With a name borrowed from a Jack London short story, an indie rock work ethic, and a penchant for melody, harmony, and heart-in-your-mouth-foot-on-your-sleeve lyrics The Successful Failures burst onto the scene out of the NJ pinelands in 2006. The band has released 3 full length CDs and toured in support of all. The Successful Failures 4th album will be released in March of 2012.
With Trenton’s Dipsomaniacs on extended hiatus, Mick Chorba’s “other band” has become his priority, and they’re even better. They replicate the Dips’ energy and melodic thrust, but the ‘Failures third LP again indulges a wider scope. Three opens with folk-pop, takes three more valid excursions into country-rock shakers (“College Scholarship Blues,” “All You Had,” “Any Ol’ Thing”), and kicks ass on a harmonica-blazing rave-up, “Scream”—reminding oldsters of that forgotten word “repertoire.” Beyond that, proving that 2007’s cheekily-titled Ripe for the Burning was no fluke, Three is another sweet treat for lovers of recent Sloan, Pleased to Meet Me Replacements, Matthew Sweet, Velvet Crush, Mike Ness, and Cheap Trick (whose “Surrender” lyric “Got my Kiss records out” is referenced cleverly on “Houston, We Have a Drinking Problem”). Besides, the ensemble’s arrangements (piano a plus) and harmonies allow for lighter touches to tickle backgrounds, even while one falls anew for the band’s bread ‘n’ butter bold ‘n’ bursting big guitar power-pop prowess, on hotfoot treats such as “Armadillo Boy,” “Fletcher,” and the buzzing title track. Take it from a long-ago native—New Jersey can rock.” (Jack Rabid in The Big Takeover March 2010).
