Audio By Carbonatix
Hair metal is an addiction for some; the spandex, the teased ‘dos, the bulge-accentuating pants, and total gender abandonment are a fix. Unfortunately, there are no self-help books for this problem. There are no formal group therapy sessions to attend for this obsession. There is no place to go and “dry out,” like the rest of the population with nasty vices. You will always be addicted, stuck in the decade of excess like a spider stuck to a mirror after being sprayed with Aqua Net.
But hey. Maybe that’s not a bad thing.
The Wildhearts, a U.K. four-piece that has been playing in various incarnations since the late ’80s, sounds like it should be a hair metal band, what with the catchy choruses and crunchy guitar solos. While the band doesn’t sport zebra-print unitards (like, say, their tour mates), the Wildhearts still scream in the face of all the soft rock Top 40 hoo-ha. The band’s latest CD, The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed, is 11 tracks of pure rock ‘n’ roll that smells more of leather and whiskey than hair spray. And the track “Get Your Groove On” is pure Motörhead snorting Pixy Stix. Go and get your fix. — Audra Schroeder
The Wildhearts and hair metal harbingers the Darkness perform at 8 p.m. Sunday, June 6, at Mizner Park Amphitheater, Federal Highway and NE Mizner Boulevard, Boca Raton. Tickets cost $25. Call 561-962-4109.
Oly
In the past year, electro-pop pixie Oly has been quietly passing out her home-recorded demo CD-R’s to a handful of lucky clubgoers in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. On them, she lays down a charming swirl of lo-fi retro beats, accompanying her sweater-soft vocals with keyboards and adopting the sort of whimsical singer-songwriter persona familiar to fans of Cat Power, Solex, Cornelius, and Money Mark. Oly may have the “quirky pop songstress” thing down, but there’s still a bit of hip-hop reppin’ going on. Her Poplife performance is something of a rare treat, so come and watch her tear the roof off that sucka. — Mosi Reeves
Check out Oly at 10 p.m. Saturday, June 5, at I/O, 30 NE 14th St., Miami. Call 305-358-8007.
Andrew WK
What’s the motivation behind partying hard? Try wise man Andrew WK. One visit to his website, www.andrew-wk.com, reveals the man behind the party machine. While it reads a bit like the label on a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s Hemp Oil Soap, the blog offers a deeper look into the reason he, and all of us, for that matter, could use a little more partying. Excerpt:
“Everything strives on the constant desire to go further than last time. To stop this is to die. And even worse, to say that humanity has passed its pinnacle moment IN ANY WAY is to say that our current existence is irrelevant. NOW is all that is relevant to what comes next… we are all a part of it. So rather than hide from it, we might as well enjoy it!”
Well, at least we know if AWK wants to get out of the music biz, a career as a motivational speaker is just a high kick away. He’s halfway there: His advice show, Your Friend, Andrew WK, just debuted on MTV2. Yeah, so, he’s like Tony Robbins without the huge, blinding, white teeth and lunatic, cult-leader grin. Could it be possible that Andrew WK has unlocked the mystery of the meaning of life? Nah. But at least he’s smart enough to realize that there are better things to do than spend your life agonizing over it. And song titles like “Long Live the Party,” “It’s Time to Party,” “Party Hard,” and “Party ’til You Puke” only reinforce that ideology. The next time your friends ask you to a raging kegger and you’re not sure whether to go or stay in and play mahjong, ask yourself “What Would Andrew Do?” — Maggie-Margret
AWK kicks out the jams at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 5, at the Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale. Tickets cost $10. Call 954-564-1074.