BOOM! OK Go has punched out from the plain box of familiar music videos to create a staple now familiar with their fans – craziness. The videos keep getting bigger, more colourfully inventive and somehow outdoing their happiness which always appears at maximum voltage.
Formed in 1998, and with their debut album OK Go released in 2002, the quartet band; Damian Kulash, Tim Nordwind, Dan Konopka and Andy Ross (who replaced Andy Duncan in 2005) came to worldwide attention with their goofy and very memorable treadmill dance in Here It Goes Again. These epic music videos now appearing to be their life motto, from filming in zero-gravity situations with ballet dancing stewardesses, working with the Muppets, as well as canines (who could be Olympic contenders), and not forgetting the involvement of giant cups. They’ve also choreographed huge dance routines whilst balancing on futuristic transportation devices – the culmination of which produce such massive displays that they can be seen from avery long distance. This being so impressive that OK Go must now legally do any SOS signs for those who are stranded on a desert island. They’ve even built life size “mouse-traps” of sorts; one with paint and the other…well check it out in This Too Shall Pass (but not the camouflaged marching band, that’s another video). All this, and they still had time to use five-hundred-and-sixty-seven printers in the video Obsession – creating a backdrop of multiple-coloured perspectives that would’ve had Apple drooling at the mouth.
It might be no surprise that it was therefore hard to choose what music video to comment upon, the above summary still not listing all of them, and with the music being equally powerful with its all-round chirpiness, how could one choose? They’re like an ice-cream cone with all the flavours you can imagine because why not? Still, funny-bone tested and working, Needing/Getting (2010) directed by Brian L. Perkins and lead singer Damian Kulash, was settled on for its less manic vibe, and huge design chops.
For the music video; Needing/Getting OK Go have created a near two-mile race track that plays multiple instruments by touching them with the car – some skill of course is involved. As such Kulash took stunt lessons to make sure he got it just right, and a computer programme worked out the timings for the tune; 35mph needed for the chorus, to 17-22mph for the verses, while the instruments are all pre-tuned to the correct note – meaning what you hear in the video is real-time play. To do this the “musical car” needed retractable arms to touch the 1,000+ instruments that included a line of 55 upturned pianos, 288 guitars, glass jars, plastic barrels and many more home-made items for sound.
In fact this rough-touch instrumental melody has a more desirable effect than the studio recording, with Kulash’s voice standing out all the more clearer for it. The overall sound coming across naturally (including tyre track/gravel sound) and more fitting for a song that at its core is examining a love that’s not working out. A high-pop-rock sound, familiar to OK Go would be out of place here and push the lyrics to the back of the mind, while in this case when the music fades the poignancy of the words stand out – “Needing is one thing, and getting, getting’s another.”
Highly-charged and creative, OK Go are also incredibly conscious of leaving a kindness mark on the world, such as being eco-friendly by recycling all the paper used for the video Obsession and donating the proceeds to Greenpeace. They’ve also fed the homeless outside their concert, benefit gigs and songs, and not forgetting donated proceeds from the downloaded video White Knuckles to animal charity ASPCA. In addition to all this they’ve launched an online resource for educators, which stars them doing videos on sign language, physics, maths etc.
OK Go may have a commonality to their videos in being eclectically original, but their albums are vastly different. Their earlier works have an experimental-pop-rock touch, and are much louder. While the 2010 album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky is much slower and delicate, like an organic change has taken place and one that personally works for the best. Their later album Hungry Ghosts (2014) merges this more-toned down beat with the higher-octane of the earlier, creating the happy-pop-rock they’re well known for.
Other songs by OK Go we love:
- I Won’t Let You Down (2014 – Hungry Ghosts)
- Obsession (2014 – Hungry Ghosts)
- The Writing’s on the Wall (2014 – Hungry Ghosts)
- Upside Down & Inside Out (2014 – Hungry Ghosts)
- Shooting the Moon (2010 – Of the Blue Colour of the Sky [Extra Nice Edition])
- This Too Shall Pass (2010 – Of the Blue Colour of the Sky [Extra Nice Edition])
- White Knuckles (2010 – Of the Blue Colour of the Sky [Extra Nice Edition])
- A Million Ways (2005 – Oh No)
- Here It Goes Again (2005 – Oh No)
Other artists you might like:
- Spoon
- The Fratellis
- We Are Scientists
