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Andrew W.K. has done the rock 'n' roll math and it all adds up.
Despite the hype in the UK, where he's been described by the fawning
British music press as an amalgam of Diamond Dave Roth, Eddie Van
Halen, Slade and GBV, his debut, I Get Wet (Island/Def Jam),
sounds more like a cross between Slade and the Anti Nowhere
League (but with more synthesizers).
Don't get me wrong, this CD does rock. But if you think it sounds
anything like the once mighty VH, you've obviously been listening
to Robbie Williams and Travis for too long.
Knocks on the obscenely hype-driven British press aside, this is
a pretty cool album. It takes about five seconds before you feel
like popping open a beer, rolling up a big doob and throwing your
TV out the front window. And it should only take about two weeks
from the time this album is released (March 26) until it's blasting
out of every alterna bar & grill from Tampa to Tacoma.
 So
much the better, I say, because this album kicks ass! I don't even
know why. It's not particularly tuneful or original, and it's kinda
repetitive, but it's so simple and full of "Fuck Yeah!" energy, that
it's irresistible.
Maybe it's because it's one of the first things anybody's heard in
a while that actually resembles rock 'n' roll. (No wonder the Brits
are all in tizzy.)
Of course, in their defence, look at how ga-ga everybody went over
the Strokes and the White Stripes. Well, whatever. That was last
year. This year it's Andrew W.K.-at least until May or June, anyway.
In the meantime, we should all enjoy it.
Regurgitation and Spiritual Debt
"I work really, really hard not to throw up," states Andrew W.K.,
from his tour bus somewhere outside of Stockholm, "because then all
the food that I've worked so hard to eat that day is gone. And it's
possible that I could eat the puke, but it's not good to do that
because the acid is so hard on your throat."
This from a guy who constantly exhorts his listeners to party until
they hurl. Apparently, what's good for the goose isn't good for the
gander. But the 23-year old performer has his reasons.
For one, he doesn't want anything to interfere with his ability to
deliver the most intense, balls-to-the-wall performance he can imagine.
"I try to reach failure by the end of every show," he explains. "If
I leave the stage and I don't collapse, then I haven't done my job."
Second, he feels he owes it to everybody anyway.
"As far as I can see, over hundreds of years people have dedicated
their lives so that I can talk to you on a cell phone right now about
what I do all day long.
"There's been a lot of sacrifice so that I can live this life. Even
to this day there are people who don't have all these things. I really
want to make the most of it. I owe it to them."
Nevertheless, even though he's in the midst of a world tour, that
doesn't mean he's acting like some self-absorbed ponce who mistakes
his recent success for super global stardom. On the contrary, he
says he's working harder than ever to get your attention.
"I won't stop, I'll tell you that," vows W.K. "The only way I'll
stop is if I die. This is heaven on earth and I intend to take advantage
of it."
Deep.
But his tireless work ethic has been in place for years. Prior to
leaving his home state of Michigan at 17 in search of a music career
in the Big Apple, W.K. worked it by playing drums in a bunch of Detroit-area
punk and metal bands.
Once in New York, he managed to circulate a few early demos among
record labels and then promptly went on a tour of the East Coast
where he assailed audiences with nothing more than a CD player, a
keyboard and a microphone.
Even his self-inflicted wounds, born of the unbridled zeal he demonstrates
while performing, serve to prove that he is no third-rate slouch
hoping he's in the right place at the right time, but rather a talented
fucking nut with confidence to spare. The question is, are we ready
for him.
"I want to make music that's instantly gratifying and easy," says
W.K., trying to assuage our fears. "This music is freedom, it's unafraid.
It's unashamed. Not guilty, not worried. It's simple."
And it is party music, after all. This isn't the next Rage Against
The Machine album. In fact, a quarter of the songs on I Get Wet have
the word party in the title. Of course, Andrew W.K.'s definition
of the word is a bit broader than most. Yet, maybe he knows something
we don't.
"The word party is the biggest word I know that means celebrating
and including everybody," elucidates W.K. "The word party is nothing
but freedom. Everybody understands it and it's to the point. It means
making the most of being alive."
Despite his utterly inexhaustible drive, the former gumball-machine
salesman's path to success hasn't been a direct one.
After spending a few months in 1999 taking his one-man show to every
Starbucks that would have him, W.K.'s big break came when a friend
of Dave Grohl's forwarded the former Nirvana stickman a tape of the
muscle bound Michiganer.
Grohl fell instantly in love with W.K.'s glam, arena rock anthems
and straightaway offered him the chance to open two gigs for the
Foo Fighters at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco. (This is probably
what led to the rumour that W.K. was merely a beta-tester for Grohl's
new tunes.)
English audiences, meanwhile, received their first taste of W.K.
via his Girls Own Juice and Party Til You Puke EPs on Bulb Records,
released in 1999 and 2000, respectively. Around the same time, Island/Def
Jam signed W.K. to a contract and he turned his attention toward
putting together a full band.
In order to create the hammer-of-the-gods sound he longed to hear,
W.K. enlisted death metal drummer, Donald "D.T." Tardy, formerly
of Obituary. To complete the line up, he added guitarist Jimmy Coup,
formerly of Coup de Grace, bassist Gregg R. and guitarists E. Payne
and Sergeant Frank.
Hard on the heels of his first two releases, I Get Wet was released
on October 29, 2001 in the UK and the English promptly went bananas.
By year's end he would be featured in multiple issues of Kerrang!
and NME and in London's Daily Telegraph, as well as make television
appearances on the "Big Breakfast" and "Top of the Pops."
Aught-two began with W.K. touring the UK and the European continent,
taking the show to 19 cities in all. And as Spring 2002 dawns, W.K.
finds himself headlining a tour of the States supporting the American
release of his new album.
No longer playing to crowds at Starbucks, the wily wolverine says
he's happy to be home and playing for American audiences.
Charming-and typical of this hometown boy with a heart of gold and
a dire need to rock out while living life in the red zone.
Yet for anyone who's still not sold on this 6´4 bundle of energy's
credentials or on the merits of his escapist musical stylings, the
lanky man with the pearly white teeth has this to say:
"Every human being on the face of the earth is invited to be a part
of this unconditionally. Nothing you can do, think, say, act like
or talk like is unacceptable, because the music doesn't care."
Thanks!
AUDIO STREAMS:
She
Is Beautiful
We
Want Fun
VIDEO STREAMS
She
Is Beautiful (56K Modem)
She
Is Beautiful (128K Modem)
see also:
coordinates interview
She Is Beautiful Streams
& Downloads
Allan Kemlerfor Crud Magazine© 2002
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January 2001
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