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It takes a lot of charisma to make filthy white jeans and greasy hair alluring, but Andrew W.K. has somehow managed it, just as he's managed to make some of the biggest, dumbest, loudest and most compelling anthem rock to come along since Slade and Meat Loaf.
With many of the songs on his debut album, "I Get Wet," shamelessly devoted to partying, it would be easy to dismiss this 23- year-old singer as a musical parody, a la Spinal Tap. But there is no irony in his head-banging, hair-swinging, fist-pumping metal celebrations. When Andrew W.K. serves up a song titled "It's Time to Party," he means it as an "unconditional, open-ended invitation" for everyone to enjoy life as much as he does.
"I want [listeners] to feel good about themselves, to feel good about me and feel better about the people around them, and about things to come and all things that have happened," says the tall, dark and scruffy W.K. the day after his recent L.A. debut at the Whisky.
That spirit was very much in evidence on stage. Whether it was "Party Til You Puke" or another of his seemingly dunderheaded songs, the highly animated performer took time out from his air splits and karate kicks to smile and shake hands with enthusiastic fans. He even let a lucky few share the spotlight for a second before they dived back into the crowd, an especially generous move because there was hardly any room on stage between him and his five musicians.
W.K.'s music is nothing if not dense, with three thundering guitars, keyboards, thrashing drums and W.K.'s netherworldly vocals. A rave review in the Village Voice said his new record "could rouse even Ozzy to kick the camera crew out of his house, grab a bottle of Jack, peel out of his driveway and head out on a quest for the nearest kegger." Any way you slice it, his music is loud, and that's just the way he wants it.
"There's no other option. That's how music should be. The world is big, huge, loud, exciting, slamming, beautiful, magnificent and grand," says W.K., who is in the midst of a six-week U.S. tour for the album. "Why would I whisper when...
