Andrew W.K.

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Andrew W.K.
Andrew W.K.
Andrew W.K.
Background information
Birth name Andrew Fetterly Wilkes-Krier
Born May 9, 1979 (age 27)
Origin Flag of United States Los Angeles, California (born)
Ann Arbor, Michigan (raised)
Genre(s) Rock
Hard rock
Occupation(s) Musician
Singer
Producer
Instrument(s) Drums, Piano, Keyboards, Vocals, Guitar, Bass
Years active 1998-Present
Label(s) Hanson, Mercury, Island, Bulb
Associated
acts		 Wolf Eyes
Website Official Site

Andrew W.K. (born Andrew Fetterly Wilkes-Krier on May 9, 1979 in Los Angeles, California) is a rock musician from the United States.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Andrew W.K. was born in Stanford, California, and grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

At age 4, he began learning classical piano at The University of Michigan School of Music. He attended the private college preparatory Greenhills School for middle school before attending the alternative Community High School from 1993-97, where he studied jazz keyboards. His father is Professor James Krier, a well-known legal scholar at the University of Michigan Law School and co-author of the widely used Dukeminer & Krier Property casebook.

His first official release was on Hanson Records, a record label out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was released in 1998, titled Room To Breathe. The album was cassette-only and only 35 copies were made. That same year, he appeared on the Hanson Records compilation Labyriniths & Jokes. In 2000, he released his first EP, AWKGOJ on Bulb Records. He released one more EP on this label, Party Til You Puke, before moving on to Island Records and releasing his first major label album, I Get Wet.

[edit] Music

[edit] "I Get Wet"

Andrew released his first major label album, I Get Wet, in 2001 on Island Records. The album is known for its recognizable cover art: a photo of Andrew W.K. with a large stream of "blood" running from his nose, down his chin and onto his throat. Andrew has stated that he created the nose bleed with a self-inflicted blow from a piece of a cinder block. The visual effect was enhanced with pigs' blood [1].

I Get Wet soon rose to the #1 position on Billboard's 'Heatseekers' list. Andrew W.K. joined Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest that summer. The opening track, "It's Time to Party", was featured in commercials for Hotwire.com, Coors Beer, Expedia.com, and several movie and TV soundtracks. His track "Don't Stop Living in the Red" is featured in a Target commercial. It was also featured during KSDK-TV's coverage of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2005. He also recorded an original song for KitKat chocolate wafers entitled 'Gimme a Break'. In 2002, he re-recorded his song "We Want Fun" from AWKGOJ for the soundtrack of Jackass: The Movie which also had a video made, filmed and directed by Spike Jonze.

[edit] "The Wolf"

In late 2003, W.K. released The Wolf. The album featured Andrew playing all the instruments on the recording (he had his full live band play on I Get Wet). It spawned the singles "Tear it Up" and "Never Let Down" (a phrase Andrew has liked to use since his early days) in the US (both had videos made, but only Tear It Up had a full retail single released) and the song "Long Live the Party" was a minor hit in Japan. There was a special promotion with this album. The original release of the album came with a little card with a code on it. The card instructed to go to Andrew's old site, http://awkworld.com, to register to receive a personal phone call from Andrew. 1000 people were going to be called, but not all 1000 were. A list of people called, and audio recordings of some of the calls were made available at AWKworld, but that site has since been taken offline.

The Wolf was not as commercially successful as I Get Wet, but fans thought of it as as good or better than IGW. On tour for The Wolf, Andrew was injured on stage and broke his foot. After the concert, he signed autographs from the ambulance. Not wanting to let his fans down, he performed the remainder of the tour in a wheelchair.

[edit] "Who Knows?"

The Cover to Who Knows?
The Cover to Who Knows?

Andrew W.K. released a live-concert movie entitled, "Who Knows?" and presented five screenings of the movie in New York City and Hollywood, in February and April, 2006. His father presented a screening of the movie in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the University of Michigan Law School. Although Andrew's father, law teacher James E. Krier was said to be the host of the event, Andrew was present at the screening also.

"Who Knows?" was released on DVD on February 7, 2006. It features 16 live performances and some behind-the-scenes moments with W.K. and his band.

[edit] Close Calls With Brick Walls

Andrew WK's album Close Calls With Brick Walls was released in Japan and South Korea in July 2006. During an interview on Japanese radio, Andrew explained that the title related both to his life and music as he narrowly avoided hitting a dead end, and instead sought new horizons in his work.[citation needed] The album contains 18 tracks (the South Korean version includes an additional 4 bonus tracks)

Andrew was also involved in filming the Japanese promotional video for "Not Going To Bed" in a Pennsylvania hotel;[citation needed] That video can be found at http://awkshare.com in the videoupload section.

[edit] Other music

In March 2006, during an episode of Sex Pistols' guitarist Steve Jones' radio show, "Jonsie's Jukebox", Andrew W.K. debuted the song "Vagabond", which did not appear on Close Calls. It is said to be appearing on his next planned album, "Young Lord", as for other tracks, such as "We're Not Going To Get Old".

Outside of his solo work, Andrew W.K. also performs with and produces music for the avant-garde ensemble To Live and Shave in L.A.. He first appeared on the band's 2004 release "God and Country Rally!". W.K. co-produced their 2006 studio album Noon and Eternity, and appears on the group's other 2006 release, the "chronological remix" project Horoscopo: Sanatorio de Moliere. He will accompany TLASILA to Canada and throughout the United States on promotional tours for both albums.

In mid 2006, soon after Close Calls was released, Andrew posted on his website the coming of new things. He stated that 2 new albums are in the works, as well as two new websites and a new TV show. The new albums are going to come out in 2007 and 2008.

In late 2006, Andrew re-worked his song "Fun Night" into a theme song for the Sundogs, an Arizona hockey team. The song was titled "Sundogs (It Just Got Hotter)", and is available to download at Andrew's site at http://andrewwk.com/content/Sun_Dogs_Theme.mp3

Recently, Andrew has been added to the live line-up of Current 93, and will play bass for them in their upcoming concerts. Also, Andrew will soon be writing songs with band Hanson for the third annual "Fool's Banquet" songwriting retreat.

[edit] TV and Movie Appearances

In 2004, Andrew had a television show on MTV2 titled Your Friend, Andrew W.K.. In the series, fans would write letters to Andrew, asking for his help, and Andrew would pick certain letters and go help out the fan who sent the letter asking for help. The series only lasted 1 season, and had 9 episodes. The actual episodes were actually only about 9 or 10 minutes in length, because MTV wanted to play music videos in between the segments of the show. Andrew himself could not pick the videos, and was not happy about it. During the filming of the show, Andrew was in a car crash but sustained no serious injuries. The show is no longer shown on television, but the episodes are available for download at http://awkshare.com/videoupload/index.php?path=YFAWK/

Andrew has said that he is going to have a new television show. He stated that it will be on New York Public Access television. It will also appear on the internet, and on DVD. He has not stated the format of the show, but he has said that it will be very different from YFAWK. On February 3rd, 2007, during an interview, Andrew stated that the new show would be titled "Smoke Show" (also the name of a deleted scene on his live DVD Who Knows?). He would not state anyhting else about the show, but he did say that there will be a website for it at http://www.smokeshow.com. Andrew has also appeared in the 1998 UK Miniseries Ultraviolet. He played the part of "Vampire Boy".

Andrew has performed on TV numerous times, performing on shows such as Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Last Call with Carson Daly, Saturday Night Live, and the Spike TV Video Game Awards. His most recent performance was with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He recently had a cameo in the show Aqua Teen Hunger Force, playing himself. He had no speaking parts, just a part singing a song about partying, which has not been released on record but is available for download from his website at http://andrewwk.com/content/PartyPartyParty.mp3

Andrew's only confirmed movie role is in the movie "Punk Rock Holocaust", playing himself, but he is said to have played a part in the film D-Day Remembered.

[edit] "Steev Mike"

Rumors claim that "Andrew W.K." is an actor, a "front man" hired to play the role and perform the A.W.K. music and that before there was an "Andrew W.K.," the press was holding interviews with a "Steev Mike," whose image and sound are the same as "Andrew W.K."

The first appearance of "Steev Mike" was inside the pages of the UK magazine "Dazed & Confused." An issue from early 2000 allegedly featured a full-page story on "Steev Mike," but it's nearly impossible to find this back issue.

Andrew himself has been conspicuously silent on the matter.

In 2005, Web sites directly linked with Andrew W.K. started appearing on the Internet, containing strange pictures and lines of code related to Steev Mike. These pages are now all off-line, but archived versions can be found at http://www.awk.dudeguy.com. Analysis of the code can be found at http://awilkeskrier.homestead.com/.

Many people have been said to be Steev Mike, including James "Twig" Harper of the noise band Nautical Almanac, Chicago musician Little Howlin' Wolf, and even Andrew W.K.'s father, James E. Krier.

In 2006, an alleged 1992 Bulb Records record recorded under the name Steev Mike was discovered. The record was spotted on eBay, and the auction states the records (the seller had 25) were found at a garage sale in Ann Arbor (Where Bulb Records was founded). Several weeks later, a UK record shop, Volcanic Tongue, was selling copies of the record in their online store. That Web site did not have a lot of copies in stock, and about a week after they listed it for sale, they were out, and took the page down. The tracks on the record are the same as Bulb band Couch's first EP, except for the last track, which is Couch's track Old Man. On the back of the Steev Mike record, Andrew W.K.'s father, James Krier, is listed. This is not strange, as James helped found the label.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Independent Releases

Major Studio Releases

Andrew was in various bands from 1994 to 1999, including The Pterodactyls, Lab Lobotomy, Kathode, Mr. Velocity Hopkins, and various other bands. It has actually been said that Andrew was in the band Wolf Eyes for a brief time.

[edit] Singles

[edit] DVDs

Bonus DVDs came with the Japanese version of Andrew's releases The Wolf and Close Calls With Brick Walls. Each had special footage not released anywhere else.

[edit] Film and Television Soundtracks

[edit] Compilation Appearances

  • "Labyriniths & Jokes (Hanson Records Release HN050) Song: Andrew Wilkes-Krier (Andrew also appeared on the Isis and Werewolves track and The Beast People track).
  • "Ozzfest 2002 Live Album" Song: She Is Beautiful (Live with Kelly Osbourne).
  • "Take Action! Vol 4 Song: Spoken PSA Intro
  • "Mosh Pit On Disney Song: Mickey Mouse Club March
  • "Maxim Rocks!" Magazine Compilation Song: She Is Beautiful
  • "Girls Gone Wild Music, Vol. 1" Song: Party Hard

[edit] Trivia

  • Andrew W.K's song "Party Hard' was featured on the video game Madden NFL 2003.
  • Andrew W.K is an off-and-on character in the webcomic Overcompensating by Jeffrey Rowland. He is described as:

"...an angel who misbehaved in Heaven, and God punished him by sending him to earth to party for all eternity."

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ↑ The Reeler, February 01 2006, "Andrew W.K. and the Cryptic Movie Missive": [2]
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