Author: chip midnight

I’m of the mindset that Ken Andrews is one of the most overlooked artists of the last 20 years. Failure, the band he fronted in the ’90s, was always a favorite of the critics and of other bands, but that didn’t necessarily translate into big record sales. The band broke up in 1997 and since then Andrews has formed bands (ON, Year of the Rabbit), produced/recorded/mixed bands (Pete Yorn, Chris Cornell, A Perfect Circle) and written/recorded/toured as a solo artist with his wife, singer Charlotte Martin.

While on tour last year, Andrews recorded some of his performances and has culled songs from those performances for a release simply titled ‘ Live (Secrets of the Lost Satellite Tour, Spring 2007)’. The CD, featuring songs that span Andrews recorded career, is available in digital format through iTunes, Amazon, and Napster. If you crave an actual physical copy of the CD, you can pick one up through MusicToday or CD Baby.

Andrews is currently working on a project called Los Angeles Digital Noise (LADN) with his wife, Jordon Zardorozny (ex-Blinker the Star), Brad Laner (ex-Medicine), and Sharky Laguana (Creeper Lagoon). Andrews says in an email newsletter that he’s hoping to finish the album in February so he can prepare for the birth of his child in April.

One additional Failure note: There is a tribute CD called ‘The Nurse Who Loved Me’ which is due to be released in mid-2008.

Have you ever wondered how CDs which are supposed to be under lock and key somehow find their way onto P2P sharing services days, weeks, or sometimes even months before the official release date? The music industry has often blamed people working at the manufacturing plants or “thieves” who “find an unsecured copy of a CD sitting on somebody’s desk”, but, as Adrienne Day of New York magazine discovered, leaks often come from those who are closest to the music – people working at labels and journalists who are sent advance music in order to have time to listen before a deadline.

I had this discussion on the Blind Melon message board after demo tracks from the band’s forthcoming album found their way onto Oink, and then other download sites, back in October. I argued that the band – or at least somebody in the band – put those songs out there, especially given the fact that nobody even knew they were there until one of the band members mentioned in an interview that he had “heard” that the new album was on Oink. The band never publicly admitted putting anything out there, but considering that two of the guys run the studio where all the new material was recorded, and that the band has yet to sign with a label, it would be pretty odd if these demos ended up in the hands of somebody other than a band member who then through them up for people to download.