Andrew WK (including Ian Svenonius and his Soft Focus)

I wrote at length once, somewhere on the internet, about Andrew WK's last album Close Calls With Brick Walls and how awesome it, and he, is. When the Andrew WK was being hyped by the NME back in the day, I was happy to throw my lot in with the haters, and it was people like me, then, that doomed his second album to failure, and assured him of cult status in the West and celebrity in Japan.

Because the Andrew WK is a celebrity over here among rock fans, and check this lot out. Last week he released a best of (covering his three albums), a covers record of Japanese songs that he originally recorded as mobile ringtones, a two CD "Premium Collection" containing both of those releases, and a book of his advice columns that he's been writing for a Japanese music magazine for five years. Bunny drew my attention to this motherload today in an email with the words "I WANT THIS" and lo and behold I could pick it up on the same day from the record store next door to where I work:


Ignore the goggles, that's just how I dress now that I'm a hardcore snowboard freaker. That's the 2CD Premium Collection by the way. And buying that, and thinking about the Andrew WK some, brought other things to mind. Like how I'd like to get hold of that Lee Scratch Perry album he produced (oh yes he did!) and how awesome the Ian Svenonius Soft Focus interview is:

"...so far you've been extraordinarily conceptual..."

Ian Svenonius of course, is also a genius as Andy has often pointed out to me, and I'd encourage everyone to hunt down his book "The Psychic Soviet" to read how the Beatles made Swedish girls have huge misconceptions about British boys, and how Seinfeld killed the city. Also I love the music to Soft Focus. It sounds... cerebral.