posted by koeselitz at 4:40 AM on December 30, 2009 [8 favorites]We. the yet unsullied and always proud union of the Nation of Ulysses, being aligned unabashedly with the uncommon man, and in keeping with our general preference for the righteous option over things divine and arbitrary, feel that the entire concept of beauty is outmoded and must yield to the far more valid and useful idea of fashion. This is an obvious distinction, in that beauty, almost always equated with goodness, is in actuality a banal and unimportant fluke, while fashion (which henceforward shall be the exacting measure and red hot barometer in determining goodness) aligns the wearer politically, socially, and economically. Let us then, draw the lines for the coming battle, and scream in glee as the squares perish!!
ON FASHION-A LIST OF DO's AND DONT'TS
1. Cut your hair, as long hair shall align you with those who long for the bygone years, and who have betrayed us with every breath. Let them crawl into their daddy's scrap-books, as those selfsame volumes shall see fire on a night of fury not far off.
2. Color in your pimples with magic marker, then flaunt your new found beauty marks to an unsuspecting world.
3. Get afrocentric for the 90's. If you still see the west as the center of the universe, you may have trouble on judgement day....
— Nation Of Ulysses, "ULYSSES SPEAKS!" #2
diff-ed against last week's backups and my Andrew WK mp3s still have all the same bits in them, so this probably isn't going to affect me too much.I'm not saying that lyrics have to be deep or that music has to be complexThis review, back when I first became familiar with Andrew WK, explained the appeal:
Rock and roll music, at its very core, has always been inherently dumb. Whether it’s sociopolitical satire disguised as dumb (The Fugs), pop genius disguised as dumb (The Ramones), dumb disguised as profound (Creed), entertainingly dumb (Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie), or just plain moronic (Loverboy, Journey), the same old three chord, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus formula of Big Dumb Rock has remained relatively unchanged. The problem these days is that with the unending stream of rock bands who are either overly morose, overly angry, overly political, or overly pretentious, one other fundamental element has been missing from mainstream rock: dumb old fun.posted by deanc at 8:26 AM on December 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
The other three people that he's always worked with are all adults much older than him (by the way, Andrew's real age isn't 26 or 27). I don't know exactly how he met these other three, but I think it was through his Dad somehow as they were all involved in academics (probably from University of Michigan). One day in the acting class the teacher had us all stand up and talk about what are dreams for the future were. Most of the kids said "To be a famous actor", one other girl said "To be a star on Broadway", and I said "To make movies". Andrew went last and stood up and said, very slowly, "I want to craft my own non-existence." The teacher asked him what he meant and said "Exactly what I said." The teacher was clearly annoyed and the whole class rolled it's eyes because Andrew was always saying weird stuff that made no sense. I thought what he said sounded cool though, so after class, while we were walking to our cars, I asked Andrew how he was going to craft his own non-existence). I don't remember what he said word for word, but essentially he said, "First I'm going to make myself undeniably exist as a recognizable and identifiable form, and then I'm going to spend the rest of my life working to eliminate it and prove that it's existence was an impossible illusion all along, but because people have already seen it they will experience the sensation equal to maximum pleasure." It was something like that, obviously some of what he said was different, but that's essentially what he told me. I remember it well because it made a huge impact on me and I've thought about it a lot since.posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:11 AM on December 30, 2009 [13 favorites]
—Kurt VonnegutI'd say, if he was indeed pretending, Andrew W.K. was at least very careful.
This is my dad's suit - it belongs to my father. You can actually see his name here: James E. Krier. James E. Krier. And when I think of my dad, it gives me a moment of pause, and it makes me want to confess something to all of you.So he comes out and says he's not *literally* Andrew WK, but then he explains this by saying "I have changed... and perhaps you have changed as well." I know that there's a lot more stuff in the video (which is exceedingly interesting, by the way) but it's generally very vague - he doesn't even say "it was a focus group" or "it was corporate," he uses vague synonyms like "it was done in the spirit of commerce" and "it was done by a large group of people."
I - I'm actually not Andrew WK.
I'm not. I'm not the same guy that you may have seen from the I Get Wet album, where I actually spent a lot of time here, we launched the album from London and England through the, ah, incredible support of publications like the NME and Keraang, I'm not that same person. - ah - And I don't just mean that in a philosophical or conceptual way - it's not the same person at all. Do - do I look the same - as that person? (guy in crowd: "similar.") Oh - I - similar. Huh. Uh... Well, moving on -
What I mean is that since that time, I have changed, and for any of you that happened to be there during that time, perhaps you have changed as well. And I would like to think that we're not the same people at all - and again, not just conceptually, but very literally, we're not the same - people, that I'm a completely different entity. Not to discredit what I've done before, or what Andrew WK has done before, whoever that person was. We want to be able to give ourselves the freedom to change, and I come here in the spirit of that freedom. Which is not to deny the importance of whatever we've done before, or the value of whatever we've done before, or the - the quality of whatever we've done before, or whatever we experienced before - I'm just here in the spirit of freedom. And to me, humans, human beings, have a capacity to indulge in all the freedom that the concept of freedom gives us. And so I'm here in that spirit, and I think that freedom is sort of hand in hand with idea of joy, and songs like "Party Hard" that Andrew WK has done, songs like "I Get Wet" or "Party 'Til You Puke" or "Totally Stupid" or whatever songs, that have appealed to you, that Andrew WK has presented - I'm here in the name of that joy, but I'm not Andrew WK as far as that goes.
What appealed to me a lot about the very abrasive music that I got into in high school was: on one hand, there was this group of people that all liked it, so I felt like I could be part of this thing, and I liked that it separated me from people who I thought - "oh, they'll never understand this music," so I liked that, but I also kind of said "you're stupid because you don't understand it" - but I never really wanted other people to understand it. But eventually again that started to feel kind of boring and closed, it wasn't challenging me anymore; and what became reallly exciting to me was this idea: what if I could make a music that I really liked that people that I didn't like (or didn't think I would liike) would also like? And then we would realize that we both had this common interest or this common love for this exciting feeling that this music was giving us, and maybe then I would find this common ground and be able to love them or like them or be friends with them. And that became more exciting to me than the idea of being separate from people.So he kind of created a character behind that - a character that doesn't dislike anyone, that doesn't criticize anything, that wants to stay positive and never be negative. And I think that must have been a very interesting character to play, because it really pushed him to accept things that are aggravating or annoying and not let it show at all. At one point during the video, an audience member asks him how he deals with annoying people, and he says that he pictures them as tiny babies. An interesting exercise - a sort of coping mechanism for dealing with the difficulty of playing this person.
I want to confess something to you.posted by Hogan at 8:23 PM on December 30, 2009 [7 favorites]
I'm not actually Andrew WK
Do I look the same as that person? Similar?
What I mean is, that, since that time, I have changed. And for any of you who have happened to be there at that time perhaps you have changed as well.
We aren't the same people at all, and again not just conceptually but very literally.
I am a completely different entity.
Not to discredit what i have done before
or what Andrew WK had done, who ever that person was.
Whatever songs have appealed to you, that Andrew WK has presented, I am here in the name of that joy, but I am not Andrew WK as far as that goes.
Andrew WK was created, and this is a bit of a confession, by a large group of people, almost a conference of people, and we talked about how we could come up with something that would move people, that was done in the spirit of commerce, that was done in the spirit of entertainment.
And I was auditioned along with many other people to fulfill this role, of a great front-man, a great performer.
It's a little scary to admit this to you all, that I was not exactly who you thought I was, the person who was in fact, first hired as Andrew Wk was a different person than the guy sitting here on this stage tonight.
I am the next person who is playing Andrew WK.
But it's really all one vision, so I don't want to make it this and that, a and b, black and white, it's all one vibe. But I wanted to be honest that there is more than one person involved in this procedure.
ANDREW W.K.: I've never liked the idea that something has to be either/or, that it has to be binary - that either it has to be a complete joke, and they're totally aware of what they're doing, or that it's the dumbest, worst music ever heard. Can't it be both those things and many more? And don't I get to decide what it is? There's so much that comes from the observer that it doesn't really matter what the person who made it says it is, or what the majority of people say it is.And the reason I said parallel above is because the distinction between the music and what he says in interviews and his self-help/motivational speaking IS WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT. The guy wears all white - it's a costume. It's a performance. He's a super hero. What else could it be?
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I've been a huge fan of A.W.K. for a long time, in part because I had always felt that his gleeful outlook on life was genuine; that he was just a guy trying to spread good energy around to the masses. I guess I was fooled by the equivalent of a highly skilled marketing group.
I could not be more heartbroken. Long live the party, and all that jazz.
posted by Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld at 12:46 AM on December 30, 2009 [4 favorites]