Andrew W.K. and Marky Ramone critique music videos on Russian TV show, Maxim, and display admirable restraint in the face of some fairly godawful stuff.

Andrew has a knack for finding what’s musically worthy in just about everything. Marky tactfully focuses on sets, props and fashion in lieu of having to be nasty about the song or performance itself. Punk rock’s Siskel and Ebert make a classy pair.
 

 
I’m not sure how this one is going to work, but when one thing you love (The Ramones) collides with something you have generally positive feelings about (Andrew W.K.), it can’t be terrible, right? RIGHT?!? Andrew definitely respects the Ramones canon, at least, professing his love for the band on his website.

When Marky Ramone asks you to be his singer, you don’t even think about it. It’s an automatic, YES. I was intimidated by the magnitude of the opportunity – freaked out and overwhelmed – but I was also completely determined and focused – it’s something I had to do. Even just the first rehearsal felt like an odyssey, but that’s how you can tell the experience is changing your life. I’ve never had a more rewarding, humbling, or challenging invitation than this, and I’m serving the gods via this incredible sound Marky and his band created. There’s never been better rock ‘n’ roll music made than this, and I will give everything I have to do it justice.

They both look so sweetly optimistic on the video below. Please, for the sake of everyone involved, let this collaboration work!
 

What could possibly go wrong?

Honestly, I kind of missed the Andrew W.K. boat, but since high school I have always been around a certain subset of ultra-nice party dudes who have followed his career religiously. The guy is seriously enthusiastic and genuinely positive, so his appointment as Cultural Ambassador to politically contentious Bahrain is less of a non sequitur than it might seem. From his website:

This is a tremendous invitation. I’m very thankful to the Department of State for giving me the opportunity to visit a place I’ve never been before. And I feel very privileged and humbled by the chance to represent the United States of America and show the good people of Bahrain the power of positive partying. I can hardly wait for this adventure!

While I doubt W.K. can offer much counsel or insight into the political uprising that’s been underway in Bahrain since early 2011, a guy that humble and engaged with people probably couldn’t hurt. He has pledged to “promote partying and world peace,” and who could argue with that?
 

 
America’s most-beloved motivational speaker Andrew W.K. kicking it hard at New York City’s Webster Hall on April 2….and the crowd goes wild!

“When it’s time to party we will always party hard
Party hard, party hard, party hard, party hard party hard, party hard, party hard, party hard, party hard, party hard party hard, party hard, party hard…”

The hardness begins at the 1:40 mark.
 

 
Give it up for Andrew W.K. for he is a very brave man. In the pages of the Guardian newspaper, the hard partying rocker was willing to tell one of those stories that should probably be left untold, but oh what a great story it is. You see, young Andrew had a massive crush on a girl who didn’t exactly crush on him in return. So the 17-year-old future rock star wrote her a love song, recorded it and turned it in as his high school senior project. That’s where things went terribly, terribly wrong… Play the song here. It’s kinda great for a kid—sophisticated sonically to be sure—but LOL at the same time.

The day after I submitted the song, the head of my school called me and my parents in for a private meeting. They played the song for my parents as I sat next to them, paralysed and devastated by the humiliation. The head of the school recommended that I go into counselling or see the school psychiatrist (my parents did send me to a child psychologist following later exploits in arson, baseball card forgery and mail fraud: his final diagnosis? “You have a devilish side”). That was bad, but nothing compared to what happened a year later.

It turned out that the assistant to the head of school got a copy of my song on cassette and gave it to the girl I had a crush on. This was probably the worst thing that had ever happened in my life. She heard the song and was completely freaked out. Within three days, every kid in school had a copy. She told her friends, teachers and parents: “This guy at school is stalking me and threatening my life.” She played them the song and they called the police.

Read the rest of ‘It’s time to let you hear the song which earned me a juvenile restraining order’ (including the lyrics) (The Guardian)

Thank you Chris Campion!