“Lie Down”
from the album Year of the Rabbit
2003
iTunes
Ken Andrews is one of those under-recognized singer/songwriter types. While grunge was still popular, Andrews fronted the critically acclaimed, publicly overlooked Failure. After that he moved on to help out on the Replicants‘ self-titled projects and then yet on to another project, On. After which Andrews kept the drummer of On and has finally settled into the studio again for his newest project Year of the Rabbit.
The cool thing about Year of the Rabbit is that it doesn’t just sound like another over-produced studio record, which by the way is a task record label land seems to have mastered. Instead, there is actually a live sort of feel to the recording. It has substance and texture that is missing from too many big name releases these days. Of course, the praise for Year of the Rabbit doesn’t end there. As usual, Andrews does a great job on vocals. He has that Thom Yorke kind of voice that is a great vehicle for emotion and lies perfectly atop Year of the Rabbit’s musical stylings.
Perhaps it is Ken Andrews’ grunge roots or the longevity of his career that places Year of the Rabbit a few notches higher than most records on the new releases rack. All of the tracks demonstrate superior composition skills and the sonic excellent that was found in great ’90s bands like Stone Temple Pilots and Foo Fighters. These guys basically pretend as if the mainstream influences of bands like Nine Inch Nails don’t exist. Instead, Year of the Rabbit hones in on where the mid-’90s rock fell off.
If Ken Andrews were dead, he would roll over right now, give Jon the thumbs up, and then go back to the sweet abyss of death. It’s not too often that a band is able to join the rankings of “those bands that Jon has added to his blog,” and despite the two years of waiting for the checking over of this title, it was long worth the wait.
I am uncool enough to refer to the band as yotr, and am so much of a fan that I have been to three of their concerts, and have personally talked to and touched ken andrews. (His hands are really soft, like a woman’s.) And although I won’t speak for his sexual preference, I will say that his talent is undeniable. The haunting melodies that he has strewn together are grunge-rific. Other bands have made similar songs which often go overlooked. Bush made a song, “Mouth,” which gained marginal popularity by its incorporation into a mediocre film, An American Werewolf in Paris.” An even closer song that bears profound similarities would be “Exhausted” by Foo Fighters. This song also gets absolutely no recognition. With YOTR as my favorite band, I guess I will always be satisfied with the elitist feeling of knowing a band that no one else does. Except for you classy broads that read Jonk’s blog.