Daily Jam - C'mon Collapse

Here's a track from a post-Failure/pre-reunion side project of Ken Andrews for your Friday.  Listen to "C'mon Collapse" by ON below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Placing the Blame

Here's a track from the kind of unsung '90s alt-rock band Self from their 1999 album "Breakfast with Girls."  Listen to the Ken Andrews co-produced, spacey pop vibes of "Placing the Blame" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Allergic

30 years on, and Failure is still one of my favorite bands of all time, and yet despite his numerous other projects, lead singer Ken Andrews has only released one solo album under his own name with 2006's "Secrets of the Lost Satellite."  That album just got its first vinyl reissue late last year.  Hoping we'll see some other Andrews associated acts (thinking of Replicants or On in particular) follow suit soon.  In the meanwhile, here the artist is with the spacey and melancholy "Allergic," our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Stuck on You

I don’t know if anyone else out there does this, but sometimes I’ll get an album to listen to, usually a CD to be played in the car during my commute to and from work, and basically pretend it’s me performing it whilst singing along in the driver’s seat. I’ve done this for forever, but it has to be a good CD…a great CD…one of those CDs that’s an essential listen from start to finish. Throughout the years I’ve accrued a handful of albums that I keep coming back to over and over again specifically for this purpose, this driving daydream of musicianship, artistry, and mock rock stardom. And I’d posit that Failure’s 1996 space rock opus and masterpiece Fantastic Planet is my go-to album probably more than 50% of the time.

My introduction to the band came by way of the band Replicants, a project that produced one album of covers featuring Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards of Failure, members of the band Lusk, and Maynard James Keenan from Tool. A big fan of that record, I eventually sought out the musicians’ other output, coming across Fantastic Planet and the wonderful single “Stuck on You.” From the opening, high-pitched guitar riff (though it may actually be a synthesizer for all I know), harmonic tones ringing in my ears and the heavens above, I fell hard for that song. The slow and pounding beat propels ever forward with crunching, spacey guitar layered on top, Ken Andrews’ nasal and almost monotone vocal delivery sounding alien and worldly at the same time. There’s a bubblegum pop aesthetic at work too, a sweet and hooky melody that could play in my brain ad infinitum if I were so inclined. Lyrically, “Stuck on You” is about being unable to escape a pop song, radio detritus coursing through our veins forever, or maybe it’s a lament about love, or maybe it’s about drugs, or maybe it’s something else entirely.

Is it all of these things?

Either way, I’ll love it forever, and I’ll go on pretending it’s me who made it, singing it in my car on the stadium stage of my daydreams.

“Stuck on you til the end of time.”

Daily Jam - Destination Unknown

For those not in the know, Replicants was a one-and-done covers project from members of Failure, Lusk, and Tool, a veritable super group of sorts. The band’s self-titled 1995 release featured spacey, alt-rock takes on songs by The Cars, T. Rex, Neil Young, David Bowie, a couple of Beatles, and a whole lot more. Tool’s Maynard James Keenan even pops in, providing vocals on a cover of “Silly Love Songs” of all things. As the record was my initial exposure to Ken Andrews and Failure (one of my all-time favorites), it’s pretty near and dear to my heart, a collection of classic rock jams and a couple of synth wonders spun into '90s jelly. It’s one of those albums I adore from start to finish, but for me, the real raison dêtre is the record’s centerpiece, the propulsive and intoxicating electro-crawl version of Missing Persons’ “Destination Unknown.”

I can’t even begin to recall how many 11th grade events and evenings “Destination Unknown” soundtracked. It feels like it was everywhere, an undercurrent of murky sound that followed me everywhere I went. The song’s mid-'90s, this-is-what-the-future-will-sound-like, pre-millennial aesthetic was like a harbinger of the digital age to come…or at the very least a cool tune to listen to outside while I washed my car in my parents’ driveway, anxiously wondering where the beer was coming from later that night. And while it may sound a little dated now (or just in time for a modern revival), I just can’t help but let it take me back.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Burn

Here's a song from Ken Andrews's short-lived Year of the Rabbit project from 20(!) years ago.  Listen to "Burn" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Below the Sliding Doors

Here's a little late '90s, space rock indebted alt-rock from Blinker the Star featuring an assist from Failure's Ken Andrews on backing vocals.  Check out "Below the Sliding Doors" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Hunted

In the post break-up/pre-reunion era of Failure, Ken Andrews released various music projects to varying degrees of success.  One of those, and the one that was most aesthetically in line with Failure, was the band Year of the Rabbit, releasing an EP and a full-length of guitar centered space rock.  Today's jam is a song from that project that i think ranks up there with anything Failure ever did.  Listen to "Hunted" below.

Failure at House of Blues

Last night, i got to do something that 17-year old Tommy thought was only a pipe dream.  I got to see Failure.  The show was impressive, an great mix of jams i never in a million years thought i would get to hear performed live.  And man, they didn't miss a beat.  The trio (Ken Andrews, Greg Edwards, Kelli Scott) opened with "Another Space Song" from 1996's "Fantastic Planet," and then tore into everything i wanted to hear them play.  And they closed with "Daylight."  A little part of me can die in peace now.  Take a look at some pics below.

Until we meet again in November Failure.

Failure - Come Crashing

New music from Failure!  New music from Failure!  New music from Failure!  I suppose it was only a matter of time after the reunion gigs began, but we have the first new Failure jam to bask in since 1996.  And it's good.  Listen to "Come Crashing" below, and do your best to see these guys while they tour.

And word on the grapevine is that there is a new album in works too.  Hooray!