Mark my words: By the end of 2002, you WILL know about ANDREW W.K...and not just because you read my monkey-headed review.
Rolling Stone Magazine described ANDREW W.K as "Def Leppard meets NIN", and I happen to agree with them for the most part.
Here's some background info I snagged from Rollingstone.com: Raised in the Detroit area, twenty-three-year-old Andrew W.K. learned classical piano before spending his teens playing drums in grind-core death-metal bands. At eighteen, he moved to New York; after dozens of strange, sweaty shows featuring nothing more than W.K., a microphone, a CD player and a keyboard, he was signed to Island Records. His first single, "Party Hard," entered the British charts at Number Fourteen last year.
So basically, Andrew W.K. is a classically trained pianist and former Detroit punker who wrote an album of anthemic, ultra-hooky, not-to-be-taken-seriously party tunes, a-la Glam Rock of the 1980s. When he couldn't sell it here, he went overseas. Ever since, he's been playing to packed houses. The music on his full-length debut, I Get Wet, is energetic, mildly electronic, filled with mindless party lyrics, and is VERY hummable.
The first track on I Get Wet is about 1:30, and starts off with chunky power chords, Meatloaf-esque piano accompaniment, and is called...get this..."It's Time to Party"...Rock on, dude.
The single "Party Hard" is one of the hookiest rock anthems this side of "Talk Dirty To Me" or "Kickstart My Heart"...after a brief electronic intro, the main riff and screaming hit you like a punch to the face (much like the one Andrew WK looks like he got on the cover of his album). Teenages are going to hear this, and once they do, the oh-so-serious rock 'n' roll movement of recent years is going to get thrown right out the fucking window.
It's so catchy and so simple, you'd think that Andrew WK was some mindless musician, but I watched a few interviews with the guy, and this disc is anything but. Every dumb-ass, simple-as-hell song on this disc was painstakingly crafted to attract millions of morons to see his band perform.
