After a fifteen year absence, the members of 90s alternative band Failure are reuniting at El Rey Theatre February 13th of 2014.
Failure disbanded in 1997 after seven years of creating and performing guitar-driven, detailed alternative rock together. Today, the band announced they will be reforming, and plan to perform at El Rey Theatre in February. About the reunion, frontman Ken Andrews stated:
“Once you put aside all the historical baggage, hype, regrets, etc., there is one truth that remains…when we play music together something happens that is very hard to define and equally difficult to duplicate.”
The band was signed to Slash Records in 1992 and released Comfort and the more successful Magnified, as well as toured extensively with Tool, before they were forced to pause recording due to negotiations between Slash Records and Warner. During that time, the members focused on side projects, including Andrews’ and Edwards’ cover project Replicants, Andrews’ production work with Blinker the Star and Molly McGuire, and various session work.
In 1996, Warner agreed to a new distribution deal for Fantastic Planet, which was released that August, but the chaos within the record label led to there being little effort put into promotions. “Stuck On You” become a minor hit, but the lack of focus on their management’s part prevented any significant success. Later, however, Fantastic Planet proved to be stuck in peoples’ minds, and has reached cult levels of fame.
In November of 1997, the band announced they were disbanding due to “personal differences.” Though there have been several compilations and LP releases since they broke up, February will be the first time the original lineup has performed in fifteen years. In those fifteen years, Ken Andrews became a very successful producer/mixer/engineer (including mixing Paramore’s latest album,) Greg Edwards formed first the group Lusk, followed by the band Autolux, and Kellii Scott joined first Blinker The Star, then Veruca Salt and Enemy, and, most recently, formed the group The Brontosaur.
Ken Andrews recently spoke with SPIN about the reunion as well as his take on Failure, giving his children partial credit for reuniting him with Edwards. The group will also be releasing an exclusive 7-inch which will be available to the first 250 people at Amoeba Music (6400 W. Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles), Origami Vinyl (1816 W. Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles) and Axs.com. Tickets for their performance at El Rey Theatre will go on sale Thursday, November 7th at 10am and will be available on Axs.com.
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