Formerly “creeping charlie,” Agnes Uncaged has received attention across the midwest for their guitar-driven, cinematic indie rock. Eubanks was hailed as “one of the Twin Cities' most promising young songwriters” by critic Chris Riemenschneider, and the group led First Avenue’s best new bands of 2022.
A rabbit apparition named Agnes came to Julia Eubanks on a hike through the French Alps and she felt her fearful aversion to releasing music dissolve. Like the rabbit superimposed over the mountain scape, Agnes Uncaged’s lyrics elicit a dance between the surreal and literal. Sisters Julia and Esmé Eubanks, Jack Malone, and Cole Benson balance grittiness and prettiness to conjure a cinematic world of nostalgia and youth, drawing inspiration from '90s Pacific Northwest grunge.
Their upcoming album, Cyanotype (produced by John Agnello — Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. — and mixed by Brian Deck — Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine), is a blue impression of white hot moments in youth and early adulthood. The album continues the band's signature hooky guitar parts and narrative lyricism with a more matured sound. Philosophy Test elucidates an ironic multiple choice exam and explores the dangers of accepting objective truths shaped by men thousands of years ago. Guitars on Paperdoll form a crunchy wall of sound behind a description of a two dimensional relationship. Agnes Uncaged presents a new era with an ambitious record that won’t be pinned down, and doesn’t need to be.
