This means I get to talk about Failure… Cool!
Failure was an American trio, with the obligatory revolving-door policy on drummers, on Slash! Records during “the great major-label mud-wrestle for bands that sounded like Nirvana”, who enjoyed pretty much zero commercial success stateside. That’s why the first time the rest of us even became aware of them was probably from when Cave In covered “Magnified” on the Creative Eclipses EP. That (classic) song’s not particularly representative of Failure however. I mean, the tune will burrow into your head and staple itself to your brain stem, but it’s also mid-tempo. Usually, Failure was slow. Not dirgey, like The Melvins, but more like epic, huge slabs of crashing power-chords like… well, no one else really. I seriously recommend you track down everything they did, especially the “Magnified” and “Fantastic Planet” albums, from which their radio “hit” “Stuck On You”. A seriously great, under-rated band.
Well, anyway, the good news is that Failure mainman Ken Andrews has returned with a brand-new full-blown proper band, so any requests for Failure songs will probably be met with withering stares. After several years in the wilderness on some high-profile production jobs (A Perfect Circle, Tenacious
D, Sense Field) as well as a sort of electro-rock project called On, he’s roped in a few other talented musicians (including Tim Dow, the absolutely incredible drummer from the two earlier Shiner albums), and pretty much picked up where he left off. Loud-soft-loud, crashing blah blah blah like I said before, and all with that heavy, slow(ish) approach that weirdly NEVER gets dull. Those years away have honed Andrews’ melodic sense too, as these three tunes take absolutely no time in setting up home in your head. There’s a bit of a redundant Stone Roses cover though. Maybe they should’ve done Cave In!
So will their upcoming major-label debut album get in the charts? Hell no! Like that matters…