At the very least, A Day in the Life, an overwhelming 2-CD sampler of Austin music, addresses two entirely distinct Austin issues: 1) That we’ve become Los Angeles, with everybody looking out for themselves, and 2) the sheer volume of local music has made it impossible for the average Joe with no money to identify local acts of quality. On the first issue, the truth is this: The folks behind SIMS, the local nonprofit organization set up to provide low-cost counseling and mental health care to Austin’s music community after the 1996 suicide of Pariah bassist Sims Ellison, asked local musicians for rare and unreleased music and got 27 tracks on deadline. Better yet, GSD&M volunteered to foot the production costs, so every dime of every dollar would go directly to SIMS. As for issue two, that’s where the music comes in.
Not since the last Free-for-All sampler, and the Homegroan series before that, has a local compilation made it easier to hear a wider variety of Austin music at a lower cost. In fact, to their credit, the set’s producers were so daunted by trying to find segues between so many diverse acts, they simply sequenced it alphabetically (aside from opening and closing with rare Pariah tracks as a tribute to Sims). Just for grins, the first disc’s pairing of David Grissom’s solo demo of Storyville’s “Two People” and Godzilla Motor Company’s brilliantly heavy “Throwing Stones” is worth the price of admission alone. Both Grissom and Godzilla Motor Company illustrate this collection’s ultimate strength — the amount of material from local artists who’ve yet to release proper CDs or haven’t done so in years. Not only is A Day in the Life the only place to find the now-defunct Morningwood or to test upstarts like Ten Percenter and Pamela Miller, it’s also the only place to compare and contrast the Meat Puppets, with the new Austin version’s take on an old song, “Oh Me.”
Then there’s the new non-album material from Sixteen Deluxe, Blu, Seela, Trish Murphy, Soulhat, Skrew, Ugly Americans, and Color (formerly Seed) — all but a few of which are new recordings, not lame leftovers. Add the Shindigs, Wan Santo Condo, MC Overlord, Govinda, Ant Man Bee, Hot Buttered Rhythm, and Troy Young Campbell and you’ll forget there’s hardly a folk, country, or swing selection on the disc. One warning, though: Only 1,000 CDs were pressed and 27 artists’ families, let alone Meat Puppets and Pariah fans, can more than cover that on their own. Like last year’s KGSR’s Broadcasts Vol. 6, which also benefitted the SIMS foundation, it’s buy ’em now or never. (Release Party, featuring Morningwood, Govinda, Wan Santo Condo, Color, and special guests: Friday, March 19, GSD&M Parking Garage, 4-8pm)
— Andy Langer
This article appears in March 19 • 1999 and March 19 • 1999 (Cover).