What's that? You say you don't know Andrew W.K.? Yes you do.
I have to be totally honest here. When his debut album, I Get Wet, came out in 2001 I was aware of it's existence, but I was pretty much only listening to ska, punk and Psychopathic Records artists. I didn't give much thought to his brand of over-the-top party music.
Fast Forward to maybe a little over a year ago and I read this article by one of my favorite Cracked writers, Daniel O'Brien. He pokes fun at Andrew W.K.'s Twitter feed, but also talks about how genuine he seems to be in his pursuit of partying and enjoying his life. When I finally got a Twitter account I started following Andrew W.K. just to see what kind of life lessons he had to impart.
Sometime shortly thereafter I actually gave I Get Wet a listen and my eardrums exploded! The entire album is so high energy and in your face, but at the same time it's all in earnest and as you may recall I am not a fan of doing things ironically. That is one of the things that I responded to in Andrew W.K., do something because you enjoy it or not at all. To paraphrase something he tweeted (that I've been saying for years), "Don't have guilty pleasures, just pleasures." Honestly, what's the point of enjoying something if you feel guilty or ashamed of it? Also, hipsters, liking things ironically is about the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard of. Knock it off. I refuse to apologize for occasionally enjoying J-Pop and I write a blog about Ninja Turtles because I fucking love Ninja Turtles, not because it's funny to pretend to enjoy a pop culture reference from 25 years ago.
I became pretty intensely obsessed with Andrew W.K.'s music as well as his persona for a brief period. I even created an Andrew W.K. Rock Band avatar to stand in for missing band mates. Don't get me wrong, I still listen to him pretty frequently and I follow him on Twitter and catch his live webcam chats when I can, I just don't force my wife or friends to listen to me talk about him anymore.
Even if you don't like his music his message is simple, but profound. You have the ability to enjoy everything you do in all aspects of your life, you just have to make that choice.
So, long story short, Andrew W.K. is awesome and he pretty frequently does free prize giveaways on his Twitter. Last night I happened to win anything I wanted from his webstore and I chose this awesome Evolution of Partying t-shirt. I can't wait to wear it. My partying ability will increase exponentially, I can feel it.
I drew the Turtles partying hard and doing some party jumps with Andrew W.K. in a pretty classic Andrew W.K. party jump pose. I feel like the Turtles could handle themselves pretty well in a party jump scenario with Andrew W.K., don't you?
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