Johnny Justice
Agnew, left, combines the feel of Radiohead with the trippiness of Pink Floyd.
You can listen to Travis Agnew’s new album a track here and a track there, if you want. But the Cottage Grove singer/songwriter would prefer that you experience the entire album in one sitting. Under the Sun rewards the listener who does. The songs go together like an old album-oriented rock station playlist: one song following the next in a surprising yet inevitable way. The music itself combines the slick, steely feel of Radiohead with the ’70s trippiness of Pink Floyd.
“The biggest challenge on this record was taking so many musical styles and weaving them together to flow seamlessly and portray a story that feels cohesive and genuine,”
Paul Berkbigler
says Agnew. “I didn’t want people to feel like they were riding a roller coaster that leaves them disoriented but rather the kind of roller coaster that captures the fullness of life and leaves you with a deep sense of beauty and awe in the end.”
Agnew is not fooling around here. Those are big goals. And the big music matches them. The album begins, boldly enough, with a track that explores the democracy that is death. That song, “Meaningless,” begins with ominous sonar tones and ends, a mere 90 seconds later, with a hiss.
A moment of silence separates the song from the second track and, as if to answer the emotional bruising of the album’s start, “Corruption is King” rolls in on a hopeful, Calexico wave of electric guitar and a message that “only love can drive out darkness.”
And so the narrative proceeds, swinging away with as many good musical hooks as lyrical. Technically, the album shows extreme production care. Recorded at Blast House Studios in Madison, the project was engineered by Dustin Sisson and co-engineered and produced by Landon Arkens. These are giant slabs of music, and the end result could have been a cluttered mess. Sisson and Arkens are clearly fellow travelers and have helped realize a story package with high gloss that keeps (the many) emotions intact.
Agnew songs are visual so it’s no surprise that he’s released Under the Sun both as an audio piece as well as a wild-ass video experience co-created and directed by Paul Berkbigler. Agnew’s band members are other Madison visionaries: Matt Rogers on bass; Dan Lawonn on guitar and cello; Ryan Nanny on sax, banjo and mandolin; and vocalist/keyboardist Hannah Busse.
Agnew, who plays the High Noon Saloon on March 23, says as the seasons change, “so does my band line-up. So many of these players are constantly playing in other acts, but it’s always a treat to come together with friends and make music.”
Under the Sun addresses the human condition in more ways than one. Partial sales of the record will benefit the Madison homeless day shelter, The Beacon. “The album has songs that hit on themes of corruption, greed, homelessness, mental illness, love, loss and self-indulgence,” says Agnew. “I wanted to tie in the album to a good local cause that also addresses some of those themes.”
