V/A - Slack Capital (CD)

In Austin, or as David Israel says in his song on this very compilation, “here in Yuppieland,” the milieu of banal capitalism run amok is no different, really, than in any other booming American city. If anything, perhaps an ever-present industrialness shares some responsibility for the laid-back “weirdness” that this town is (somewhat facetiously at this point) known for. After all, without stuffy conservatism and fraternity culture, we wouldn’t have gotten the 1980 Big Boys ode to violent class warfare, “Frat Cars.” (With its classic opening line, “Gonna kill some frats, let’s get ‘em!”) Opting out can be a powerful constructive impulse. Perhaps no local artist has illustrated this more consistently than the great populist Richard Linklater, who, after all, made Slacker (1991), a film as conceptually ambitious as its characters aren’t. In this sick sad corporate world, to be a slacker, or a freak, or an intellectual cowboy, is to take a political stance. I won’t sign your pledge, man