What happened?

I suppose I just managed to attain the title of Andrew WK fan. I don't really know much about him, and by the sound of the I Get Wet album, I think that in terms of technical prowess, he's not exactly Joe Satriani, but the happy, positive edge of his music cut a swathe through most of the miserable shite, and I grew to like it.

I just heard the Wolf, his second album, and suddenly I Get Wet became nearly obsolete. Never Let Down is BRILLIANT, and Totally Stupid is good too, and the album as a whole is technically sounder than I Get Wet.

So I jumped at the chance of hearing the new album, the first in a quick barriage of three albums by Andrew WK to be released in the next year: Close Calls with Brick Walls.

Again, what happened? I honestly don't know if this album is meant as such, but it sounds like he's vaguely parodying various music genres from the 50's, 60's and 70's - in a most non-AWK way. Hell, while listening to some of it, I actually had a picture of 1955-era Hill Valley pop into my head - for once, not a good thing.

It's just not catchy and actually quite boring. You Will Remember Tonight is kind of okay, and I Want Your Face, well, the title itself is fucking hilarious. But...gah.

If these three albums WILL be parodies, then, by the sound of the titles, no doubt The Carrier will be parrodying death metal, and Young Lord will be a Hammerfall take off. I wish.

I love Andrew WK. Your review depresses me :( But don't blame yourself I'll have to listen to it soon though to find out how accurate you are.

Actually screw bad feelings about his new stuff I'm just happy in that AWK way that he's still alive making music. :)

Also, by the way, all albums and tours including Close Calls are confined to Japan and Korea for the foreseeable future. What? From what I heard, AWK seems like a great guy with a genuine good attitude, going to one of his gigs sounds ace!

I saw Andrew WK a year or two ago and it was the shit, he seemed genuinely appreciative of the crowd and was an all-round nice guy - like the Wayne Coyne of Party Metal.

Shame it sounds like he's gone off the boil, is his production still ridiculously overblown though? That was always my favourite bit about his songs.

These new albums NEED to be good! Need.

I think 'You Will Remember Tonight' is an ace song anyways.

Arr. Just heard "Not going to bed". I can see where you're coming from, Mr Nekoda :(

It was the highlight of mine a few others reading some years back, so much energy joy and passion. That night a large group of us paraded around the campsite playing Musical Andrew WK Dancing. Absolutely brilliant.

I know of someone who spent AGES talking to him before a gig - he gave the whole group free tickets. Yes, the guy DOES seem genuinely a nice bloke. I hope he is, considering I've had so many "celebrities" become arseholes in person.

The Wolf didn't grab me by the knackers in the same way I Get Wet did. Maybe I just didn't listen to it enough.

Well, being the AWK nut I am, I decided to get this from abroad.

It's weird! Very un-AWK but it is (although there are tracks which are strangely haunting. Haunting! Andrew WK. Mad) In a weird way. Some tracks should have never even been considered, let alone made, but some tracks are awesome. I like this stuff and I'll give it a thumbs up on the whole.

EDIT: Except for when he tries to do more stuff with his vocals, then you cringe.

EDIT2: Thumbs in the middle. Right in the middle. I'd get it if I'd heard it before I bought it, though.

i agree with what moosegrinder says, i get wet was a wall of sound and anthem heavy, the wolf, i dowloaded and was disapointed and i hadn't even bought it!
AWK will always do "his" thing, which is good for him, not so good it seems for us.

Right then, I've had this album on loads, and my final decision is IT'S GREAT. Not as instantly accessible, but fucking ace.

HOWEVER.

Looking for Andrew WK stuff in a 'harmless' way, I came across this site. Boy, what a massive headfuck (and not just because of the white text on black background, either). I am now very confused...

EDIT: Site is a bit NSFW (a few boobs and such).

if you play somebody "i get wet" and it fails to make them happy, then they are not a person. they are merely pretending. it is safe to kill them.

try it yourself!

B-ump!

I don't what possessed the man to do it, but you can listen to ALL songs of each of AWK's albums on his site now. Which is ace.

http://www.andrewwk.com/

i just heard the new album, the first two songs not that great, i was thinking 'what the hell has he done', Las Vegas, Nevada is my fav on it

Has anyone else come across the Andrew WK/Steev Mike conspiracy theory shit?

It's pretty weird and difficult to sum up, but if you have a little time free and you're a fan of AWK it's well worth reading about.

The AWK/Steev Mike information page is a good enough place to start reading, but be warned it proper sucked me in, I spent a good few hours researching it after I started reading about it. On the other hand it kind of gave the music a little more depth...and made the new directions taken on the new album make a little more sense.

Come on, sum it up for us

I got about a third of teh way through it and realised that guy has waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on his hands.
From the first part it seems that he thinks that Andrew W.K. may be a front for a producer/coproration and not an individual artist at all. It's absolutely off it's box. I can't imagine why anyone would go to the trouble of inventing a persona like Andrew W.K. There just seems to be no point to the massive conspiracy theory he's on about. Good read if you can be bothered, mind. I'll finish it if he ever changeds the fucking colour of his background and text. Gave me a right fucking headache.

I posted that four months ago and no-one said anything! It's even on THIS PAGE!

Ah fuckery. Dude, you have to go into more depth than just putting "this site". My attention span won't let me register stuff that pass overable. OR something.

sorry

Oh, Internet. Such a fickle goddess.

Party Hard is just such an awesome AWESOME song, I'd actually say that its on par with Greg Laswells equally AWESOME parody of that song that other guy did.

I've been meaning to start a thread on Andrew W.K. for a while but I may as well add to this; I think he's a genuinely great performer - you really really really need to see him live to get him if the albums don't move you. He's capable of generating pure positivity out of nothing.

I saw him earlier this year at ATP and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had at a gig (I've seen him before on The Wolf tour and he was similarly brilliant). It was literally nothing more than a karaoke show + keyboard from the man (with a couple of guests), playing tracks from his first album but it didn't really matter - his personality won through (he does motivational lectures now, and that was totally part of his performance too). I was hugging strangers by the end; from swapping stories at the front I wasn't alone in my near-hero worship - if he started a cult, I'd join. I was on a high all weekend after the show.

The more I read about him, the more awesome he becomes. The nicest man in rock™ and I feel he's more than a little misunderstood by the rock populace at large. I'm heading off to NYC later in the year and I'm making a bee-line for his club just to see him in his natural environment. Read this New York Mag article and you should be totally sold. There's some conspiracy talk on the net about him but I don't think it matters in the slightest, as a concept he can't be beaten; just the epitome of excellence (in the Bill'n'Ted sense) - regardless of who "plays him", even if that stuff is true.


Andrew W.K. - I Get Wet (Live)
His finest hour. Studio Version.

I would recommend to anyone who hasn't heard it to check out his album of J-Pop covers. His musical aesthetic is all about overblown production and melodrama, which fits with J-Pop perfectly. Try:


Andrew W.K. - Kiseki


Andrew W.K. - Little Love Song





Edit: Reading through this thread I (and others) seem to have made many of these points already, but I don't care. The man is a legend.

Edit2: Interesting interview from The Wire for their Invisible Jukebox feature - http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/712/ - Dude knows his stuff.

Kiseki song awesome future parts GO.

Thats actually a brilliant osong.

I actually think Close Calls is one of the best albums I've heard now. Mr Nekoda needs to re-listen to this NOW.

Also: I really wished I could've gone to ATP to see him. I was too sick.

He played a secret birthday show in London too the day before ATP which looked even better. Hopefully he'll come over and do some more dates soon in the UK.

Looks like an insane amount of fun

Superb! Great to see the W.K. love on this thread. I've been a fan for a while and always get a strange look for including his music on every playlist I make. 'Mon the W.K.!

New album out in September. Also, he's on Twitter and has a new show on Cartoon Network. the guy must be insanely popular in the US because we hear fuck all about him over here.

www.adultswim.co.uk is currently streaming the episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force with Andrew W.K. in.
It's pretty funny.

I think he's still very much a cult concern over there, he's bigger in Japan as far as I know. I've seen some recent interviews with him in The Wire and I've seen scans of a Front (of all places) interview from this year but he does pretty much have zero exposure in the UK.

As far as I'm aware, his new album is a solo piano album.

Yeah, it's called '55 Cadillac' or something. The advert on his site is pretty bizarre, but I'm totally buying it whatever.

Aye, me too. There's a preview track on his myspace.

Ok, Scrapheap Challenge for kids + Andrew W.K. X shit getting blown up = mega winnage

I dearly love this man.

With 55 Cadillac (I fucking love that as a name for an album) coming out in places other than Japan, does this mean that weird legal dispute has been sorted and we can resume partying?

Wait, what? What did I miss?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQN0rDDLi6Q...re=channel_page

Mmm, piano.

What exactly would constitute partying hard for Andrew WK; having three cans of Tizer?

He's a chipper chap isn't he?

Some classic WK moves with Conan:


And new today:


Like the bow at the start especially

Can't believe it hasn't been posted yet, but

Party Hard. What a fucking tune.
I'm going to play that at any future weddings and make people do Andrew's dance.

I will say, by the way, that after Close Calls, my faith has been restored by The Japan Covers.

"BRAIN RUSH!"

God bless this man.

This man is so awesome, he even rocks like a bastard from a wheelchair

If that picture doesn't tell you everything you need to know, here's a link
http://www.andrewwk.com/index.php?page=page.php?id=60

I've never seen any Gundam, but that cover looks awesome. I'd quite like to check out his j-pop covers album, but I can't seem to find it for less than about £30. Any ideas where I may be able to procure it for significantly less?

You can get it for sub-£20 including postage from here, don't know if you can get it cheaper elsewhere. The best tracks from it are on Youtube (courtesy of this guy), if you want to try before you buy.

Nah, postage is about £15 minimum on top of their list price.

Unless I'm missing an extra charge, the cheapest is only $5 extra?



The final dollar price is the final price rather than the cost of postage.

Ah, my bad. Not exactly the most understandable of layouts, given it's under the shipping calculator section.