APPLICANT

Today Is the Day

Clubture network

Zagreb, Croatia

PARTNERS

1

Bosnia and Herzegovina

2

Kosovo

ASSOCIATES

COST

€ 12450.00

PROGRAMME SUMMARY

Quasi-cult-like in its construction, surgical in its execution, eclectic to a fault, Today Is the Day emerged from Nashville, Tennessee, in 1992 as a trio of musical misfits with tremendous technical abilities lead by founder, guitarist, and vocalist Steve Austin. Not the easiest to define sonically, Today Is the Day combines the challenging time signatures and chameleon-esque musical proficiency of King Crimson with the raw-boned intensity, volume, and power of Slayer. Between those poles, Austin and the various incarnations of Today Is the Day have experimented brazenly, audaciously, and fearlessly with sound, tone, and style, utilizing everything from found samples to acoustic instruments to synthesizers to all-out death metal and grindcore beats. In doing so, the band has earned the distinction as one of extreme music's most talented, peculiar, searching, and influential acts. After releasing a self-financed EP on the band's own Supernova Records, Today Is the Day returned to Austin's former home of Detroit, Michigan, to record a demo tape. One of those tapes fell into the hands of Amphetamine Reptile Records head Tom Hazelmeyer, who immediately signed the band to a multiple album deal. Supernova In the spring of 1993, Today Is the Day issued their mind-bending debut, Supernova. That quixotic album of experimental pieces and contorted metal tracks -- one that left a wake of both puzzled and congratulatory reviews -- was immediately followed with an appearance on AmRep's Clusterfuck EP, shared with labelmate's Guzzard and Chokebore. The Clusterfuck tour followed, with all three bands co-headlining 43 dates in the U.S. and 45 in Europe. In 1994, the band recorded its follow-up, Willpower, at White Room Studios in Detroit, Michigan, with engineer Al Sutton. The album was far more nuanced, song-oriented, warm, and emotional than its cold, technical predecessor. A great deal of touring ensued before bass player Mike Herrell departed. Herrell was replaced by keyboardist Scott Wexton and the addition of keyboards signaled a stylistic, as well as personnel change. Temple of the Morning Star While maintaining the band's extreme nature, particularly Austin's Fripp-like guitar playing and layered vocals, Today Is the Day embraced digital recording and quasi-industrial ambient textures, maintaining only guitar and drums as organic instruments. In 1996, that lineup recorded its self-titled and final album for AmRep. A year later, original drummer Brad Elrod left the band as well, prompting Austin to restructure the trio, and switch labels to Relapse Records. Temple of the Morning Star was recorded and released in 1997 with Chris Reeser on keyboards, and Mike Hyde on drums. A lengthy and ambitious work, Temple of the Morning Star continued the forward-thinking bent of Today Is the Day, while incorporating a number of the trademarks of the earlier releases. In the Eyes of God After a year of touring, Austin relocated the band and his recording studio -- Austin Enterprises -- to Clinton, MA, and once again reconfigured the lineup, this time reverting to the bass-guitar-drums format of the first two albums. The lineup was rounded out by drummer Brann Dailor and bassist Bill Kelliher. In 1999, that lineup emerged with In the Eyes of God, Today Is the Day's most unapologetically metal album, filled with double-picking guitar riffs, double-kick drum, and intensely venomous lyrics, as well as Austin's peculiar trademarks and idiosyncratic song structures. In 2000, Relapse issued Live Till You Die, a collection of demos, acoustic tracks, live audio, tape loops, and odds and ends. Austin also began to work for other bands as a producer, while the emotionally draining Sadness Will Prevail (2002) was the next effort to appear from the group. For 2004's Kiss the Pig, drummer Mike Rosswog joined the band. Today Is the Day moved to SuperNova Records for 2007's Axis of Eden, which also marked the debut of drummer Derek Roddy. Another change of label, to Black Market Activities, marked the release of the group's ninth album, 2011's Pain Is a Warning, with a lineup featuring Austin, bassist Ryan Jones, and drummer Curran Reynolds. By the end of 2013, Austin had recruited yet another version of Today Is the Day, with Sean Conkling on bass and Jeff Lohrber on drums; the lineup debuted on 2014's Animal Mother, recorded for Southern Lord.

PARTNERSHIP DESCRIPTION

Though this album proved a puzzling, ultimately challenging release if nothing else, it presaged the shape of things to come in extreme music. Supernova straddles numerous musical fences at once, and indicates that metal could indeed be far more than a simple, formulaic system of chugging riffs, screamed vocals, and stampeding drums. In fact, the greatest feat of this album is its near-soundtrack-like aesthetic quality, making sudden left turns, detours, stylistic and volume changes at any given moment, then merging seamlessly with the next track or cleverly conceived loop. Though its hallmarks are Steve Austin's painful Robert Fripp/Greg Ginn jazz-metal guitar playing, and frightening vocal wail -- as evidenced in "6 Dementia Satyr" and "Black Dahlia" -- it is the experimental, complex soundscapes like "Blind Man at Mystic Lake" and "The Begging" that truly set this album apart. Very few outfits are capable of such detailed, inescapably mathematical, acid-damaged music. Supernova is a landmark recording. Nothing if not emotionally devastating, Willpower's warmth and accessible breadth proved the perfect complement to Supernova's calculated coldness and musical mysticism. Exploring distrust, loyalty, death, passion, memory, and excess in the span of nine songs, this album certainly runs the emotional gamut. Changes in mood are echoed by sea changes in volume and dynamics, Austin's high-pitched scream yielding to a breathy, near-silent spoken whisper in the space of a few measures. Though its time signatures are still tricky in a mathematical way, Willpower's greatest strength is its appeal to the human heart through whatever means necessary. Opening with a particularly telling audio sample, Today Is the Day's sophomore effort is the sound of man's struggle to keep it together despite all odds. This album is as beautiful and striking as it is painful and charged with darkness.

DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES

Willpower

ZG, Croatia / June, 2016

Nothing if not emotionally devastating, Willpower's warmth and accessible breadth proved the perfect complement to Supernova's calculated coldness and musical mysticism. Exploring distrust, loyalty, death, passion, memory, and excess in the span of nine songs, this album certainly runs the emotional gamut. Changes in mood are echoed by sea changes in volume and dynamics, Austin's high-pitched scream yielding to a breathy, near-silent spoken whisper in the space of a few measures. Though its time signatures are still tricky in a mathematical way, Willpower's greatest strength is its appeal to the human heart through whatever means necessary. Opening with a particularly telling audio sample, Today Is the Day's sophomore effort is the sound of man's struggle to keep it together despite all odds. This album is as beautiful and striking as it is painful and charged with darkness.

Supernova

SA, Bosnia and Herzegovina / July 2016

Though this album proved a puzzling, ultimately challenging release if nothing else, it presaged the shape of things to come in extreme music. Supernova straddles numerous musical fences at once, and indicates that metal could indeed be far more than a simple, formulaic system of chugging riffs, screamed vocals, and stampeding drums. In fact, the greatest feat of this album is its near-soundtrack-like aesthetic quality, making sudden left turns, detours, stylistic and volume changes at any given moment, then merging seamlessly with the next track or cleverly conceived loop. Though its hallmarks are Steve Austin's painful Robert Fripp/Greg Ginn jazz-metal guitar playing, and frightening vocal wail -- as evidenced in "6 Dementia Satyr" and "Black Dahlia" -- it is the experimental, complex soundscapes like "Blind Man at Mystic Lake" and "The Begging" that truly set this album apart. Very few outfits are capable of such detailed, inescapably mathematical, acid-damaged music. Supernova is a landmark recording.

Today Is the Day

PR, Kosovo / August 2016

Having subtracted bass from Today Is the Day and added keyboards, noise rock auteur Steve Austin thereby altered his outfit stylistically, moving from the warmth and emotional appeal of Willpower to an icily digital landscape of painful, high-frequency tones, screeched vocals, and even more painful guitar. Today Is the Day is a brutal record, owing a bit of its industrial nature to acts like Skinny Puppy and Merzbow. However, this is hardly textbook industrial music. Still utilizing guitar and organic drums, Today Is the Day is not driven by the keyboards so much as augmented sonically by them. The keys produce more of an atmospheric than a melodic effect, thereby leaving the essential constitution of Today Is the Day intact and guitar-driven.

COST BREAKDOWN

Type of cost Unit # of units Explanation Total meals 150 10bla 1500 honoraria 2000 5bla 10000 operational costs related 950 1bla 950 to the programme (maximum 15%)

12450.00

BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE BUDGET

brief explanation

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