Lowns Act: I'm a fan of Failure

11/20/03 - It's a great feeling when you discover new music. Not necessarily newly released music, but something that you've just never given a listen to before. This happened to me a few months ago. I found and immersed myself in a band called Failure.I had heard that name thrown around for quite a while, but I never stopped to see who they were. To me they were just a band that existed by word of mouth and I had never paid attention.

First off, I've had an intense interest in Tool since I first heard them back when their second album came out. If I had taken a closer look I would have noticed that Tool lead singer Maynard James Keenan was a huge Failure fan and had referenced them during interviews. Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle.

When intact, Failure was Ken Andrews, Grew Edwards, Kellii Scott and Troy Van Leeuwen. Unfortunately, Failure is no more. They broke up in late 1997 and went their separate musical ways.

My recent Failure obsession came courtesy of a few friends who have listened to the band for long time and know them well, my roommate in particular. One day as I nodded my head to the beats of Obie Trice in my room, I heard this magnificent sound coming from another room. The sound lifted me from my seat and pulled me next door to determine the source of the enchanting ear candy.

I approached my roommate and asked, "Who is this?" He replied, "Alice In Chains." "Of course!" I exclaimed. Then I noticed a CD case that read FAILURE and I picked it up.

The album I found was Fantastic Planet, the last of Failure's three albums. Here was my first taste of a new favorite. The album is a 17-track collection of power guitar riffs, catchy melodies and beautiful lyrical imagery. "The fireman calls out, we've got another smoking umbrella left in the hallway." Nice.

Failure's first two albums, Comfort (1992) and Magnify (1994), are more of that great writing that I discovered with the third album.

As I mentioned before, Tool's Keenan was an avid Failure fan. This fact again surfaced on the new A Perfect Circle album The Thirteenth Step, on which Keenan assumes his lead singer duties. A song titled "The Nurse Who Loved Me," originally from Fantastic Planet, finds its way onto the album. A Perfect Circle tweaks the song a bit and creates a more spacey feeling but still does a great job.

Since Failure disbanded, Ken Andrews has been part of a few other projects, most recently creating the band Year of the Rabbit. YOTR has released one album thus far and it's damn good. Currently they're filling the opening spot on A Perfect Circle's tour. See, if you find Keenan, Andrews isn't too far away. It's also interesting to note that Van Leeuwen played on the first A Perfect Circle album. Ooooo, eerie.

If you're like me and it's excruciatingly hard to listen to the radio or to read the Billboard Top 40, maybe you should go backwards. Check out what's been here all along. Maybe you'll find a Failure.