Year of the Rabbit is a

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

assembled and fronted by

Ken Andrews Ken Andrews (born Kenneth Andrew Doty; June 18, 1967) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. Andrews was born in Seattle, Washington, and attended film school in Los Angeles before his band Failure received a record dea ...

, formerly of

Failure Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective (goal), objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of Success (concept), success. The criteria for failure depends on context, and may be relative to a parti ...

and ON. After the commercial disappointment of ON, Andrews and ON's touring

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

Tim Dow (formerly of Shiner and

Season to Risk Season to Risk are an American noise rock/alternative rock band hailing from Kansas City, Missouri, United States. History Season to Risk formed in late 1989 from the ashes of the Kansas City punk bands Nine Lives and Curious George. Although Se ...

) first recruited Dow's friend Jeff Garber (lead guitar/background vocals, formerly of

National Skyline National Skyline is an American alternative rock band formed in late 1996 by Jeff Dimpsey of Hum. Dimpsey originally formed the band in order to perform a 45-minute-long song that he had written. They were initially an indie rock supergroup of so ...

and Castor). Solomon Snyder (bass/background vocals, formerly of Cupcakes and

Dovetail Joint A dovetail joint or simply dovetail is a joinery technique most commonly used in woodworking joinery (carpentry), including furniture, cabinets, log buildings, and traditional timber framing. Noted for its resistance to being pulled apart (ten ...

) came on board shortly thereafter. Whereas ON's material had been created mostly by Andrews as a solo project, the harder-rocking sound of Year of the Rabbit was much closer to that of his previous band, Failure. Their first release, the 2003 EP ''Hunted'', was made available only from

CD Baby CD Baby, Inc. is an online distributor of independent music. The company was described as an "anti-label" by its parent company's Chief Operating Officer Tracy Maddux. The CD Baby music store was shut down in March 2020 with a statement that "C ...

, the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

, and the band themselves. It was enough to attract the attention of

Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the 1 ...

, who released their self-titled album the following July. Unfortunately for the band, however, Elektra's parent company,

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...

, was sold in February 2004 to a group of private investors, who decided to fold Elektra into

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

, and many of the labels' underperforming acts, including Year of the Rabbit, were dropped from their rosters. Two months later, Andrews declared on his official website that due to the shakeup at their label, the band had been put on indefinite hiatus. Andrews returned to Failure in 2014, following their reunion.

Discography

* ''Hunted'' EP (2003) *'' Year of the Rabbit'' (2003)

External links

Ken Andrews - official site
{{Authority control American rock music groups