re inexpensive, brimming with variety, and filling. Plus, if you don’t like them, you’re a snob.

Here’s the difference: I don’t often discover a new dish at an all-you-can-eat. Egg foo young, lo mein, and that soup that smells like feet but tastes delicious – we all know the score. Listening to a local gather-all, however, I almost always chew on something new.

Two weeks ago, Big Bill’s sprightly frontman Eric Braden delivered unto “Playback” an advance of Slack Capital 2. A sequel to last year’s first volume, it teems with 27 tracks by Austin artists he’s assembled alongside fellow scenesters Nathan Lankford and Kesari Fleury. Arriving April 14 on Austin Town Hall Records, the disc benefits anti-abuse advocates SafePlace.

Spinning a diverse revue of underground and offbeat rock, pop, punk, country, indie, garage, singer-songwriter, and experimental from the 512 area code, Slack Capital 2 relishes Croy & the Boys’ ode to lethargy (“Sleepin’ Til 2”), Pataphysics’ tribute to wacky ATX-Mex rocker Joe “King” Carrasco, the Beach Boys reminiscent opus “Dr. Alan” from Tamarron, and Daniel Francis Doyle & the Dreams’ New Wave earworm “I Had to Do It.”

Alas, none of those songs caught me off-guard because they’re executed by strong scene acts. Then track 24 smacked me upside the head. Meet Go Fever, a prom rock quintet that sprouted locally last year when Australian singer-songwriter Acey Monaro joined forces with members of Star Parks and Sweet Spirit.

The song, “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” aims Cupid’s arrow at the fleshy underside of love, with Monaro’s lounge singer enchantment rippling over ivories and glistening guitars.

“It don’t take no sleuth to see that there’s just no truth in the heartless thoughts that we all live and die for,” she sings.

Paper tigers aside – love looks mean, but poses no real threat – Go Fever already boasts a full-length in their self-titled February debut. They play the Slack Capital 2 release show on Friday, April 14, at Barracuda alongside Nike, Daniel Francis Doyle & the Dreams, the Diamond Center, Pataphysics, David Israel, Mom Jeans, and Croy & the Boys. You can pre-order the album here.