Andrew W.K. on I Get Wet and I Get Wet

Phillip Crandall's book on Andrew W.K.'s I Get Wet for the 33 1/3 series combines several of my favorite things, yet somehow passed my expectations. Crandall reviews the album and its history lovingly and objectively, going deep into Andrew Wilkes-Krier's background, recording process and artistry, with revelations that will surprise and enlighten even Andrew's biggest fans (trust me). I'm happy to report that I Get Wet is one of the best books in the series, and worthy of its album. Enjoy this video the two made for Slate, and check out the party-worthy book here.

Andrew W.K. on GWAR

"I first found out about GWAR when I was around 13-years old. I was just completely blown away by everything about them. I'd never seen -- not only a band like them -- but I'd never really seen anything like them. I'd never seen creatures that looked like them, let alone ones that played music. From that moment on, I really looked at GWAR as an arbiter of excitement and a living example of the idea that anything was possible in this amazing thing called 'the living arts.' If this group of people could become rock and roll monsters and travel the earth, then maybe I could do whatever I dreamed of in life."

Read the rest in The Village Voice here.

Andrew W. K., "Party Hard"

Excerpted from The Perks of Being a Campaigner, out now on Nightrain Books. 


Come to my birthday party!

September 16, 2012
       
Dear friends,

Yes, it's true. Despite the best efforts of the NYC Department of Education, a couple of knife-wielding muggers and one really big dog, I am on track to turn 29 this week. I hope that you'll all join me in celebration, with some of my favorite people.

This Tuesday, we'll be playing Recruit the Volunteer right outside the Bedford L stop. Party favors will include loaned clipboards, voter registration forms, pens and I'm In cards. The fun starts at 6pm, RSVP here!

Since Duyen rocks like nobody's business, we're playing another round of Recruit the Volunteer this Wednesday, September 19th. This one starts at 7pm, so you nighthawks have no excuse. RSVP here.

Proof that a Brooklyn party doesn't stop, Seiji, Cheryl and Annie are inviting us back to Grand Street for team festivities this Thursday, September 20th. We'll play the Game of Phones from 7pm-9pm, and the winners get to decide who is in charge of the next four years of Supreme Court appointees. RSVP here!

In adherence to the proverb that when it's time to party we will party hard, we are marauding down to Pennsylvania this weekend for two days of Get Out the Vote madness.

You can come Saturday, September 22nd or Sunday, September 23rd.

If you can't pick a day, come to both.

Questions? Suggestions? Space for our next team meetings and phone banks? Book recommendations? Bring 'em on. Looking forward to kicking out the jams with all of you this week.

Barack the party,
Ben

PS> Oh hey there, Williamsburg/Greenpoint for Obama Facebook page!

Will you be our friend?

(Thanks, Duyen!)


The rest is available here.

Andrew W.K., The Party Bible

Can't wait.

Andrew W.K. Attempts to Break a World Record

Drumming for 24 straight hours, live in Times Square.

Get More:
O Music Awards

Ten Metal Bands to See Before You Die: Andrew W.K.

When people talk about finding community in music, whether it's metal, punk, underground hip-hop or the best indie rock, they almost never mean letting fans onstage, sharing the mic, spending a good portion of the show in the crowd or doling out bear hugs. Unless they're talking about Andrew W.K.



No popular musician, metal or otherwise, exudes massive positive energy the way that Andrew W.K. does. Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Cliff and U2 might come close in a club setting, but none of them would be as interactive. At every Andrew W.K. show, everybody is Courtney Cox in the "Dancing in the Dark" video. Andrew himself is no exception.

How he does it all without the show getting out of hand is beyond me. Somehow, the charge that he gives his audience keeps them in a jubilantly non-destructive universe. His motivational banter is inspiring without being escapist, and the anthems--oh my god, "It's Time to Party," "Party Hard," "Party Til You Puke"--will carry you through the next week. I can tell you that every time I've seen Andrew W.K., no matter how tired I am nor what I have to do the next morning, I can't sleep and am fine the next day at work. If the best music makes you feel superhuman, than Andrew W.K. is at the very top.

Rage Days

Andrew W.K., whom sometimes seems like the happiest person in the universe, recently tweeted "Sometimes the angriest music makes us feel the happiest." (His previous post was "PARTY TIP: Start your day with a big dose of Pantera.") To metalheads, generally the best-tempered fan base in all of music, those insights are no surprise, but fans of less extreme music tend to be shocked by this.

AG doesn't listen to a lot of metal or punk, but she told me that sometimes she has "rage days," something that I don't understand the point of having if you don't listen to a lot of punk and metal.



Rage Days

1. Metallica, "Battery"
2. Converge, "Dark Horse"
3. Nine Inch Nails, "Wish"
4. Black Sabbath, "War Pigs"
5. Faith No More, "Falling to Pieces"
6. The Stooges, "Search and Destroy"
7. Sepultura, "Refuse/Resist"
8. Slayer, "Angel of Death"
9. Lamb of God "Now You've Got Something to Die For"
10. Minor Threat, "Filler"
11. Suicidal Tendencies, "You Can't Bring Me Down"
12. Nirvana, "Heart-Shaped Box"
13. Mastodon, "Blood and Thunder"
14. Marilyn Manson, "The Fight Song"
15. Rage Against the Machine, "Killing in the Name"
16. Stiff Little Fingers, "Suspect Device"
17. Pantera, "Fucking Hostile"
18. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "Stagger Lee"

As with any good introductory mix, I've included a few standards--I can't imagine anyone disliking "War Pigs," "Search and Destroy" or "Heart-Shaped Box." But I've also been making gateway metal mixes long enough to know that everyone who hears "Falling to Pieces" seems to enjoy it, or that most people in the 2000s seem to get into modern metal through Mastodon and Lamb of God. Maybe after this, AG will be ready for Goatwhore.

One thing I learned from putting together a specifically rage-based mix is how happy a lot of the best metal bands are. Even at their most belligerant, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Van Halen, High on Fire, Motörhead, Ozzy and Amon Amarth are too gleeful to follow up songs like "Angel of Death" or "Dark Horse." Thus instead we get Metallica at their fiercest, Pantera at their most hostile and topping it all off, Nick Cave, to show that some of metal's most raging tracks can even hold up against "Stagger Lee."

Five Great Videos of Fans Meeting Musicians

1. Crazy Russian Guy flips out over Dave Mustaine

Be sure to watch this one with subtitles. My favorite part is when he re-enacts one of Mustaine's legendary alleged fistfights. How often is Dave Mustaine the second-craziest guy in the room? Maybe not even here.



2. Black Sabbath Super Fan

This video of a Chris Farley-type meeting Dio-era Sabbath went viral a few years ago, to the point where if you yell out "THE GODS ARE HERE!" at a metal show, at least half the attendees will know what you're talking about.



3. Acrassicauda meets James Hetfield

All of you need to watch Heavy Metal in Baghdad, the tense and touching doc about four Iraqi headbangers fighting the Hussein dictatorship's ban on heavy metal in one of the most dangerous parts of the world. Thankfully, the boys were granted refugee status in the United States, where they met James Hetfield and made some of the greatest faces that I've ever seen.



4. Crashing with Andrew W.K.

This could be an entire list of Andrew W.K. encounters, who even hosted his own MTV2 show specifically about meeting and helping fans, Your Friend, Andrew W.K. That concept, however, may have stemmed from Crashing with Andrew W.K., a special where our host spent a few days in a girls' dorm at North Carolina Central University. This idea deserves a full-length movie.





5. The Red Hot Chili Peppers on FANatic

Nobody talks about FANatic anymore, but in the late '90s it was one of the last watchable programs on MTV. Every episode gave a few megafans a chance to meet their heroes, and of course the craziest fanatic was there for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Keep an eye on that clipboard, and be sure to stick around for the ending. If any of you can track this guy down, please tell me what he's up to.

Death to Stage Diving

"You want to get onstage, get your own band."

--Lemmy, putting a stage diver in his place.

You can do this if you're in the band.

A few weeks ago, I saw Titus Andronicus at Webster Hall. They put on a dynamic show, one that could make you believe that punk can survive in heartland rock, but every song was interrupted by attendees climbing onstage, most of whom would block the band, sing along or motion commands to the audience before diving back into the crowd. The musicians, visibly annoyed but surely aware of the communal, punk ethos of stage diving, tolerated the nuisance and carried on like the professionals  that they clearly are. 

There's an idea in punk rock that cool bands let their fans stage dive, since we're all really fans sharing the experience together. But if that experience includes some heavyweight whom I didn't pay to see blocking the band with his dance moves before crashing, boots first, onto the heads of the front row, I don't want to be a part of it. It's not communal if the act is fun for exactly one person in the venue. The rest of us will be united in exasperation at your jackassery, but I'd hardly call that community.

This February, Lamb of God's Randy Blythe is going to trial for involuntary manslaughter, after a stage diver whom he pushed off stage died from brain trauma weeks after the incident. My condolences to the late diver's family, but everything that I've read and seen about the case indicates that Blythe did nothing wrong. Maybe he was thinking of what a pain stage diving is for the band and the audience, or maybe he was thinking of metal's most famous stage-crashing, wherein Dimebag Darrell was killed by a mentally ill stalker whose mom had given him a gun. Whatever the case, stage divers should expect to be pushed back or kicked out. If things get too rough, it's perfectly acceptable for the band to stop playing.

The idea that we do this because it's a punk tradition is ridiculous. Punk rock supposedly eschews tradition, and it's gotten by fine without stage diving for decades. Can you imagine crashing a Sex Pistols performance? Johnny Rotten would eviscerate you. And no one would blame him.

Unless you're in a band, or if you're one of the rare, super-communal artists who invites people up en masse (meaning only Iggy Pop or Andrew W.K.), stage diving should be reserved for the comfort of your own home, where you're not in anyone's way and the only person you can hurt is yourself.

Happy Thanksgiving

Metal is Going to the Dogs

Metalsucks has a great Dogs Playlist this week. Here are a few that I would've added.

1. Primus, "Too Many Puppies" 
2. Fugazi, "Bulldog Front"
3. King's X, "Dogman"
4. Butthole Surfers, "Underdog"
5. The Giraffes, "Dog Sex #1"
6. AC/DC, "Dog Eat Dog" 
7. AC/DC, "Given the Dog a Bone"
8. The Dillinger Escape Plan and Mike Patton, "When Good Dogs Do Bad Things"
9. Dead Kennedys, "Dog Bite"
10. Dead Kennedys, "The Man with the Dogs"
11. Testament, "Dog Faced Gods"
12. The Melvins, "Sky Pup"
13. The Melvins, "Dog Island" 
14. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, "Evelyn, a Modified Dog"
15. Motörhead, "Dogs"
16. Mother Love Bone, "Stardog Champion"
17. Pearl Jam, "Pilate"
18. Head of David, "Dog Day Sunrise"
19. Jimmy Ågren, "Lester Howlin' Dog"
20. Gogol Bordello, "Dogs Were Barking"
21. Stillwater, "Fever Dog"
22. Andrew W.K., "Golden Eyed Dog"

More to come.

Dave “Oderus Urungus” Brockie and Andrew W.K

Best interview of the year.

Rest in Peace, Hydra Head

Sad to read yesterday about the demise of Hydra Head Records. Aaron Turner's labor of love (founded while he was in high school, before he was in Isis) distributed some of the best metal of the past 20 years. Stoner, noise, experimental, sludge, doom, mathcore, call it what you will, no metalhead should be without the following five.

1. Converge, Caring and Killing

Before the internet, music fans used to burn holes in their wallets tracking down early recordings of their favorite bands. Converge and Hydra Head's re-release of Halo in a Haystack with some early rarities kept the rest of us from doing that.



2. The Dillinger Escape Plan, Counting Infinity

The Dillinger Escape Plan were more raw and aggressive than they'd ever be again on their debut. Hearing DEP at their loudest is like hearing Andrew W.K. at his partiest.




3. The Melvins, (A) Senile Animal

In hindsight, of course a band that made a career out of being unpredictable would wait 25 years to start making their best music. See if you can find the three-part harmony.



4. Big Business, Here Come the Waterworks

The Melvins' secret weapon on (A) Senile Animal gave themselves away on their second album, in which a guitarless, two-many army made treble sound like a waste of time.



5. Torche, Meanderthal

The catchiest stoner metal band in the world? On Meanderthal, Torche were the catchiest rock band in the world.

Song of the Day: Andrew W.K., "Not Going to Bed"

Are going to fall asleep at the table?
I'm not!
Are you going to fall asleep watching cable? 
I'm not!

Help Randy Blythe

Randy Blythe is still in a Czech jail. I thought that this would be taken care of in a few days, but even after posting a nearly $200,000 bail, Blythe remains imprisoned.

I don't believe in fans jumping onstage during shows, unless the artist (i.e. only Iggy Pop or Andrew W.K.) encourages it, and even then in moderation. Especially after Dimebag Darrell's murder, no artist should be blamed for the fate of some jackass who jumps at the band during their performance. The more I read about this matter, the more infuriating it gets that Blythe is being detained. By all accounts from my friends in the music business, he is a good guy.

Please take a moment to help Randy Blythe here. There's been an absurd backlash to this fund, which Chris Adler has addressed here, and I can't see a good reason for Randy to be in jail. Send your best thoughts and support his way.

Andrew W.K. Getting Booed at the Gathering of the Juggalos

As funny, sad and strange as Andy Kaufman.






I don't understand much of the guff that juggalos get. Much of the world likes to point and laugh, but much of what they do doesn't seem any sillier to me than painting yourself for a football game or listening to Avenged Sevenfold. I'm also happy that they've found friendship and community with the music that they enjoy. Still, I can't buy that "we're in a place where everyone's accepted" argument when I see something like this. The most that I can say for the juggalos here is that they gave Andrew W.K. a chance to earn an "A" in Performers Etiquette.

New York for Talia

Last year, I made a New York City mix for my friend Ellen. In the process, I learned that there were far too many great NYC songs for one 80-minute CD, so I shaped it to Ellen's liking--she got Prince, Harry Nilsson, Leonard Cohen and Rancid. Last fall, I Frankensteined the mix for Richard. He got Nas, Jay-Z, Bill Withers and Lou Reed. Now, my buddy Talia has moved back to Brooklyn, and she enjoys Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen.




New York for Talia

1. Ramones, "Rockaway Beach"
2. Beastie Boys, "No Sleep Till Brooklyn"
3. Elvis Costello & the Attractions, "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea"
4. The Notorious B.I.G., "Juicy"
5. Bob Dylan, "Hard Times in New York Town"
6. Stevie Wonder, "Living for the City"
7. The Pogues, "Fairytale of New York"
8. The Drifters, "On Broadway"
9. Wu-Tang Clan, "C.R.E.A.M."
10. Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, "Drop Me Off in Harlem" 
11. The Rolling Stones, "Shattered"
12. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, "The Message"
13. Andrew W.K., "I Love NYC"
14. Fountains of Wayne, "No Better Place"
15. Tom Waits, "Downtown Train"
16. Simon and Garfunkel, "The Only Living Boy in New York"
17. Bruce Springsteen, "Jungleland"
18. Run-D.M.C., "Christmas in Hollis"

I'll take any excuse to put the Beastie Boys and Rolling Stones on a mix CD, or to argue that the Apple hosts the world's finest hip-hop. Here, "The Message" follows its clearest influence, "Living in the City," and there isn't much that can top "C.R.E.A.M." or "Juicy." But to Talia's liking, I'm giving her a Satchmo and Sir Duke team-up and of course "Jungleland," honoring her Springsteen fandom and the late Clarence Clemons' greatest solo.

Ellen returned my CD with her own terrific New York mix, and  I've cherry-picked "No Better Place" and "The Only Living Boy in New York" from her choices. Over all, I avoided the decibel levels that usually distinguish my mixes, though I couldn't imagine anyone resisting Andrew W.K.'s "I Love NYC."

One of my favorite parts of Ellen's and Richard's mixes was ending each one with the Sex Pistols' "New York." What better way to pay tribute to the Capital of the World than to end with one big raspberry blown by Johnny Rotten? Yet for all of Talia's intellectual curiosity, I couldn't picture her getting down to being called a pile of shit. Thus, I'm ending New York for Talia with the less divisive but equally satisfying "Christmas in Hollis."

Download here: New York for Talia

Expendables 2 Fan-Made Trailer

As with most sequels, this follow-up to 2010's sensational Expendables "Call to Arms" fan-made trailer can't beat the original. Still, it does have old-fashioned action movie stars blowing stuff up to the music of Andrew W.K., which makes it worth your two minutes. Watch it here: Expendables 2

The original, in case you missed it:

Song of the Day: Fishbone, "Sunless Saturday"

No one still needs to learn that happy music isn't written by happy people. Yet there's something shocking about all the misery in Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone, the Laurence Fishburne-narrated documentary about the world's most transcendent ska band. 



Onstage, Fishbone are a jubilant blast of acrobatics, stage dives and and singalongs, sons of James Brown and fathers of Andrew W.K. Watching peers (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus) and followers (Sublime, No Doubt) find the success that eludes Fishbone is sad, but seeing middle-aged Angelo Moore move back in with his mom, bassist Norwood Fisher charged with kidnapping the band's Rapture-pushing guitarist and nearly-empty record store signings for a band that once performed on SNL is downright disheartening. It's funny to watch no one show up to an Anvil show, but only because Anvil got a second chance.

Before Kendall Jones started believing that his bandmates were demons, he wrote one of Fishbone's best songs, "Sunless Saturday."



Fishbone were on a major label (but not for much longer) and had the budget to get Spike Lee to direct their music video. To Lee's credit, it catches some of the frenzied excitement of a Fishbone show without ever looking like a concert movie.

"Sunless Saturday" is heavy, in the way that something with horns and major key progressions can still sound like helter skelter. The melody's controlled chaos makes me wonder how the band lasted ten years before someone went insane.

It's isn't punk, funk, metal or ska--Wikipedia calls it "alternative," which confirms that no one really knew what to do with Fishbone. Everyday Sunshine interviewees argue that they "were too black," "weren't black enough," "were too ahead of their time" or "should have been less of a democracy," the latter point being the only one that Fishbone's records back up. But everyone seems to agree on "Sunless Saturday."