Biography from Last.fm
Andrew W.K. was born Andrew Wilkes-Krier in Stanford, California in 1979, before moving to Michigan at age 4. He began piano lessons promptly at age 5, studying at The University Of Michigan School Of Music Pedagogy program. By his early teens Andrew had already exhibited great enthusiasm and talent for both music and the visual arts. He spent his high school years playing drums and keyboard in an almost endless variety of short-lived, but passionate groups, all centered in southeast Michigan's explosive cultural scene. Read more on Last.fm
Okay this technically got announced at the tail-end of last week, but you’ll forgive us if we don’t keep up to date with all the moving and shaking in the world of sex wipe PR stunts. Anyway, here’s the story: Playtex have announced that none other than all-round party monster and sometime Thrash Hits columnist, Andrew W.K., is the new face of their Fresh + Sexy Wipes range. For cleaning up after…you’ve been doing the business with someone.
Oh God, how we wish we were making this up.
This month Vice UK – our local installation of the global neo-media behemoth – is celebrating ten whole years of being in operation. And to celebrate, they are throwing a humdinger of a party here in London, which among other things will feature live set from Trash Talk and our (very occasional) columnist, Mr Andrew W.K. Yeah, you want to get your hands on some tickets for this one.
We were half tempted to make a sports-themed Slaylist this week – what with the Olympics kicking off in our home city of London and all that – but then we realised that other than ‘Running Free’ and a handful of other tracks, we’d really be scraping the barrel when it came to coming up with valid tracks for it. So instead we fell back on an old favourite: the festival Slaylist. Given that Hevy Festival 2012 is a mere five days away, it was the obvious candidate.
This week’s podcast has Tom Doyle joinging Hugh back in the Thrash Hits studio, and this week they’re taking a long hard look at the line-up for Hevy Festival 2012. As the UK’s up-and-coming hardcore, punk and rock festival prepares for its fourth year, we’re looking at the headliners, our top picks from lower down the bill, the unusual layout for this year’s festival, as well as baselessly speculating on the potential this young festival upstart has for the future. Oh, and mouthing off about a couple of bands. Y’know – the usual.
The Thrash Hits Podcast 007: Hevy Festival 2012 Preview
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Andrew W.K. is something of a living legend. After he told us all about movies in 2010 and 2011, there was little chance of NOT going to follow him around the UK. We went to see him in London and then we went to see him in Manchester, where Gary Wolstenholme took some cool photos of the ‘Party Hard’ god. Whilst reading this review, you ought to listen to I Get Wet. It’s the right thing to do.
Six things we took away from partying hard with Andrew W.K. in London:
Sonisphere Festival have confirmed Queen (with Adam Lambert), Faith No More, and KISS as the headliners for the UK leg of their European festival franchise. In addition to these three main stage headliners, Sonisphere have confirmed an additional twenty other acts for their 2012 UK incarnation, bringing the total of bands announced for Knebworth this summer up to 23.
We were in New York not so long ago, having a delicious pint of Guinness in an Irish bar just off Times Square when Andrew W.K. walks in. Obviously, we’d arranged to meet him so it wasn’t a surprise but when he sat down and ordered a pint of Stella and a large Jagermeister, our puny mind boggled a little. When it’s time to party…
Last week we talked to the Andrew W.K. about taking the piss out of guys who stutter, crying at films and cutting his own arm off. None of that was weird at all but this time, at a time when they’re in the middle of filming The Dark Knight Rises, we talk about Anne Hathaway’s intense face, the virtues of Twitter over Facebook and Andrew’s aversion to Los Angeles. CRAZY TALK!
Last week we talked to the notoriously white-garmented Andrew W.K. about what the black-garmented version of him would be like and found out his views on quantum theory. This week he tells us about taking the piss out of a man with a stutter, beating up his little brother and crying at films. Standard.
Last time we chatted to Andrew W.K. about films, he was contemplating an alternative career as an actor. He’d be a good gym teacher. After a break for Christmas we got back on the Skype to Andrew and talked about more films. This time we got onto the weird (Black Swan) and the wonderful (Back To The Future!).