I’m one of the lucky ones. I witnessed the birth pangs of TODAY IS THE DAY in early ‘90s Nashville. Bands who shared absolutely no sonic camaraderie with TITD made Sunday afternoon shows at Lucy’s Records on Elliston Place. From cross-dressing cowpunk to reggae to grind, nothing was off limits. Over a dozen albums and countless EPs, singles, splits, and compilations later, Steve Austin remains behind the controls, touring members Tom Jack [bass] and Colin Frecknall [drums, percussion] joining with others with others to create the band’s latest, Never Give In.

‘Divide And Conquer’ chugs forth, electronics and industrial rhythm sturm und drang, Austin’s effects-laden lysergic near-monotone calling forth images of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, PINK FLOYD’s ‘Astronomy Domine’, and Dark City; futuristic and disconnected, how NINE INCH NAILS should’ve sounded after Broken. Pulsating with a digital heartbeat, ‘I Got Nothin’’ is IGGY POP’s techno-flirtations with UNDERWORLD in 2018 spawning with a David Lynch film soundtrack. Stream of consciousness lyrics carry ‘Intentional Psychological Warfare’ into realms of ‘80s guitar rock in the chorus, albeit as interpreted through the eyes and vision of TODAY IS THE DAY, which is to say “skewed” in that best of ways.

After a JIM CARROLL BAND-styled beginning, the title track screes and shrieks, a catharsis in reverse, before returning to a hymn to and document of self-isolation, only to end the bleak affirmation of “I found it. I looked everywhere.” Disjointed jazz – aided by the brass of Mac Gollehon and synth/additional vocals courtesy GRIDFAILURE’s David Brenner – is insistent in the strangely punk-infused ‘Secret Police’, while ‘The Choice Is Yours’ brings to mind shades of Blood Mountain era MASTODON, when the elephantine began to stretch its legs into something more intentionally progressive, leaving behind a bit of its early audience in the process.

What has Austin ever been, though, if not unpredictable? And thus, when ‘The Cleansing’ merges dark psychedelia with SCOTT WALKER’s early output, it’s the finishing sable gloss on an album that stands apart from anything TODAY IS THE DAY has released before yet bleeds authenticity all the same. Never Give In, indeed.
Review By: Lord Randall

TODAY IS THE DAY
Never Give In
SuperNova Records