Andrew W.K.'s I Get Wet

33⅓ Main Series #89

by Phillip Crandall

"It's Time To Party," the first track off of I Get Wet, opens with a rapid-fire guitar line - nothing fancy, just a couple crunchy power chords to acclimate the ears - repeated twice before a booming bass drum joins in to provide a quarter-note countdown. A faint, swirling effect intensifies with each bass kick and, by the eighth one, the ears have prepped themselves for the metal mayhem they are about to receive. When it all drops, and the joyous onslaught of a hundred guitars is finally realized, you'll have to forgive your ears for being duped into a false sense of security, because it's that second intensified drop a few seconds later - the one where yet more guitars manifest and Andrew W.K. slam-plants his vocal flag by screaming the song's titular line - that really floods the brain with endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, and whatever else formulates invincibility.Polished to a bright overdubbed-to-oblivion sheen, the party-preaching I Get Wet didn't capture the zeitgeist of rock at the turn of the century; it captured the timelessness of youth, as energized, awesome, and unapologetically stupid as ever. With insights from friends and unprecedented help from the mythological maniac himself - whose sermon and pop sensibilities continue to polarize - this book chronicles the sound's evolution, uncovers the relevance of Steev Mike, and examines how Andrew W.K.'s inviting, inclusive lyrics create the ultimate shared experience between artist and audience.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

156 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 2, 2014

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

Crandall isn't a great writer - he's a lad-mag veteran who operates in that sort of clumsily over-matey, slightly over-produced prose which to me has always seemed to characterise too much US music journalism when compared to the beauties of the British variant. And he admits from the off that attempting deep lyrical analysis of 'Party Hard' or 'Fun Night' would be a mug's game. So why is this an interesting read nonetheless? Largely because it has a gift of a subject. AWK got a few of the usual puff/attack pieces when he arrived 14(!) years ago; since then, it tends to be the odd report or repost of his latest antic or advice column. But the nature of the project is such that people seldom sit down and *think* about Andrew WK. Which turns out to be a mistake, because everything from the sleeve credits to the central concept of 'party' turns out to be more complicated than you'd think. Without ever falling into curmudgeonly demythologisation, Crandall teases out the strands of a very peculiar man trying to be his best self via a somewhat unconventional route. And by the end, despite his earlier wariness of overthinking AWK, he's quite legitimately invoking half-grasped chunks of Derrida and Durkheim as potential keys to the enigma hidden in plain sight - the elephant in the party room, perhaps.

[Dusty Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't sleep on this one.

Most will come into this book with some sort of preconceived conception of Andrew W.K. Even if they're positive, like my own experiences, they're probably incorrect. This book dissects W.K. from all angles. It goes from a biography to a mystery novel to a philosophy text and to other areas I can't even nail down. There is more to the "Party Hard" guy than is let on. I wouldn't want to give away any of the twists and turns this book takes, but its a thrilling read that feels as adventurous and spirited as I Get Wet. Easily one of the best books I've read in this series so far and I would argue it ventures down exciting territory akin to Carl Wilson's "Let's Talk About Love". I feel like I'm doing a poor job of capturing just how fun and insightful of a read this is. It's a party in itself, and I mean that with the utmost respect.

[Brahm · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a long-time AWK fan: uplifting, inspirational, hilarious, fascinating. Andrew's energy can't help but blast out from the pages of this little book about the creation of his first album.

NEVER LET DOWN!

[Jane Waters · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would be easy to overlook this entry in the 33 1/3 series, how much could there possibly be to say about an album where a good chunk of the songs have "party" in the title? Surprisingly quite a bit. Andrew W.K. is a fascinating character and it's interesting to learn about his background in the late 90s Michigan avant-garde noise scene among other things. An essential entry in a series with few missteps.

[Chad Fjerstad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I already considered Andrew W.K.'s I GET WET to be one of the most important music albums of my lifetime but after reading this book it has somehow gained like 10 times the value for me. This easy read gives incredible insight into how the anomaly known as Andrew WK BECAME Andrew WK, how an underground musician can make his way into mainstream stardom out of nowhere, and how and why the completion of I Get Wet and the way the world responded to it was unlike anything thats ever happened before. Crandall did a fantastic job of making an album that I already considered to be divine, even more god-like somehow, to the furthest holy tier. In fact, this book inspired me pretty immensely - I have something I'm going to pitch soon...

[Perry Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrew WK is such a fascinating figure to me and ‘I Get Wet’ is such asingular vision/statement that could only be crafted by him. This book does a really good job of pulling back the curtain (as much as it can be pulled back) and revealing how much work went into making a record so monumentally huge and dumb. But not really dumb at all. There are a lot of ‘I Get Wet’ detractors (and IMO, they’re wrong) and they should all read this. I think they’d come out of it with a newfound respect for the record. I’ve read three 33 1/3 books so far and this was my favorite one.

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars. The good parts were excellent and made me want to read more--Chapter 4 explores the many people and collaborators Andrew W.K. created that weren't real or never collaborated on the album. At one point it is estimated Andrew W.K. was acting as 80 different people in Andrew W.K. forums, arguing with himself, building the mythos. These Andy Kaufman moments were the best parts of the book.--but more of the book was comprised of sections that were longer than they needed to be to get the idea across.

[Joshua Welch · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writer is trying a bit too hard to be philosophical for my taste. I’ve always had an active interest in Andrew WK but the writers thoughts and drawn out exploration of Andrew’s early career was unfortunately a bit boring. There are some fun areas of the book that flow well but over all it was pretty difficult to push through.

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Andrew WK. He’s a goddamn national treasure. And Phillip Crandall only made me love him more. A wonderful look at a truly incredible album.

[Glen Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the artist and loved delving deeper into the making of this epic album

[Alberto Curutchet · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://www.stereogum.com/2015589/and...

[Mike]

A quaint companion piece to Michael Nelson's investigation of Steev Mike on Stereogum.

[Dearwassily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genius. Not the book itself, but its subject. Party hard, where party is the space for positive possibility.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read through 89 of the books in this series, and I feel like Crandall got it all right. He does't over indulge in his own writing abilities, allowing the reader to access the message of his work. There's even an ode, intentional or not, to Please Kill Me, which is a nice touch. The book makes your appreciate Andrew WK more, rather than weave you in a spell of verbal nuances written by a PhD student. It's not that I mind that, just that it doesn't do justice to the albums, and I thought that was the whole point.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never cared all that much for this record but I'm willing to give it another based entirely on this excellent book; thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the making of the album and how that was the making of the man behind it. Seems amazingly over-generous with his time, money and efforts towards fans too. Some really sweet stories in this trim volume. Another excellent must-read entry to the series.

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't sleep on Andrew WK - this is a fascinating character who believes in the purity of expression and thinks partying is spinning around in his chair to get dizzy and then running up the steps. I'm so glad they discussed the short lived MTV series where they put Andrew at NCCU (a traditionally back college) with a bunch of sorority girls and he teaches them how to party. I had thought I had simply imagined the greatness of that moment...definitely among my favorite 33 1/3 books.

[Tankboy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great exploration of an album most might think goes only skin deep upon first listen. But no, there's a lot more to 'I Get Wet' and Andrew WK, and Crandall does an incredible job at digging deeper to discover the larger themes in both this album and Andrew's art as a whole. Not an Andrew WK fan?

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone should worship Andrew W.K. but perhaps more importantly we must all remember to party

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the album, it's a ton of fun

[Jamison Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stands with the best in the series. Tells an interesting story well, although it deflates all the fun Steev Mike conspiracy stuff.

[matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

AWK feels even more inscrutable after having read this. Quite a Dude.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing song by song account of the genius that went into making one of my all time favorite albums from when I was in college.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feeling validated that the 14 year old in me who thought there was more to this album than I had the vocabulary for at the time was right. One does not simply party…

[Jamal Walker]

good book

[Richo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the greatest undertaking that has ever been attempted to add context not only to the I Get Wet album, but also Andrew W.K.'s journey. The amount of research and effort Mr. Crandall has done, is perhaps the most impressive aspect of this read. Even a fanboy who claims to have "street cred since '01" will come out of this with mountains worth of information to process and digest. No joke, I've read this book three times at this point. And still use it as a reference when my memory fails. My only critique was the purposeful breakaway from chronology. Sometimes subjects and chapters were jarring and hard to follow. But I'm also not too familiar with the 33 1/3 series in general. Go get it and read it today!