If the world were a fair place the order of grunge influences
would go something like this: Pixies, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains,
Screaming Trees and Failure. Huh? Who the hell is Failure? Exactly. If you
had to ask yourself that question, it proves that those guys don't get
the credit they deserve for being a highly influential band. Friends of mine tell me all the time that Failure's Fantastic Planet would be in their all-time top-ten. The brains behind Failure was Ken Andrews, one of the greatest minds in
music right now. After breaking up Failure, he made an album with Maynard
from Tool called the Replicants, a pop record under the alias of On, and did
production work for Blinker the Star and Pete Yorn. He's a busy man, what
can I say? Now, the attention deficit Andrews has his new band Year of the
Rabbit to pander about. If you have never heard Failure before, YOTR is as
close as it gets. Standout tracks like "Absent Stars" and
"Vaporize" rock good and loud, and Andrews still proves that he's one of the
great voices in rock; almost like a Jerry Cantrell. But it's the straight
forward single "Rabbit Hole" that will either make or break this new endeavor. But please for your sake, please, if you've never heard Failure, go buy Fantastic Planet right now and save yourself the embarrassment