andrewwk.myfreeforum.org ~ NEW ANDREW WK LIVE ALBUM!!!

Forum Administrator Joined: 22 May 2005 Posts: 20

Go to www.awkshare.com to download your copy of the new Andrew WK live album!!!!!!

"Live on the First Day of School"

Tracklisting -

01 - Victory Strikes Again
02 - Long Live The Party
03 - It's Time To Party
04 - Take It Off
05 - Girls Own Love
06 - She Is Beautiful
07 - Ready To Die
08 - I Get Wet
09 - Party Hard

Now, I'm a little rusty, but the solo at the beginning of SIB is probably the most awesome one he's ever whipped out. Before this, my favorite one was one I witnessed a billion years ago when he started out playing it really slow and got faster and faster and it was mega-intense. This was also one of the first few times he was playing it, since they used to use a backing track (or so I remember, maybe I'm wrong).

Surprised

Whenever I listen to it and I hear the cheers from the audience, the hair on my arms stands up.

Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 18

that's almost (but not quite), the same solo he plays in the jumperproductions texas video; I agree it is the most catchy and rousing one I've heard. the sound quality on the "1st day" one lets you hear the freak out really well, I love it. they did used to use a backing track, btw. the last time I saw him he played the intro to something they'd always used a track on before, I'm pretty certain it was ready to die. I just remember being very very very very very excited by this

Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Posts: 21 Location: Wirral, UK

Is it not out for sale yet? I hate copies, rather have the origenal (SP?)

Forum Moderator Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 10

I puke on Island Lame Jam's shoes.

The Wolf was just as promising a record as I Get Wet, I'd say, but Island's promotion the second time around was sorely lacking, especially since they hadn't even done it correctly the first time. Like I Get Wet was EVERYWHERE. Posters. Magazine ads. He was on Politically Incorrect, of all shows. You could not get away from that nosebleed if you taped your eyes closed and sat in a sealed cardboard box.

Then The Wolf came and went and people didn't even know he had a new album out.

Part of it I think is kind of his fault for rushing into a second album. Not that we weren't all excited for it, and not that I don't understand and respect his reasoning (He was concerned about a base and maintaining a certain level of staying power), but the hype hadn't died down from I Get Wet when the Wolf came out because their US release dates were less than a year and a half apart. His concerns about longevity are valid, but I'm not entirely sure that route was the best for him. Maybe I'm out of my mind, but I think he had a strong enough fan base that he could've held out at least another six months.

I also think that Island billing him as some kind of... I don't even know what they were going for, the metalhead you can bring home to mom or something? Whatever they were trying to push him off as, it didn't work. Here's a dude making really powerful, unique music, and so much of his promotion was either "Look at this craaaazy dude with the craaaazy nosebleed! PS: Buy the album!" or "Break out your keg and your camaro! It's party time!" And everybody was like "Oh, wow, this dude's awesome" but only for like fifteen minutes. I honestly feel like if they had given the music the respect it deserves, he would've been more respected as an artist and a person.

Mad

If the split is final and a done deal, I'm glad he's gone. They never had a clue.

Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 18

I certainly agree with your assessment of island's many sins; yet I'm not sure if I've ever seen a major label market a worthwhile artist in a way that did them justice, or that didn't pervert what they were about in some way. especially with someone as complex, yet specific as andrew, who really does upset assumptions that record companies and such operate under, it would have taken an equally visionary label to do as good a job as andrew himself does at communicating what the music is about..."visionary" and "record label" rarely go together.

yet I go between that and the fact that if it weren't for them, and their seemingly crass way of marketing him, far fewer people would have likely heard this music. so sure, there are lots of people out there who don't know about The Wolf, and who probably have a misleading image of awk, but that's many more people this music has reached and given pleasure to, and that's the most basic and important goal of this whole thing. I think they did way more good than harm in the long run.

I've also felt some ambivalence toward the way The Wolf happened, but it's over and done with. my thought is the more that's out there the better, it's just one more outlet someone can come to this through. it certainly isn't a problem; it doesn't stop anyone from hearing igw for the first time tomorrow and going through the same thing we went through back in '02 or whenever. though it might not have been as succesful as it could've been, having the wolf out there is way better than not. (I just realized last night, discounting the "in" stuff that was clearly its origin, The Wolf is a very strange album title, especially for that album; it makes me like it more) the good news is (at least to me) that rushing is clearly the last thing andrew is doing with the next release; I could write more about that but I think I've reached the reasonable attention span point!

Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 18

I don't think his recent reclusiveness is necessarily a result of people taking advantage of his friendliness. I always thought part of the point of him going out of his way to be accessible was that inevitably not everyone would be polite and grateful about it, but he still did it out of love and that was what made it what it was. a lot of it may simply have to do with means; the number of people wanting even little things from him was getting so big, no single person however many tools they had could possibly handle it. unfortunately right around the same time he apparently lost a lot of help and support he had from whatever happened with the record company.

I hope no one here will yell at me for this, but I really think his new style of doing things (ie behind closed doors) was announced if not fully explained during the steev mike thing. he was shutting out all other distractions to devote himself totally to the music, and in order to do so he was "leaving what you've known me to be". I remember that from one of the first messages that appeared on andrewwk.com, unfortunately I haven't seen it preserved anywhere since. I take that to mean he needed to stop playing many of the extra roles he had been in order to get his own work done. the music, after all, is the center of this whole thing, the source and the motivator for all the love and kindness and joy that's expressed in and propagated through, among many other things, hanging out after shows and writing letters and such.

I feel that the steev mike/louise harland stuff was/is likely andrew's attempt to, at least theoretically, remove himself as an individual from the idea of this music. in a way I think YFAWK may have backfired (though it certainly doesn't make it regretable in any way; these things aren't predictable and that is good); it was intended to make clear how this is about many many people and not just one, but it ended up putting the focus even more on andrew as the tony robbins character some people always accused him of being. so the sm/lhc stuff made us question andrew the person as the center and most important part of this whole thing. would we still believe in all the good things we'd gained from the music and from andrew if he turned out to be "fake"? if he was just a pawn and someone else created the music and his persona? or maybe even worse, if he turned out to just be a cynical jerk who didn't really believe in all the things he said? would that mean everything that has been built up in the last 5 years would be shattered, or would all the happiness and drive and optimism and fellowship he catalyzed simply continue without him? some people tried to express it with names: "ANDREW WK" the music and the spirit of love and fun that fills it is not and should not just be about Andrew Wilkes-Krier.

I suppose it goes without saying that, presuming andrew was behind everything, that was an exceedingly strange and extreme way to go about trying to convey such an thing, but it sure was engrossing! it has really given everything a mystique that has brought back a lot of my excitement over this music. things are different now from the way they were, and that is good. there are new feelings to savor, and nothing is as predictable as it once was. bolting blindly we are indeed, and it is the best way!

See, I wasn't around for the Steev Mike stuff at all, so I only have a limited understanding of what actually took place. I also haven't talked to him or paid attention to anything he's done in two years, so the Andrew I'm thinking about might actually not even be anywhere near the Andrew that exists. The Dot that existed back in '02-'03 totally isn't the Dot ruminating on all of this now, so I'm totally willing to accept some personal growth in that time on his part, as well. Laughing

But you're right; we should have always been questioning who the center was. And the trickier part of that is that I think a part of him kind of liked being the center. One of the previously unspoken reasons why I shut down Party Central was that when he redid AWKworld in the summer of '03, he added his fan section. Now, if you'll remember, we all had our fansites and it was this big huge collective effort (or at least I felt it was). We were all helping each other build and grow. But when he added his fan section, people weren't even visiting the fansites. Our traffic died. I know other webmasters aren't bitter about it but I don't mind admitting that I was (mind you, I was 19-20 and a HUGE asshole). I felt like we were all doing what we could as parts of a greater, larger whole... And he was saying, "That's all fine and great that you have your little fansites and everything, but in case you've forgotten, this is about me and I want to be the center of it." I don't know if that's what he was actually saying or not, of course; I never discussed it with him. But the fact remains: when he became more into building HIS website, there no longer was a need for ours. Now who's still around from that era? Just Don't Stop The Noise.

I know that life happens, too-- life certainly happened to me. But I also used the stuff that was going on in my life as an excuse to not have to deal with a scene that I thought was a sham. Andrew was making decisions that I didn't want to support (if you'll remember, I was adamantly against the broken foot concerts, among other things), and so I didn't. I don't regret that decision in the slightest. I got resentful. I got tired of him getting his way at my expense when I was doing that out of the goodness of my own heart. Maybe this is the wrong shit to be admitting, but whatever. We're adults! You can't talk about this man without talking about how he makes you feel because this is all designed to attack your emotions.

He's human. I know I used to say it a lot and I thought I believed it, but now I'm not so sure I understood. He's very much a human being and I think it's impossible to do what he did and not get caught up in it just a little bit.

I feel like him wanting this to be less of a focus on him is maybe half the story... And I think the other half is definitely recuperation. He was really run-down and unhealthy-looking when I saw him a few times and another reason why I resolved to get rid of PC (God, my list of reasons is really amazing and no one had any idea) was because I didn't want to contribute to what was destroying somebody I cared a great deal for. And I felt guilty that I was sanctioning it to everyone because I knew not everyone was going to be appreciative of the time spent with him.

So I had to revoke my own Wolf Kult membership. Confused

I just couldn't do it and I don't think I can ever go back to doing it the way I was. It's just so much work and emotion and it takes a lot of patience and love and energy. And you can't get mad. You just have to go with the flow.

Joined: 19 Nov 2005 Posts: 6