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Andrew W.K. is smarter than all of us
By Ned | February 8, 2008
Let’s lay off the politics for a bit. I’ve got something of profound importance I’ve been meaning to discuss with you.
I’m a proud music snob. I’ll prove it to you: The Hold Steady was one of my favorite bands before anyone else had even heard of them. Sage Francis is my favorite MC. When Journey came back, I spent a lot of time explaining to my friends why they suck. When the inevitable anti-Vampire Weekend backlash comes, I’ll be able to proudly say that I was one of the few people to not like them before it was cool. When my friends and I check out each others’ music libraries, I used to brag that mine was a collection devoid of guilty pleasures.
Then, last semester, a friend who scarily encyclopedic knowledge of music no one will ever be able to match, made me sit down and listen to Andrew W.K. Like, actually listen to him.
Here’s the thing: AWK is something of a joke. Not a whole lot of people take him seriously, and when people listen to his stuff, it’s often in a smirking, ironic, Oh my god, look how terrible this is kind of way. He’s got the kind of music that’s good for an ironic listen; obtuse lyrics, a lot of shouting, grinding metal guitars, cheesy 80’s keys and a total lack of irony or self-consciousness.
And that’s really the thing that people don’t appreciate but should. This guy believes every single word he shouts into the mic. Sure, lyrics-wise, he’s no Bob Dylan. And sure, a good 40% of his songs have names like, “Party Hard,” “Party Party Party,” “Party ‘Til You Puke,” “Long Live the Party,” and so on. But the thing that really struck me about Andrew W.K. the first time I really listened to him is that he probably doesn’t give a shit that you’re snickering over how bad his music is so you can look cool, because he’s too busy having more fun than you.
Turns out he’s also smarter than you, too. Check out this AV Club interview where he talks about the philosophy behind his music:
AWK: Absolutely. I’ve been doing more than I’ve ever done before. When the focus is on doing exactly what you want to do, when you focus on what feels good and you follow your emotions and put all of your energy on that, you’re going to get way more done!
AVC: Is this the definition of “pure fun” you’ve talked about?
AWK: Do you think it makes sense to call it that? I hadn’t thought of that as a way to represent this. Maybe I’ll explain it that way from now on. “Fun” is when you’re having fun, but “pure fun” is when you’ve decided to have fun and you set it up so that you could. And “love” is different than “total love.” “Love” is where you love a song or a certain person, “total love” is when you love all things, including stuff that you don’t like. You love that thing you don’t like for the ability it gives you to not like it, for the experience it gives you. You have total love for things you don’t want to do, because it gives you the choice to do something different, because it creates diversity and dynamic and contrast. It’s the appreciation of all those choices, and having total love for all the diversity in the world that we can then choose from to build our own story.
Go ahead and laugh, but it clearly works for him. Listen to his music. This guy enjoys his life more than you smirking Pitchfork hipsters ever will. And once you start to view his music through the lens of the philosophy he describes, the lyrics start to sound friggin’ brilliant. If this music is just dumb fun, it’s the smartest dumb music I’ve ever heard. Listen to it closely and you can tell it was written by the super-awkward guy in your high school US history class with the long hair and Iron Maiden T-shirts if when he grew up he somehow managed to eliminate all of his uncertainty, neuroses and self-esteem issues and decided he wanted to show everyone else how to do the same thing. Andrew W.K.’s music is self-help advice that not only actually works, but that you can rock out to.
For example, here’s Andrew W.K. on stress management:
And here he is on talking to girls, and also playing every single instrument in the band proficiently:
God damn. I wish I had started listening to this guy during freshman year of high school or something. It would have made adolescence a much less bumpy ride.
Topics: Uncategorized |
February 9th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I actually always really liked him. I need to catch up with the guy.
February 11th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
“scarily encyclopedic knowledge of music?”
damn! damn!