Today Is The Day - Self Titled - Amphetamine Reptile Records 1996
When I was in High School in the mid to late 90's, there was pretty much only one venue in the entire state of Maine that had shows for underground national touring bands. That venue was called Zootz and it was located right in the heart of downtown Portland, Maine. Sometime in 1996 when I was a Sophomore, I saw a listing for a band from Japan called Zeni Geva at Zootz. I had one of their 7" records that was released on Alternative Tentacles. It was a weird metal band that kind of sounded like a Japanese Neurosis? I had never seen a band from Japan before and I had to check it out! Little did I realize how monumental that night was going be for me...
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| 7" on Alternative Tentacles Records 1993 |
I got there a little late and missed the opening band Glazed Baby. I've always wondered how much I missed out on them cause the rest of the night was so epic. I was in time to see the second band, Today Is The Day. I know you hear and read the cliche's about people telling you how life changing certain shows and bands were to them but I can't help not submitting too. However before this moment in my life,(16 years old) I had seen some great hardcore and grindcore bands. Even some pulverizing death metal bands but this was way different. You only get that one first musical epiphany in your youth that leaves you in such awe, that you immediately become a devotee for life. For me that was Today Is The Day. This wasn't like anything I'd seen or heard before. On this tour, Today is the day was a three piece that consisted of a guitarist/vocalist, drums and keyboards/samples. This being a very rare instrumentation for metal, I was already intrigued before they even played.
When they first started playing I was overwhelmed by the aural assault upon my senses. Vocalist/guitarist Steve Austin was one of the most intimidating presences I've ever witnessed! His volatile vocal mood swings put me right in my place while his guitar sound put the knife right to my throat. Drummer Brad Elrod instantly became my favorite drummer of all time! Seeing him play that first time was so beyond any musical theory and style I had ever encountered before. His stage presence was as mutually ferocious as Austin, giving his drums a beating like they owed him money. Samples/waveforms and keyboardist Scott Wexton's demeanor was quiet but it's the quiet ones you got to look out for. The sounds coming out of his gear were excruciatingly distorted, over-driven and filling the most wide and dense spectrum of frequencies and sound. Often matching Austin's guitar note for note with brooding synth tones while simultaneously unleashing ear shattering soundscapes. It was clear that Today Is The Day's mission statement was to use the audience as a target. My 16 year old brain was left on the floor to be mopped up.
The headliner Zeni Geva was so unbelievably amazing that I'll being doing a separate blog post on the album they were touring that year, Freedom Bondage on Alternative Tentacles Records. I highly recommend you check out that record.
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| Zeni Geva/Today Is The Day tour poster by Tom Hazelmyer |
After their set I marched over to their merch table and bought the only thing they had available. Which was their first 7" on Amphetamine Reptile records. This 7" is another slab of Today Is The day perfection. This record is from their first lineup which consisted of Austin, Elrod and bassist Mike Harrell. That lineup also released two other full lengths entitled Supernova and Willpower. Equally essential and highly recommended listening from that era of Today Is The Day. As a record collector, I love the feeling of knowing you purchased a record straight from the band. Those moments give me a greater connection to the record and band. I wish I could buy every record this way.
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| 7" on Amphetamine Reptile Records - 1993 |
As soon as I could I went to my local record store, Bull Moose Music in Lewiston, Maine. I had them order every Today Is The Day record that existed. Bull Moose had just added this location which greatly improved my teenage life. Before then I would have to go to one of their other locations forty five minutes away in Brunswick, Maine. This Brunswick location will definitely come up in future blog posts. I eventually owned all three of the Today Is The Day albums that existed at that time. The self titled album being the tour I had just witnessed.
A year and a half or so before this show I had quit piano lessons of four years. I had decided that running my keyboard through massive distortion was going to be my thing. I was fully on my way to mastering how to play my favorite hardcore and metal songs by using the most blown out distorted piano sound I could find. Which was a Peavy Renown at that time. Ha! I mastered how to play power chords (or fifths) as fast as humanly possible. Then along comes this mind blowing synth band from Nashville Tennessee called Today Is The Day, to help validate and encourage my deranged path towards making keyboard my very own weapon.
This album's front and back cover perfectly depict what it sounds like. A bad trip inside a sadistic torture dungeon for Steve Austin and Today Is The Day to wield their dominance. Who's context is wrought of revenge, hatred and despair. This is an emotionally draining soundtrack to a wrist slitting good time.
Although I love everything on this weird as fuck album, here's a few anecdotes on some of the songs.
My favorite song has to be the third track "Bugs/Death March." The opening "Bugs" part starts with a lashing while you're being screamed at like there's bed bugs all over you. The only solution is to light you on fire. Your immolation has its own "Death March" grinding its way into a mid-paced trance. Opening up the sky up like a Hans Memling painting. Followed by Austin's self harmonized vocals, sounding like a children's choir under possession from some diabolical entity, chanting...
"Inside you. Inside me."
"The sky is black! The Fire is coming down! Someday you''ll get it!"
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| Hans Memling - The Last Judgement (1467-1471) |
This is all happening while the synths and samples are pushing your psyche to the limits. My favorite piece of ear candy is the operatic vocal sample strategically placed at the tail end of every other riff. This whole section sounds like your inside a burning church while the band is the accelerant. I would absolutely put this moment within these grooves, as the most apocalyptic sounding of all of my records. Not an easy feat within my collection.
"Ripped off" is a demented lullaby that starts off with clean guitar and the gently sung words, "I tore you in two and no one saw." The distortion kicks in and the song builds just like the lyric perfectly states, "the sea rages on." The entire band sails right into the eye of the storm during the chorus of "Ripped off!" This is Austin's most blood curdling scream of his entire career. A part so powerful that it reminds me of a metal version of the buildup in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
"The Tragedy" is a crushing instrumental of drums and keys! A relentless showcase of Brad Elrod's technique! Spotlighting his amazing ride cymbal work and unparalleled drum fills. Wexton his perfect match, countering his rhythms with gut wrenching low frequency synth bends. A moment innovative enough to redefine what the definition of a rhythm section should be. This song is a brilliant move by the band to give a moment of space. Allowing Austin's return to prove to be even more lethal.
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| Brad Elrod, Scott Wexton, Steve Austin |
Amphetamine Reptile records or AmRep for short, was founded by Tom Hazelmyer. The first release being his band Halo of Flies in 1986. The most notable bands on AmRep are Melvins, Cows, Helios Creed, Mudhoney, Unsane and Helmet. Helmet's album Strap It On selling the most albums for the label. In regards to the roster of Amphetamine Reptile records, Today Is The Day is best described in the documentary about the label, The Color Of Noise. It played a few years back at this tiny theater in Seattle called Grand Illusion. In the movie it's apparent that Today Is The Day is the most extreme of all the bands on the label. As Mike Wolf, "AmRep Information Coordinator" says in the movie, "Steve Austin and Today Is The Day completely sliced our heads off. We had no idea where these freaks were coming from other than Nashville, Tennessee. Which was another part of the head spinning shit for us." My favorite part of the movie is when Pat Dwyer "AmRep retail and distribution" validates Brad Elrod as being the best drummer. I've been trying to tell people this for years! As Dwyer says in the movie, "If you're the hottest band in town, you have the best drummer. They had the best drummer." Check out the 2:47 long clip below. It features the original lineup of Austin, Elrod and Harrell. They play "Come on down and get saved" from the 1993 7" mentioned previously. Even though the live part of the clip is a few seconds long, that's all the time you need to see how ferocious they were.
One thing about Amphetamine Reptile vinyl LP releases is that there is never any inserts! Am I wrong? None of my AmRep records have them. It's the only label I know that does this. So weird. An interesting thing about this self titled Today Is The Day record, is that it's the only record I own with a "Parental advisory explicit lyrics" sticker on it. but there's no insert with the lyrics on it! Ha! It's the extra icing on the cake for this release.
If you're unfamiliar with the history behind these stickers on albums, here's the history behind it.
"The Parental Advisory label (abbreviated PAL) is a warning label introduced by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1985. It is placed on audio recordings in recognition of profanity or inappropriate references, with the intention of alerting parents of material potentially unsuitable for children. The label was first affixed on physical 33 1/3 rpm records, compact discs and cassette tapes. Recordings with the Parental Advisory label are often released alongside a censored version that reduces or eliminates the questionable material. Several retailers will distribute both versions of the product, occasionally with an increased price for the censored version, while some sellers offer the amended pressing as their main options and choose not to distribute the explicit counterpart. However, the label has been described as ineffective in limiting the inappropriate material to which young audiences are exposed."
"Shortly after their formation in April 1985, the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) assembled a list of fifteen songs with deemed unsuitable content. Particular criticism was placed on "Darling Nikki" by Prince, after PMRC co-founder Mary "Tipper" Gore heard her 11-year-old daughter sing the lyrics, which included an explicit mention of masturbation The (RIAA) responded by introducing an early version of their content warning label, although the PMRC was displeased and proposed that a music rating system structured like the Motion Picture Association of America Film Rating System be enacted. The RIAA alternatively suggested using a warning label reading "Parental Guidance: Explicit Lyrics", and after continued conflict between the organizations, the matter was discussed on September 19 during a hearing with the United States Senate Committee on Commerece, Science and Transportation. Notable musicians, Frank Zappa, Dee Snider, and John Denver each testified at this hearing with strong opposition to PMRC's warning label system, and censorship in general. Approximately two months after the hearing, the organizations agreed on a settlement in which audio recordings were to either be affixed with a warning label reading "Explicit Lyrics: Parental Advisory" or have its lyrics attached on the backside of its packaging." - Wikipedia
Here's a hilarious clip from the movie Metal: A Headbanger's Journey of Dee Snider explaining his story of testifying at this hearing.
Anyway, I eventually moved from Maine to Seattle in 1997. A few years later I had made a great friendship and brotherhood with some fellow Maine natives who had also relocated to Seattle. They were brothers Andrew and Arran and their good friend Dan. They had an amazing band called Jan Michael Vincent Car Crash. We had befriended each other through the music community playing and attending shows together. Once we easily figured out that all of us were from Maine, our accent came out extra thick. Resulting in some ridiculous and "wicked sick" banter. We had also figured out that we were all at the same Today Is The Day and Zeni Geva show in Portland, Maine in 1996.
In fact according to Arran, after the show he and Dan went to an open mic night next door to Zootz at a coffee shop called the Elvis Room. The Elvis Room was going out of business and this was their last open mic. Steve Austin and Zeni Geva set up their gear and started improvising for about 25 minutes! Arran remembers Ani Difranco being on the open mic list. She had ties with the shop. She wasn't too happy cause Steve Austin and Zeni Geva took over. To be a fly on the wall for that collaboration!
Even though I wasn't at the open mic, Today Is The Day and Zeni Geva had a lasting impression on us all. It reshaped our concept of what extreme music meant. That musical six degrees of separation added an even deeper musical connection. In 2015 that connection was even more solidified. My band Spacebag along with Dan and Arran's band at the time, Lesbian, opened up for Today Is The Day in Seattle. It was such an amazing night! The highlight for me was during the Spacebag set. Between songs, Steve Austin came straight up to my side of the stage and reached out his hand to shake mine and then continued to cheer us on. I've played a lot of amazing shows but that was the most "once in a lifetime" moments of validation I've ever experienced. The most unexpected of role reversals.
Today Is The Day has often been described as "noise rock." What the fuck is "noise rock?" There's a really shitty Wikipedia page on the subject. Today Is The Day is actually on the list of bands within that page. You would think "noise rock" would refer to harsh noise in a rock band but it seems noisy and dissonant guitars are the culprit in defining the genre? I usually refer to Scratch Acid and Jesus Lizard as the blueprint to the genre. What do i know? Today Is The Day has some of those moments on other albums but absolutely none on their self titled album. One hypothesis I have about how the genre may have got its name is in the logo of Amphetamine Reptile Records? There are a lot of bands on the label that get labeled "noise rock." Perhaps because the logo has the word "noise" underneath its name, then the term stuck? I don't know?
There's definitely an overt noise element to the self titled album. The synths and soundscapes are very integral. Unfortunately this is the only album they're on. The back cover credits Scott Wexton as simply, "Emax/Wavestation." After all these years I've finally done some digging on what these things might be? When it comes to the Emax, I believe it's a sampler? I can tell from the photos inside the CD version of the album that Wexton appears to play the original Emax. Here's some info I found on the Emax II and the Emax series.
"The Emax II which was released in 1989 brought the Emax series up to
modern specs with 16-bit sampling, 16-voice polyphony, 16 MIDI channels,
stereo samples, 1MB RAM expandable to 8MB, SCSI, 8 assignable outputs
and the SE's synthesis functions. And finally, the Emax II Turbo came
with 4MB RAM standard and a 4MB hard disk. Whichever Emax you choose,
they're all classic machines still capable of professional quality
results when used in making the music of today. It has been used by
U2, Orbital, Astral Projection, Skinny Puppy, Meat Beat Manifesto,
Nine Inch Nails, Mouse on Mars, Alphaville, Beastie Boys, Clock DVA,
Die Krupps, Faith No More, Richard H Kirk, KMFDM, Steve Roach, Richard
Barbieri, Wolfgang Gartner and Depeche Mode." - vintagesynth.com/emu/emax *They forgot Today Is The Day! Dicks!
When it comes to the Wavestation, I found the following info. "Korg added a second break-through form of synthesis: wave sequencing, by which short segments of sampled audio waveforms could be played one after the other and cross-faded into each other for some complex and unusual tones, pads, textures and rhythms. The Wavestation had 2MB of ROM based samples at your disposal. Programming is not exactly easy but this great digital synth is capable of lush ambient sounds and strange effects. It has the obligatory lowpass filter, though it is non-resonant and digital sounding. Also on-board are some multi-effects which are pretty nice. This synth is easily upgraded and expandable with PCM cards too." - vintagesynth.com/korg/wavestation
However Wexton manipulated these instruments, it was highly innovative. It was devoid of some of the posturing and cheesy theatrics of industrial and goth rock. This Self Titled album is its own genre. Even for Today Is The Day. I love Their catalog. Especially the first three albums on Amphetamine Reptile Records but even for them, this album is so completely different and special. The samples and synths are so over the top, jarring and foreign in context to the early Today Is The Day sound. This album also has some of the Austin's most bizarre vocals and guitar. Going beyond the wildest of imaginations. Elrod's capacity to make sense of rhythm and execute it with such a strong sense of style within all of that insanity, is beyond impressive.
I've been listening to extreme music for many years and I've still not heard anything close to sounding like this, even to this day. I think this album has been an unnoticed and overlooked brutal synth/soundscape gem for far too long. My hope is to help bring light to this album and help it be part of the conversation. Especially in websites like vintagesynth.com and media dedicated to the history of extreme music.
This album has left an unmistakable impression on me. It's the very first album I found on my own by going out in the world and hoping for the best. No advertisement, older brother or record store dork trying to push it on me. I did the work. For that reason, this will always be my favorite band. Even if it's just by the smallest margin possible.
- Luke Laplante
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