The Party Father.
"I WANNA HAVE A PARTY! I WANNA HAVE A PARTY!
I WANNA HAVE A PARTY! I WANNA HAVE A PARTY!
YOU CAN'T KILL THE PARTY! YOU CAN'T KILL THE PARTY!
YOU CAN'T KILL THE PARTY, LONG LIVE THE PARTY!"
I WANNA HAVE A PARTY! I WANNA HAVE A PARTY!
YOU CAN'T KILL THE PARTY! YOU CAN'T KILL THE PARTY!
YOU CAN'T KILL THE PARTY, LONG LIVE THE PARTY!"
— "Long Live The Party," The Wolf, 2003
Andrew Fetterly Wilkes-Krier (born May 9, 1979), better known as Andrew W.K., is an American rock vocalist, classically-trained pianist, songwriter, motivational speaker, television personalitynote and self-proclaimed "professional partier". It is very likely that he is the biggest Cloud Cuckoolander in rock.
Over a long and varied career, Andrew has become most famous for his boisterous approach to rock music, characterized by shouted, chanted vocals, multi-layered guitars, huge pop hooks and keyboard flourishes. His sound was mostly a poppy metal sound of pure adrenaline, but, starting with his second album, he tried some experimentation, most notably 55 Cadillac, an album made up of piano instrumentals. Andrew tours with his signature sound both with a full band (with up to three guitar players) and with a more minimal setup - himself, a keyboard programmed with songs and a backup singer. Andrew is also famous for his persona of a relentlessly optimistic, somewhat philosophical man with an insatiable desire to motivate, or "party," as he usually refers to it.
Andrew's most recognizable release to this day is his debut album I Get Wet, which contains his most popular song ("Party Hard") and boasts famous (and controversial)note cover art
depicting him with a profusely bleeding nose. The blood was a mix of real blood Andrew produced from smashing a piece of a cinder block into his face — you read that correctly — and the blood of an animal he got from a butcher.
In April 2015, Andrew started his own Saturday morning radio show, America W.K., on Glenn Beck's The Blaze network, but it ended at the end of the same year.
You can read more about all the insane/awesome stuff Andrew has done over at That Other Wiki.
Discography:
- Girls Own Juice EP (1999)
- Party Til You Puke (2000)
- I Get Wet (2001)
- The Wolf (2003)
- Close Calls With Brick Walls (2006 in Japan, 2010 worldwide)
- The Japan Covers (2008, in Japan)
- 55 Cadillac (2009, instrumental album)
- Mother of Mankind - Rare & Unreleased 1999-2010 (2010, packaged with Close Calls With Brick Walls)
- Gundam Rock (2009, in Japan)
- The "Party All Goddamn Night" EP (2011, in Japan)
- You're Not Alone (2018)
- God Is Partying (2021)
IT'S TIME TO PARTY!
- Adam Westing/As Himself: Most of his Cameos on comedy shows. See below.
- Alternative Metal: His specific type of metal has been nicknamed, "Party Metal."
- An Aesop: The "Party Tips" on his Twitter.
- Animated Music Video: "I Want To See You Go Wild." Which is odd because Andrew isn't animated, but everything else is.
- Arc Word: "Party," of course.
- The Atoner: Implied in "Tear It Up," as he details what a jerk he was as a youth.
- Big Applesauce: Raised in Michigan, now resides in NYC. In Andrew's words, "I LOVE!!! NEW YORK CITY!!! OHHHHHH YEAH!!! NEW YORK CITY!!!"
- Bigger Than Jesus: British music periodical NME put Andrew W.K. on their front cover in late October 2001 hailing him as "The Saviour of Music" and "Bigger Than Jesus!"
- Book Ends: The first track on The Wolf is titled "Victory Strikes Again" and the last words of the last track, "I Love Music" are "victory strikes again."
- Broken Record: "...party hard, party hard, party hard, party hard, party hard..."
- Call-and-Response Song: "Make Sex."
- The Cameo:
- Has a couple on 5 Second Films, forcing a hapless party goer to drink via hypnotism and the power of rock, and offering free hugs.
- There's also his workout plan video on fatawesome.
- He shows up as a karaoke singer in the video for "I Believe I Can Fly" (at the 1:31 mark) by Me First And The Gimme Gimmes.
- Shows up several times in Aqua Teen Hunger Force, notably to sing 'Party Party Party' to a dying Frylock.as part of a "get well, asshole" party thrown by Carl.
- Has a couple on 5 Second Films, forcing a hapless party goer to drink via hypnotism and the power of rock
- Cannot Talk to Women: "She Is Beautiful" is about trying to overcome this; specifically it's about a party he attended (not Andrew's lifestyle and outlook; a party-party) where he was too shy to talk to a pretty girl, and was kicking himself afterward for not building up the courage.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: There really is no one quite like him in the modern day music biz. For example, do you know how he got that broken nose on the I Get Wet cover? He smashed his own face against a brick. That takes balls and a whole lot of lack of common sense.
- Curse Cut Short: The end of the video for "It's Time to Party" has Andrew W.K. waking up from his excessive partying during The Stinger, muttering only, "What the f-"
- Dark and Troubled Past: He was a very dark teenager and had many run-ins with the law, a drastic contrast to the persona he's known for today. He also admitted to receiving a restraining order for an old song of his.
- Darker and Edgier: The 2021 release of the singles "I'm In Heaven" and "Babalon" saw Andrew get more in touch with his love of heavy metal. They're easily the heaviest songs he's ever released up to that point, which is saying something since this is Andrew WK we're talking about.
- Dress Rehearsal Video: 2001's "Party Hard" video takes place on a soundstage with nothing but Andrew, his original band, and the I Get Wet cover hanging from the rafters, but armed with some intense cinematography, it properly introduced Andrew to the world at large.
- Freak Out: Invoked as his dancing style. Or to promote an album.
- Fun Personified: Party = Fun, therefore Andrew W.K. = Fun.
- Hidden Depths:
- That guy you heard on the radio? The one with the hard rock about partying? Yeah, he gives motivational, introspective lectures. He also released a piano-only album as a way to get away from the record company's constant demands for constant party anthems.
- Currently, Andrew writes an advice column for Village Voice, where he's gathered attention for his insightful, well-spoken responses to fans.
- His music in general has got quite a lot of hidden depths. What will generally sound like simple three chord songs often hides rather complex chord progressions and elaborate melodies.
- He once had his own radio show where he could espouse his ideas and philosophies to listeners.
- Forget the radio show - the man is founding his own POLITICAL PARTY. The Party Party, of course.
- That guy you heard on the radio? The one with the hard rock about partying? Yeah, he gives motivational, introspective lectures
- Hot-Blooded: His straight-up rock songs are all shouted.
- I Am the Band: Whether his full band, or just a big synthesizer and a backup vocalist (which was the format of a few tours of his), Andrew WK is the main attraction.
- Iconic Outfit/Limited Wardrobe: White t-shirt, white jeans, white sneakers, in varying states of dampness/dirtiness. Large blood smear optional.
- Indecipherable Lyrics: Most every time the lyrics to "Ready To Die" are subbed, the lines "Been a long time coming, now you better get running" are written as [indecipherable][indecipherable].
- The opening lines to "Tear It Up" are so processed and mushmouthed that you basically need a lyric sheet.
- Intercourse with You: From "Really In Love": "I DO WHAT I WANT / AND I WANT YOU!!!"
- "I Want" Song:
- "We Want Fun" (from the Jackass soundtrack) and "I Want To See You Go Wild" from Close Calls With Brick Walls. In both cases, as per usual, Andrew wants these things at the top of his lungs.
- "Make Sex" from The Wolf strips this trope down to a 45-second series of chants."I DON'T WANNA (MAKE LIFE)!!!I DON'T WANNA (MAKE DEATH)!!!I DON'T WANNA (MAKE LOVE)!!!I JUST WANNA MAKE SEX!!!"
- Jerkass: He describes his teenaged self as such in "Tear It Up."
- Large Ham: The ham, the bacon, the shanks - forget it, he's the whole roast hog!
- Life of the Party: Would you expect anything less?
- Lyrical Cold Open: "I Love Music."
- Lyrical Dissonance:
- "Ready To Die" is quite possibly the most joyous song ever written about murder.
- A lot of Andrew W.K. songs use this trope. He often sings like he's annoyed about something, but the lyrics are about fairly mundane things - partying, hot girls, enjoying yourself in various ways.
- His cover of "Soldiers of Sorrow" is, essentially, a cheery upbeat-sounding rock anthem about a soldier horrified at the fact that he's surrounded by death and only survived his battle by killing people just like him.
- Metal Scream: Transcribing his lyrics requires rather liberal use of exclamation marks.
- Miniscule Rocking:
- From The Wolf we have "Make Sex," 45 seconds of primitive drumming and chants on an album filled with four-to-five-minute rock epics.
- From Close Calls With Brick Walls, there's "Golden Eye Dog," 30 seconds of vocals and bass.
- Minimalistic Cover Art: Generally just a picture of his face and a title.
- New Sound Album: 55 Cadillac forgoes the Party Metal in favor of improvised piano pieces about cars.
- Nice Guy: Andrew doesn't just sign autographs; he writes letters for fans.
- Pep-Talk Song: His career is centered around these.
- Power Ballad: Once in a while, most notably "Never Let Down" from The Wolf.
- Refuge in Audacity:
- He played at Gathering Of The Juggalos, dancing, singing and talking positively to them while dodging bottles thrown at him, until he was mercifully taken off stage.
- The sudden mention of ejaculation in "It's Time To Party." It just comes out of nowhere (pun intended).
- Self-Backing Vocalist: Liberal with his vocal overdubs.
- Self-Empowerment Anthem: A lot of his music can fall under this trope ("Ever Again" to name just one example), since a lot of it encourages you to Be Yourself and live life to the fullest. For Andrew WK, "party" is more or less a synonym for both of those things. In his appearance on RuPaul and Michelle Visage's podcast, What's The Tee?, Andrew admitted that his messages are often things he wants to say to himself, the title You're Not Alone included. In fact, self-empowerment was actually his motivation for getting into the music business in the first place - of all his sources of amusement, music is the one thing that always cheered him up.
- Self-Harm: Does this to his forehead in the already graphic video for "I'm In Heaven." It's pretty gnarly, but tame compared to other sights the video has to offer.
- Spoken Word in Music: 2018's You're Not Alone is notable for having interludes of spoken word, which - as usual - are meant to inspire the listener. Given his history as a motivational speaker, it's a natural progression.
- Take That!: His reaction to his fans who criticized him for liking ponies.
- Textless Album Cover: Close Calls with Brick Walls and Mother of Mankind.
- Three Chords and the Truth: Strangely enough, a subversion. While most of his discography consists of three minute pop songs based on catchy hooks, most of it is deceptively complex in terms of chord progressions and structure.
- Title-Only Chorus: "Party Till You Puke," "Don't Stop Living In The Red."
- Trademark Favorite Food: Taco Bell tacos. He talks about it a lot in his twitter. To further emphasize his love of Taco Bell, he narrated this April Fools' Day joke video by "Did You Know Gaming?" titled Did You Know Taco Bell?
- He has also mentioned his love for pizza on several occasions. He even devoted one of his advice columns in the Village Voice to extolling the virtues of eating pizza. He also has a guitar that resembles a slice of pizza.
- Villain Song: "Ready to Die" is all about murder. Perhaps even a ritualized Human Sacrifice, judging by how the narrator "made a sacrifice and now we get to take your life," and is able to shoot without a gun and cut without a knife.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: A recurring theme in his music, his spoken word and his social media blogs. Andrew really does want nothing more than to inspire you to be the best that you can be.
- You're Not Alone: Right there in the album title.
- Your friend,Andrew W.K.
