Hit or Miss: Andrew W.K

Any fans? I personally think the guy is annoying as all hell, but I dig his music. Obviously not something I could throw on all the time, but at the right time, I think his music is killer! I know a lot of people find it immature and annoying, but I think it's fun.

His last album, Close Calls With Brick Walls, may actually surprise some of those who dislike him. It's...epic party music? First off, it wasn't released in the US, which is weak, but if you can score a copy, it's got a different vibe going on. There are those upbeat, happy party tunes, but there are also some songs that would fit on a Meat Loaf's album. Even those "party" tunes have a more epic feel to them—I swear!

You can stream the album here: http://www.andrewwk.com (use the red arrows to the right to change the albums). While you're there, the picture should tell you why I think the guy is a retard.

So...hit or miss? Hit for me!

miss... smindas likes him alot i think... but i don't know why. personal taste i guess! to each their own.

i have nothing against him either though. Donald Tardy is a killer drummer.

As mc666, I'm a huge fan. I think I have everything he's ever released on CD bar the Party Til You Puke EP. I just think the music's great - it's energetic, it's not entirely serious, it's epic and a lot of it's very uplifting to me at least. Also, the earlier stuff with it's more electro influences and Close Calls With Brick Walls show that Andrew can be pretty varied when he wants to be. As for AWK himself, I think the man's a complete joker - very positive guy, seems very friendly and is an awesome motivational speaker as well as a surprisingly good musician. Unfortunately, I'm in a minority having AWK as one of my favourite musicians. Ah well.
Also, as for Close Calls With Brick Walls being Asia only, it's getting a US vynil release with extra tracks in August and I think the plan is to release it on CD next year. There's also 3 other upcoming releases planned to be released in different countries at different times - it's a bit of a weird way of releasing things, but whatever, it will more than likely be worth it.

Yeah, I have issues.

I scored a free copy of his first release. It was interesting and different at the time, but when the novelty wore off, I got bored with it pretty quickly and unloaded it. I have not heard anything since that.

Smindas wrote:

As mc666, I'm a huge fan. I think I have everything he's ever released on CD bar the Party Til You Puke EP. I just think the music's great - it's energetic, it's not entirely serious, it's epic and a lot of it's very uplifting to me at least. Also, the earlier stuff with it's more electro influences and Close Calls With Brick Walls show that Andrew can be pretty varied when he wants to be. As for AWK himself, I think the man's a complete joker - very positive guy, seems very friendly and is an awesome motivational speaker as well as a surprisingly good musician. Unfortunately, I'm in a minority having AWK as one of my favourite musicians. Ah well.

Also, as for Close Calls With Brick Walls being Asia only, it's getting a US vynil release with extra tracks in August and I think the plan is to release it on CD next year. There's also 3 other upcoming releases planned to be released in different countries at different times - it's a bit of a weird way of releasing things, but whatever, it will more than likely be worth it.

Yeah, I have issues.

He reminds me that infomercial exercise dude with the pony tail! Haha. He's just out of control. I don't know what it is, but most of the time I feel like slapping him. He does tone it down ocassionally and I totally respect the positive nature of what he does and how he lives, but at the same it's like "CALM THE FOOK DOWN!!!" Haha.

A vinyl release of Close Calls is cool, but does me no good as I haven't owned a record player in over 10 years. I still buy vinyl, but only rare stuff. Are the bonus tracks just going to be the four already released as bonus tracks or will they be different? A US CD release needs to happen. The album is easily his best.

You know any more about these other three releases?

The US vynil 5 bonus tracks are different to the ones that appeared on the Korean release of Close Calls. They are;
Big Party (right click and Save As to download), Kicks & Bricks, We Will Boogie, We're Not Gonna Get Old, I've Got Know Fear
The first two have been released on the AWK website - Big Party last week and Kicks & Bricks back in 2005 I think - and are both decent cuts IMO, albeit different. The third one, We Will Boogie was up on AWK's myspace for a while. It seemed like a bad Party Hard remix to me as opposed to a new song.

As for the other three releases, not a huge amount is known. Young Lord, the next one, is meant to come out in the US this year - apparently the Korean bonus tracks for Close Calls are to be part of it, a long with a new version of You Will Remember Tonight... which I personally don't get. Then the follow up to that is The Carrier, which will get a release over here in Europe first some time in 2008. Eventually these two CDs and Close Calls will be released everywhere, but for now, they're being annoying about it. Then there's a bit of confusion of the next release or two; Andrew has announced an album called Eberwhite and also a piano-only album, which presumably will be quite a different affair to his normal stuff. However it's unclear whether the piano thing and Eberwhite are one and the same.

I'm pretty sure that's everything I know on the matter ;P

Cool. Thanks!

Yo Smindas! I just score the Party Till You Puke CD sealed for $4.99 today. Worth anything? I'm keeping it, but I'm just curious.

I want to hit him, so I guess miss?

Eyesore wrote:

Yo Smindas! I just score the Party Till You Puke CD sealed for $4.99 today. Worth anything? I'm keeping it, but I'm just curious.

You lucky dog. I've been trying to get a hold of that CD for ages (I only have the vynil version) but it never got a UK release, which makes it a bit of a challenge. I'm not sure about how much it's worth, though it rivals AWKGOJ for the rarest Andrew W.K. CD, I believe.

Don't suppose you'd be willing to part with it / is there any way you can score another one and we could arrange something? No worries if not!

kmorg wrote:

I want to hit him, so I guess miss?

you Kid Rock fans are so violent.

Smindas wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

Yo Smindas! I just score the Party Till You Puke CD sealed for $4.99 today. Worth anything? I'm keeping it, but I'm just curious.

You lucky dog. I've been trying to get a hold of that CD for ages (I only have the vynil version) but it never got a UK release, which makes it a bit of a challenge. I'm not sure about how much it's worth, though it rivals AWKGOJ for the rarest Andrew W.K. CD, I believe.

Don't suppose you'd be willing to part with it / is there any way you can score another one and we could arrange something? No worries if not!

Yeah, I see AWKGOJ all over the place, never saw this one before. I just actually got the vinyl version a few months ago; I was under the impression it never got a CD release so I was surprised when I saw it, sort of figured it was a bootleg or a recent reissue.

I can't say that I'll part with it, but I will most definitely grab you a copy if I come across another.

That's fair enough, I appreciate that you'll keep an eye out. Anyway, what do you think of it? It's a lot more electronic than everything else he's done, but I like most of it. The additional versions of PTYP and the cover of Couch's Old Man are a bit meh, but I Want To Kill makes up for that in my eyes.