| DOTN: Days Of The New | 1997 |
| DOTN: Days Of The New 2 | 1999 |
| Tantric: Tantric | 2001 |
| DOTN: Days Of The New 3 | 2001 |
From out of Louisville, Kentucky and with the members all under 20 years old at the time of recording their debut album in 1997, Days Of The New took an all-acoustic approach to their metal/grunge influenced material (the vocals and lyrics, influenced primarily by Alice In Chains, were evidence that the band didn't yet have an original sound, but the performance was impressively convincing and displayed a whole lot of maturity, even at that young of an age). The album's significant hit was "Touch, Peel And Stand", as well as two other minor hits "Shelf In The Room" and "The Down Town". Unfortunately, though, lead vocalist Travis Meeks let success go to his head somewhat, as the completely dominant songwriter fired his entire backing band and did not replace them, but still retained the name. Meeks' first album alone in Days Of The New, Days Of The New 2, was a somewhat more experimental one and was released in the summer of 1999.
Following that album, the former members of Days Of The New formed a new band in the same vein (the catchier acoustic side of Days, rather, not the 'ambitious' and pretentious side) called Tantric, with lead vocalist Hugo Ferreira and released their own self-titled debut.
--Nick Karn
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released by Days Of The New
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Days Of The New's debut album undeniably recalls the mellow side of Alice In Chains a bit too much, with the acoustic approach, lyrics, and vocal style of Travis Meeks (which hints of Layne Staley). The band hints at promise though, with the material sounding as emotionally and musically heavy as if their instruments were plugged in (this is mainly because the guitars are tuned in double dropped D), and it's at a fairly consistent and high level, making it a very worthwhile debut (although not one that holds up terribly well to repeated listening).
Meeks sounds best when he's writing songs that have catchy melodies (something he already has an impressive skill at doing). The smash single "Touch, Peel And Stand" is one such song, even if the lyrics are slightly clichéd. "Now" in particular has a very top-notch chorus, with very expressive emotion coming through in the strong melody, while "The Down Town" is perhaps the most infectious sing-along and album highlight, with the great 'bring me down, bring me down' chorus. "Where I Stand", meanwhile, has a very enjoyable and engaging campfire feel that is easily singable. All of these songs also have worthwhile guitar solos.
The more stripped down, dimly-lit room ballads like "What's Left For Me?", "Solitude", the musically complex "Whimsical", and the dramatic closer "Cling" are also worthwhile, while "Freak" starts out as such before turning into an aggressive chorus (done acoustically of course). Overall, Days Of The New has quite impressive, promising moments, but a few moments of inconsistency (like the weak lyrics and melody of opener "Shelf In The Room", and the undistinguished "Face Of The Earth" and "How Do You Know You?"), as well as a lack of originality and listenability that keeps it from being outstanding. Days Of The New (AKA Travis Meeks) is definitely a band to watch out for, though.
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COMMENTS
Yeah, Days sounded like Alice In Chains...BUT, goddamn they did what they did very good. I honestly can't think of a bad track on the album, everything was well written , well played, and well thought out. These guys did'nt go into the studio without a plan, what they had in mind was something that was a bit different from most of the alternative acts around at the time (excluding Alice In Chains, if you want to call them alternative). What they had in mind was creating a dark, cold & depressing atmosphere, in which they succeded in doing, but they left the listener with a little hope in gaining ground, unlike A.I.C., who pretty much did'nt give a hint of any relief in sight.
This was a breath of fresh air when it first came out, I listen to it today regularly, I give it a 10.
released by Days Of The New
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Since Travis Meeks had it in his head that he was above the rest of his bandmates, he kicked the other three members out, but retained the name. Not that it made a difference anyway, since Meeks was the only songwriter in the band. Despite its' unambitious title (in actuality, it's just another self-titled album - the '2' is just used for labeling purposes), the material on here is the work of an musician determined to prove his great artistic ambitions to the rest of the music world, as this effort is a huge step forward in presentation, augmenting the traditional Days Of The New acoustic sound with background embellishments like female backing vocalists, horns, strings, electronic beats, sound effects, and other stuff.
Ultimately, however, the final product just comes off as a serious case of 'reach exceeding grasp', as all that extra stuff is a hollow attempt to convince the listener the songs are diverse and musically rich - given that almost every song is melodically subpar and repetitive to the point of annoyance (which was the exact opposite of the debut's material for the most part), with use of the rudimentary, limited double D acoustic work that starts to wear thin, along with substandard lyrics, it's awfully predictable, and I sure don't fall for it. "The Real", "Take Me Back Then", "Bring Yourself", "I Think", and "Last One", for instance, lack the catchiness of the last album and are all seriously flawed in the songwriting department, with dumbass song titles to boot.
The opening "Flight Response" does stand out because it's first and has a pretentious galloping intro beat and an actual dramatic melody, but the country-ish backing vocals near the end make it sound incredibly hokey, while the lead single "Enemy" appears to be memorable, especially with its' soaring bridge, but it's the most electronically based song on here, so it's somewhat repetitive and overprocessed through the whole thing, making it tiresome. The album isn't a complete waste, of course, as none of the songs are actually unlistenable, and there are a couple stronger ones in "Weapon & The Wound" (yearning angst worthy of the debut, with a great chorus melody and horn embellishment) and the sing-along "Phobics Of Tragedy", which actually uses backing vocals effectively. Overall, though, the album is a disappointing sophomore slump that falls flat too many times to be considered any sort of success.
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released by Tantric
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
After finally breaking away from the chains of Travis Meeks, Todd Whitener, Jesse Vest and Matt Taul put together another group and play music in the style of.... Days Of The New circa 1997. Oh sure, there are a few subtle differences (there are electric guitars featured here as opposed to Days' primarily acoustic-driven sound being the biggest one), but by and large, much like that album, these are the kind of songs that would work wonderfully played stripped down to a coffeehouse audience. The main reason for this is that the main focus here is melodies, not gimmicky grunts and noises passing as hooks or dumbass two-note progressions over and over passing as riffs like in nu-metal (I'm looking at you, Disturbed - and no, I'm not reviewing you losers). But back to Tantric - there's nothing really adventurous about these songs at all - they're just completely unpretentious numbers that have good energy and especially hooks - nearly every song on here boasts distinctly singable verse, chorus and bridge parts.
You might know the opening huge hit single "Breakdown" from the radio, and as overplayed as it and its' ring tone might be, it's a fine, crowd-pleasing singalong tune, but there are other songs that are just as good, probably even better. My favorite here is probably "Live Your Life (Down)", a really neat showcase of harmony work and fast-paced melodies that make it exciting, thoroughly pleasurable pop, and in the ballad vein, "Mourning" comes up the most poignantly moving, with its' beautifully done structure and chorus. In contrast, "Frequency" rocks hard in a (more convincing) mid-90s Van Halen style, with cool guitar breaks and aggressive vocal growls, and I'm always a sucker for albums that end on a hook that I can't get out of my head (I guess that's why "Inside Your Head" is appropriately titled, with its' repeating 'turn around to the sound of the voice now...' line).
I'd also like to point out that Tantric is one of the few bands I've ever seen live, and that they do provide a great energy and presence that's lacking just a bit in the studio versions - I didn't even notice "I Don't Care" or "Hate Me" on record until I heard them in concert, and now it's hard to imagine their obviously cliched, but thoroughly enjoyable, singalong choruses not going through my head. Even the lesser tracks like "Paranoid" and the pummeling "Revillusion" sound very enjoyable after awhile. If there's any complaints I can seriously make about this record, it's that some of the songs sound a bit similar to each other ("Astounded" = "Breakdown", "All To Myself" = "Live Your Life (Down)") or are too derivative ("I'll Stay Here" = Alice In Chains' "I Stay Away"). But as it stands despite its' obvious weaknesses, Tantric is quite an enjoyable listen, despite AMG's insistence that this stuff is worthless 1-1/2 star quality.
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released by Days Of The New
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
You know, even though Travis Meeks wrote all the songs himself on the debut (and Tantric also supports this) I'm beginning to think his backing band had something to do with that album's quality, even if I may have said otherwise. Maybe they were able to effectively stop him from the inadequacies of attempting to make his otherwise fairly simple songs sound important through big arrangements. I also think it's likely that Travis realized on the second album he was being overambitious himself, as many of these songs do return to the stripped down basic rock band format, and more often than not, that really benefits the better material on here. For a few songs here, at least, he remembers what he does best - introspective acoustic tunes that just focus on the hooks and lyrics and not all those overblown embellishments. In fact, he does it so well that for the first few songs I completely forgot why I originally hated the album.
This stretch of the album might not be the greatest in the world, but the lead single and opener "Hang On To This", for instance, is one particularly well-written song - the desperate vibe of the simple repeating guitar line and the 'doing what I got to...' vocal hook really makes an impression, as does the pure aggressiveness of "Fighting With Clay", a pretty decent in-your-face sort of song. And although it's kind of hard to identify with the pained emotion Travis expresses cause he's just that much of an asshole, "Die Born" is both passionate and memorable, and that counts for something. I guess "Days In Our Life" is also fairly quirky and catchy, and despite the utterly generic orchestral interlude before it, "Dirty Road" has an okay convincing sweep to it. Don't even ask about "Best Of Life", though, cause I ain't recalling it.
Unfortunately, it's at this point where my memory starts functioning again and it dawns on me just why the album sucks. Where the hell did the melodies go? What are those generic Hollywoodish symphonic parts doing here? Why are the two longest songs on here (the Eastern drone of "Giving In", which has an okay sitar part but nothing resembling a melody or decent arrangement, and the utterly silly "Dancing With The Wind", one of the most inadequate songs I've heard in recent memory - it's just a generic angst rant set to this huge symphonic and chanting background) also the most pointless? Urggh. And I haven't even mentioned the other three songs on side 2, mostly because they escape my brain after four listens. Maybe the overall song quality is slightly better than the last tree album, mostly because there's more emphasis on melody as a whole, but still, this is another disappointingly mediocre album from the most egotistical solo artist in modern music.
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COMMENTS
[email protected] (Bob Gossman)
Days Of The New Red, is a breath of fresh air. It is the third in the Days trilogy. obviously you have personal animosity towards Meeks. Tantric a seven and Days III a five. I suggest you listen again. The more you listen the more it becomes obvious. Actually listen to Orange, Green, Red- in that order and I hope you gain a more lucid picture of the evolution that is Mr. Meeks vision. Travis is very talented and whether he is an "asshole" is irrelavent to the quality of music that he works so very hard to acheive. Yes, he has visions, and follows them through, without selling out or trying to gain acceptance of others. Please listen again.