OK Go

[aquariphonics]

OK Go has become one of my favorites, after their first release. I haven't heard the B-Sides, yet, but I'm told they're good. This is one band I can honestly say doesn't care if they sound poppy (they do, in case you were wondering), they're just out to have fun. Their sound is incredibly fun and original nowadays.

Download Hello My Treacherous Friends, Get Over It, and C-C-C-Cinnamon.

[dave's girl]

ok then 8)

[Alfie]

Never heard of them.

[Hicksy]

*adds to list of bands to find out about*

:shock:

[';']

yeah i'm gonna do the same...put them on my list of bands to check out...most of the stuff i find sounds poppy and most of the time i dont mind :shock: thats not like me....unless its too pop then ah i wouldnt bother....but i will definetly check them out. i'll be back hopefully to put in my input about them.

[Daydream810]

Ok Go is good, I like them.

[';']

i saw their video on mtv and i have to say i dont like them
they seem like a lot of the other stuff thats out there
ah anyways i dont like them :roll:

[GreenEyes82]

I like OkGO too, I've seen them live twice. I saw them in February 2001, long before they released their first album, opening for They Might Be Giants and I thought they rocked. I constantly checked to see when the album would be released. The song Get Over It doesn't do them justice, I'd recommend the song Return along with Treacherous Friends.

[Guy'sChick]

think ill have to find out who they are cos ive never heard of them!!

[';']

like i said before i didnt like them, so i'll tell you dont bother....but then again you might like them along with everyone else. :roll:

[Guy'sChick]

lol ok we'll see :shrug:

[busybeeburns]

CALGARY — Whether they go on to be rock legends or they’re never heard from again, power pop group OK Go will always be remembered as the first band to make it big on YouTube.

C’mon, you’ve heard them by now, and, if you were anywhere near cyberspace last summer you’ve almost certainly seen them.

The rock foursome from Chicago became an Internet phenomenon last year when their irresistible video for the song Here It Goes Again was uploaded onto the free video sharing website YouTube.com.

The unique low-budget clip, which featured the band doing a smile-inducing choreographed dance on treadmills, was a sensation, garnering over 17 million views to date, making it one of the most watched videos of all time on YouTube.

Just as MTV made stars out of such artists as Madonna, Duran Duran and Bon Jovi back in the ‘80s, now YouTube had rocketed OK Go to international success. At this years Grammys the band took home an award for best short-form music video for Here It Goes Again. Last month, YouTube users awarded the band with “most creative video” for the treadmill tour de force.

“I think we are one of the first bands to have broken through on YouTube, and it’s surreal,” says OK Go singer Damian Kulash.

“Videos have existed forever, and online videos have been around for a while, too, but the architecture of YouTube has kind of carved out a new genre.”

“With a YouTube video, they’re not really music videos. They’re all kind of homemade and they seem to embody a certain creativity, humour, cleverness …It’s kind of like a new art form. It’s so new that to immediately be giving awards to itself, it seems kind of crazy …

“People are telling me ‘You must be excited.’ I want to say yes, because it is flattering, but I’m mostly just confused.”

While OK Go, which also includes bassist Tim Nordwind, Dan Kanopka on drums and Andy Ross on keyboards, did upload the video to YouTube before they offered it to their record company, Kulash insists that wasn’t a marketing strategy.

“It was more pragmatic,” he says. “We’re an indie rock band and we’ve always done things our way. Yes, we are on a label (Capitol), but they also have Coldplay and Paul McCartney to deal with.”

With such label-mates, OK Go realized they weren’t exactly the priority. Kulash says the treadmill concept came from his sister, director Trish Sie.

“We made the video with our own money on our own time,” he says.

“We didn’t really tell anybody about it, because who would’ve believed it? We would’ve been laughed at …No one thought we could show it to any major media outlets. It was more like a home video and it just seemed more appropriate to put it on YouTube.”

“It wasn’t an advertising thing or a marketing vehicle. It was a video depicting the band, conceived and made by the band …documenting something we wanted to do.”

Miraculously, the video, with its tricky treadmill stunts, was shot in one take.

“It took a lot of practice runs, and there was certainly a lot of minor injuries involved,” Kulash says.

“Luckily, no one was hospitalized.… We had all the treadmills in the room (positioned) at different alignments to figure out what would yield the best moves.

Nine times out of 10 when you hurl yourself at a mess of treadmills, they chew you up. But that last time is just an awesome move that you never could have thought of without playing around.”

Here It Goes Again wasn’t the first time OK Go took a humorous off-the-wall approach to their videos, nor was it to be the last. The band’s newest video for Do What You Want features them breakdancing, hula-hooping, bouncing on pogo sticks, and rocking out while covered head to toe in wallpaper, which matches that on the walls.

Now, that OK Go has become such a hit, MTV began giving the video big play right out of the gates. In the past the band also released such oddities as their instructional ping pong video (also to be found on YouTube), which wouldn’t be out of place on Saturday Night Live.

Despite all the tomfoolery, Kulash insists OK Go is not a comedy band.

“Yes, our band has a sense of humour, and since the time of Nirvana a lot of bands haven’t had that,” he says.

“It’s been sort of taboo to smile in public. You don’t want to be read as glib children’s entertainment.”

“We try not to subscribe to that. At the same time, we don’t see our music as a joke …When people make jokes in the context of their music, I find it very hard to take them seriously. But I also find it hard to take bands seriously if they don’t have a sense of humour.

“Look at The Beatles. You’d be hard pressed to find a Beatles song that is a joke, but they were also one of the most light-hearted bands you could ever dream up.”

Still, with such wacky videos as their calling card, Kulash knows some might miss the point that OK Go is a real rock band.

“You just have to hope that the music you make speaks for itself,” he says.

http://www.capebretonpost.com/index.cfm?sid=21319&sc=147