Andrew WK and the Anxiety over the Undecidable

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I just wrote this on another forum in response to the contention that Andrew WK and Kid Rock are "plain ole crappy cock rock". As an afterthought, I am posting it here verbatim in the hope that I will provoke debate, blah etc. But really just to stoke the fires of music critics who like to argue with each other. Maybe I'll succeed, maybe not, maybe it has all been said before. Enjoy, or don't. See? It's fun not to be able to decide.

"I like Andrew WK, to a degree. I love "She is Beautiful". I'm not sure I have the proper constitution to listen to the whole album, however.

I think what I like best about him is how uncomfortable he seems to make people with respect to his sincerity/lack thereof. In that way he seems very complex to me - simple things* don't cause nearly as much anxiety and polar opposition as he has. A lot of this anxiety stems from the inability to discern his intentions (is this a joke? is he serious? etc). I appreciate the way he confuses these issues. Personally, I couldn't care less whether he's serious or not, and I don't think the question could even be answered in such simple terms.

*cf. Kid Rock: "I make southern rock, and I mix it with the hip-hop"... thanks for straightening that out, Kid. From where I'm standing, there's a large gulf between these two - Kid Rock is deliberately transparent, where as Andrew, whose deliberateness is difficult/impossible to decide, makes work which seems as though it's transparent but which in my view is opaque. He further resists communication of his intent through the clothes he wears - always a white t-shirt and white jeans. Not identifiable with the genre he seems to be aping, nor fully with any other. I could go on about the stripped down, empty spaces in which he films his videos, etc... it's all terribly significant. ;)

Anyway. Fascinating creature, Andrew. Looks like a _______ but really it's a _______. I don't find him attractive, it's just confusing...

― CaptainSleep, Monday, 26 August 2002 09:26 (twenty-three years ago)

yes you have isolated one of the many reasons that kid rock is much much better than indie metal

― simon trife (simon_tr), Monday, 26 August 2002 09:34 (twenty-three years ago)

what's indie metal?

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Monday, 26 August 2002 12:39 (twenty-three years ago)

YES

...there is a tension between AWK's history as a Hanson records sideman, beyond the valley of the obscure, and his leap to national prominence and Coors commercials. duh?

Yes, it's probably best for most people in not more than Coors-commercial duration.

the music is not so great for me, but it does what he wants it to... you smile when you first hear it, maybe bang your head a little if it's loud enuff & that's your thing.

it's like a blunter example of a tension that intrigues me more, the Fucking Champs, who are even more like 80s metal, AND even more post-millennenial credible hipster at the same time. Maybe because I can't deny that I like them, even though I want to dislike them, a little.

― autovac, Monday, 26 August 2002 16:19 (twenty-three years ago)

four months pass...

###

― # #, Thursday, 9 January 2003 18:38 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

i love andrew wk

― gygax! (gygax!), Sunday, 16 May 2004 02:34 (twenty-two years ago)

me too

― phil-two (phil-two), Sunday, 16 May 2004 02:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Third!

― Tim Ellison, Sunday, 16 May 2004 03:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I sense a pattern. (I still most emphatically do not love Andrew WK.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 16 May 2004 03:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Ned you are no fun. Don't you like to party?

― christhamrin (christhamrin), Sunday, 16 May 2004 03:07 (twenty-two years ago)

With better music, sure. That said, let the record show I did headbang to "We Want Fun" at Tom's wedding FAP -- the combination of drink and atmosphere was perfect. And I couldn't care if I never heard him again.

(Also, please don't bring up the ridiculous, idiotic, ill-founded, contemptuous, I-think-I-should-spit-in-your-eye-for-that-crap 'you don't like Andrew WK = you hate fun' idea again.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 16 May 2004 03:10 (twenty-two years ago)

but its fun-ny

― christhamrin (christhamrin), Sunday, 16 May 2004 03:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Har

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 16 May 2004 03:17 (twenty-two years ago)

see!

― christhamrin (christhamrin), Sunday, 16 May 2004 03:19 (twenty-two years ago)

i ALSO luv andrew wk ... and his schtick.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 16 May 2004 03:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I never had any strong feelings about Andrew WK one way or the other, but the other day I saw a reality show on MTV2 where he spends the night at a black women's college and then takes some of the students from the college onstage at one of his shows, and I have to say, he seemed like an exceedingly likeable young man.

― o. nate (onate), Sunday, 16 May 2004 03:27 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, that was a good programme.

i like the production on his disckes a lot.

― christhamrin (christhamrin), Sunday, 16 May 2004 03:30 (twenty-two years ago)

dudes, WTF is up w/ all of these andrew wk threads being revived?!?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 16 May 2004 03:46 (twenty-two years ago)

gygax is drunk.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Sunday, 16 May 2004 03:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I would have never have guessed that there were so many Andrew WK threads on ILM.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 16 May 2004 04:35 (twenty-two years ago)

man, and I started 2 of them (because he's awesome!)

― A Nairn (moretap), Sunday, 16 May 2004 05:24 (twenty-two years ago)

he has this tv show where he goes to places to hang out with people. i saw an episode yesterday where he went to USC and hung out with fat black girls, the step team with surprising coordination!! he's a good man!@

― peter $ (peter $), Sunday, 16 May 2004 05:47 (twenty-two years ago)

"fat"

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Sunday, 16 May 2004 21:46 (twenty-two years ago)

andrew wk is my hero

― Pablo Cruise (chaki), Sunday, 16 May 2004 23:50 (twenty-two years ago)

"i get wet" (the song) stopped me from killing myself last october

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 16 May 2004 23:59 (twenty-two years ago)

"Don't Stop Living in the Red" similarly lifted me from depression once

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Monday, 17 May 2004 00:18 (twenty-two years ago)

"party hard" almost made me kill myself with too much partying

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 17 May 2004 00:29 (twenty-two years ago)

GYGAX! LISTEN TO THIS!!!

― Be sure to Loop! Loop, Loop, Loop. (ex machina), Thursday, 20 May 2004 18:01 (twenty-two years ago)

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