Failure “Fantastic Planet” Out On Vinyl

Posted on June 10, 2010 |

An album that gives me and all rock music producers/engineers a geek boner.

It’s been described as the “Dark Side Of The Moon” for the Lollapalooza generation.

70 minutes of pure space rock madness.

The sonic details that went into it’s production, the layers of sounds, the moods
they’ve created, the inventive use of guitar effects and signal processing is just
mind-blowing.

Some backstory for ya:

The album was produced by the band themselves and engineered by frontman Ken Andrews.

Ken, song co-writer/bassist Greg Edwards and drummer Kellii Scott began recording the album in 1995, in a rented home out in the hills outside of Los Angeles owned by Lita Ford of all people.

The songs were being written and recorded on the spot and they would repeat this
process until they had what they needed. Space images, drug addiction, drug-related
experiences and prostitution are used frequently throughout the album’s lyrics.

The album came out in August 1996 on Slash Records (the last album to come out on that imprint) to much critical acclaim but few album sales due to lack of promotion.

A music video was shot to promote the first single “Stuck On You” which was an homage to the James Bond film “The Spy Who Loved Me”. The song peaked at #31 on the U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and #23 on the Modern Rock chart.

Failure - “Stuck On You”

They toured extensively to support the record and then broke up. Drugs and creative
differences were to blamed but also I think everything was pretty much said with
that album. No way could they have topped themselves.

To commemorate the album’s awesomeness, Warner Bros. just re-issued it as a 2-disc vinyl set.

Order it from Amazon or directly from the band themselves.

There’s also a limited T-shirt you can get your hands on.

They shot a video teaser for the vinyl release which features Ken and Greg:

Also, may I suggest getting “Golden”, a 2005 release which includes a 40 minute
documentary covering the band’s entire history and a disc worth of unreleased
songs and videos.

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Category: Albums, Failure, Music Videos, Re-Issue
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