I remember days spent in my first real office. It was my first job out of college. They had built out an office and work room just for me in the middle of the building. No windows, no natural light, but it had a door with a lock and that was something I’d only come to really value years later when I was subjected to life in a cubicle. I never turned on any of the overhead lights. At the most, I’d just use a few of the lights built underneath one of the counters. Cave-like would be an appropriate description.
I’d sit there most of the day taking care of what work I had and listening to music. It was 1999 and I was listening to all kinds of things, but as my tech would describe it, I listened to heroin music. It was always kind of slow and moody. If you had seen the room and light level, it was quite appropriate.
I hadn’t thought of that environment or the music I listened to for quite some time, until late Tuesday night at The Local. This song came on and I immediately knew the year in which I had listened to it, but couldn’t place the band immediately. I went to the bar and asked Kenyan and was reminded by him that it was Failure.
When I got home I went and downloaded as many of the bands as I could remember from the year I spent in that office.
Consider this a departure from the norm… a confession… admission… whatever.
Failure – Another Space Song
Failure – Stuck On You
Bonus
Failure ruled way back then. First saw them open for Tool in 1994 in Vancouver and liked them from the start. Nice to see others liking them as well.
holy shit, listening to “stuck on you” took me right back to being a sophomore in high school, with my headphones pressed against my ears, tearing through the pages of skateboard magazines…
i don’t care what anyone else says, thank you for posting this.
“Stuck on You” had one of the sickest music videos eva. They ripped off the Bond movie openings but instead of hot chicks it was the band members. Check out the vid.
Kend Andrews, lead singer went on to front a couple other awesome bands but would always jump ship after the first “single” broke big. Go figure?
Failure rules NOW!
I saw Ken Andrews live at Smiths Olde Bar in March.
Since Failure, he’s done ON (proto-indie electro-alternative.. thing failure with a depeche mode fixation), Year of The Rabbit, and now is solo.
The show, fortunately and surprisingly featured material from all the projects
For those interested, my review with full setlist is here: http://www.last.fm/user/tricil23/journal/2007/03/20/374016/
yeah ive still got this cd.
failure is an awesome band name
Ken Andrews is THE man and Fantastic Planet is one of my all-time faves. Failure and Deftones were major influences growing up.
oh, and yes, the ken andrews show in march was completely awesome. i mean, he opened with stuck on you and closed with daylight.
big big up for liking some shit that isn’t ‘cool.’ and admitting so as well.
‘99 was my first job as well. stuck in a cube in the middle of an office with the highlight being an eMac (tangerine, by request) becoming my primary office tool midway through the year.
the sad things is, i can’t even remember what i was listening to … maybe travis, maybe guster, maybe i was still listening to the cure and the smiths and depeche mode. yes, that seems about right. but now i’m going to have to dig through my cd’s and see. but i can tell you, i wasn’t listening to eve 6, marvelous 3, blink 182 or sum 41.
I’ve never heard of them. Was this in Atlanta? I think I was listening to Lauryn Hill and Mariah Carey and NSYNC. Is there something wrong with me???
Thank you so much for posting this. I wish more people would remember amazing bands like Failure and Hum.
HUGGGEEE influences on everything I do musically.