Tag: guitar

A Man and a Mission: The Eternal Plight of Andrew WK

August 15th, 2009 · Calvin · Music One comment - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Andrew WK is some rare beast. He is a snarling, roaring animal. A human wrecking ball. He doesn’t have violence or mayhem on his mind, however. In reality, he wants two simple things: He wants to party, and he wants you to join him. But make no mistake, folks. Andrew doesn’t half-ass these things. When it’s time to party, he will party hard.

Andrew’s default appearance is fairly iconic. White shirt, white pants, and white tennis shoes, all stained from use and abuse. Long, unwashed, matted hair, coupled with the lower half of his face usually painted in some sort of stubble, although it occasionally grows unruly enough to be considered an honest-to-god beard.

Of course, there is one other feature that is known for covering Andrew’s face. The thick stream of blood flowing from his nose and cascading down his mouth, chin, and chest. The image was first shown on the cover of his debut album, “I Get Wet”, but it has become the most iconic and important image of Andrew to date. A grisly, yet joyous, testament to exactly how hard someone can party.

More striking then his appearance, however, is his wholly unique personality, his swagger. Although, it’s less of a swagger, and more of a full, open gallop, crashing head first through any brick walls that stand in his way, holding on his face a wide grin the whole way.

All of this comes out in his music. The essential document of such is the same one that first held his iconic, gory, visage. “I Get Wet”, the opening salvo in Andrew’s war, is a goddamn beast. Completely and utterly unrelenting, it locks into a swinging, thunderous groove, and doesn’t stop for anything. This groove comes to life beautifully on stage, with a group of sweaty men crashing and banging the whole glorious monster together. Mammoth guitars, epic synths, and a drummer that couldn’t be shaken by a goddamn earthquake. On top of it all, Andrew’s growling lyrics.

Looking purely from a lyrical content standpoint, the songs don’t have much there, and you can tell as much from looking at the song titles. “She is Beautiful”. “Party Hard”. “Ready to Die”. “Party ’till You Puke”. One quickly realizes, however, that this is all you need. What we have here, essentially, is the template, the very building blocks to having the best time of your life. Anything else would be unnecessary, and reek of pretension.

Some will hear these songs, and dismiss them as disposable. A quick way for the record companies to make some money off of drunk frat boys. The more you look into the music and the man, though, the more you will learn that he is completely serious. For him, “Partying” is not a weekend activity, relegated to the non-working hours. It is a way of life. He implores all of his fans to wake up and be ready to party. No missed opportunities, no regrets. Don’t stop living in the red. This is the essence of Andrew WK, and god bless him for it. Certainly a noble cause if there ever was one.

The Toxicity of Modern Pop

April 4th, 2009 · Calvin · Music 2 comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

We, as both a society and as individuals, would like to think that we exclusively value music that we can identify as “good”. Most take, “good”, to mean that it holds some sort of artistic value. If only it was that easy.

We have all had an experience where a song that we wouldn’t normally consider artistically valid becomes stuck in our head. I have myself recently experienced this with the song “Human” by The Killers. Normally, I consider the lyric  ”Are we human, or are we dancer?” to be completely boneheaded and the overall song to be terrible. And yet, I still find myself humming it at odd times. If you’re like me, you justify this kind of activity by saying, “Oh, it’s just catchy.”

We see that there are two types of songs that we assign value to, even if it’s only on a subconscious level. Good songs and catchy songs. A good song can be catchy, and a abhorrent song is often neither. To better understand this, it would be useful to look at specific examples. Luckily, there is an artist that can provide us with what we require: Britney Spears. Regardless about how you feel about her ex, her kids, or her hairstyle, you can’t deny that she has produced some monster pop songs over the years. But are they good, are they catchy, or are they both? Depends on which one you look at.

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Can you guess the name of this song? Here’s a hint: it’s repeated more times than anyone should count. One of the easiest ways to spot a song who’s sole aim is to be catchy is to see where it places it’s emphasis. The writers of these songs are often aware that what they’ve composed doesn’t have much value beyond it’s ability to stick in your head. Subsequently, they place all of their metaphorical eggs in an equally metaphorical basket.

In this case, it is manifested through the hammering of the phrase “Gimme, gimme more”. Beyond that, there’s basically nothing here. The same boring bass line and boneheaded drum beat repeat the whole song, with other instruments only being added for the oft-repeated chorus. In terms of composition, tone, and originality, the whole affair is worthless. And yet that damnable phrase refuses to leave you, haunting you like some vile spirit.

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There we go. That’s that good shit. “Toxic” is arguably one of Spears’ best songs, if not a modern pop masterpiece. Here we are able to find real, tangible value. Musically, it’s a rich and full affair, with guitars, strings, and synths all serving to back up the vocal. All of the instruments, voice included, change dynamics with the song, making for a much more nuanced recording. It’s important to note that “Toxic” is just as catchy as “Gimme More”. However, this song is memorable for entirely different reasons. Instead of relying on rote memorization, “Toxic” stays with you due to well-written melodies and interesting sounds, such as the string part during the verses.

Basically, this whole exercise leads us here: “Gimme More” is a catchy song. ”Toxic” is a good song. We have plenty of one, and far too few of the other. And it seems, more and more, that we are confusing these two aspects of popular music.