Days of the New (Orange) (©1997 Outpost)

1: Shelf in the Room 2: Touch, Peel & Stand 3: Face of the Earth 4: Solitude 5: The Down Town 6: What's Left For Me? 7: Freak 8: Now 9: Whimsical 10: Where I Stand 11: How Do You Know You? 12: Cling

This one has a couple of absolute killers on it - those being the first two songs, followed by a lot of pretty good filler. It’s too bad this is the album that sold like hotcakes for the band based on the big singles. I know that I didn’t get the band’s follow album until I found it on sale a couple of years later - I probably wasn't alone. At least I bought them. The band only got better and better with each subsequent release..

I’m not trashing "Orange", the mix of rock with a decidedly acoustic flavour was very cool, and was pretty unique. Days of the New came on the scene around the same time Creed was taking off, and it’s the latter that people remember, Travis and company got sort of lost in the shuffle.

This albums gets pulled off the shelf once in a while, and plays its way through in the background.

Reviewed May 2003

New Days of the New (Green) (©1999 Outpost)

1: Flight Response 2: The Real 3: Enemy 4: Weapon & The Wound 5: Skeleton Key 6: Take Me Back Then 7: Bring Yourself 8: I Think 9: Longfellow 10: (Untitled) 11: Phobics Of Tragedy 12: Not The Same 13: Provider 14: Last One

Travis took a couple of years, regrouped and released the green album which is a much more consistent album overall. He pulls off a few killer songs too, one of the best is Weapon & The Wound. I still really like the fact that Days of the New can create thick heavy music that is essentially unplugged. Nicole Scherzinger provided some beautiful counter vocals to Travis' gravelly baritone (I think it's a baritone, what the heck do I know?) on a lot of the songs. It added a great texture to the emotional tension to the music.

This was a seriously good album, and didn't get the exposure it should have.

Reviewed May 23, 2005

New Days of the New (Red) (©2001 Outpost)

1: Hang On To This 2: Fighting With Clay 3: Days In Our Life 4: Die Born 5: Best Of Life 6: Dirty Road 7: Where Are You? 8: Never Drown 9: Words 10: Once Again 11: Giving In 12: Dancing With The Wind

The third and the most mature work to date from Travis Meeks. He obviously had a budget to play with, and he pulled out all the stops, adding orchestra and chorus. He also plugged in a bit it sounds like, although this is still very much driven by his overdriven acoustic. It's like a soundtrack without a movie. By 2001 music had moved on, and although young Mister Meeks was just hitting his stride, this album got very little push from the label, and it sank out of sight in a hurry.

Which is a shame, since when taken as a whole, the colour sequence is a masterful body of work and I'm going on record that one day people will look back on these recordings as examples of how to blend music and art.

Who knows if the fabled Purple album will ever surface. By all accounts young Travis has not had an easy few years. What is it about genius that invites such overwhelming personal demons.

Will be praying for you dude - the world is a better place with you in it. After all you're still really just a kid - you've got a lot of miles left on the odometer.

Besides, your stuff freakin' rocks.

Reviewed May 23, 2005