OK Go
OK Go is an American rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois, now based in Los Angeles, California. The band is composed of Damian Kulash (lead vocals, guitar), Tim Nordwind (bass guitar, vocals), Dan Konopka (drums and percussion), and Andy Ross (guitar, keyboards and vocals), who joined them in 2005, replacing original guitarist Andy Duncan. The band is known for its quirky and complex music videos which are often elaborately choreographed to be filmed in a single long take.
This article is about the band. For the band's eponymous debut album, see OK Go (album).
OK Go
The original members formed as OK Go in 1998 and released two studio albums before Duncan's departure. The band's video for "Here It Goes Again" won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video in 2007.
Other appearances[edit]
"Get Over It" is featured in the EA Sports video games Triple Play 2002 and Madden NFL 2003, while a censored version of "Don't Ask Me" is featured in MVP Baseball 2003[110][111][112] and as background to the transitions in the British TV show The Inbetweeners.
Also, "Here It Goes Again" was featured in Rock Band, Guitar Hero 5 and SSX on Tour; while "Do What You Want" was featured in a back to school television campaign for J. C. Penney and the video games EA Sports NHL 06, Guitar Hero: On Tour, and Burnout Revenge.[113][114][115] "Invincible" was a theme song for ABC's Saturday Night Football for the 2006 season.[115] The band's song "A Million Ways" was featured in Band Hero.[116]
The band contributed a cover of the Zombies "This Will Be Our Year" as the lead track of Future Soundtrack for America, a political benefit album put out by Barsuk Records in the fall of 2004.[117] Lead singer Damian Kulash wrote a how-to-guide entitled "How Your Band Can Fire Bush" for bands hoping to help unseat President George W. Bush.[118][119]
After visiting New Orleans in 2006, the band recorded an EP with New Orleans funk rock band Bonerama, to raise money for musicians who were still displaced by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. The EP, entitled You're Not Alone, was released on February 5, 2008.[44][120]
In 2007, OK Go wrote the fight song for a Chicago soccer team, Chicago Fire S.C. The song was offered on the team's official website as a free download. Also in 2007, OK Go covered the Pixies "Gigantic" for American Laundromat Records Dig for Fire: A Tribute to Pixies CD.[121]
The band's song "Do What You Want" could also be heard on the in-game radio in the LucasArts published video game Thrillville: Off The Rails. "Here It Goes Again" is also featured in the minigame Stunt Rider.[122]
In 2009, the band appeared as the wedding band Tastes Like Chicken in DreamWorks' I Love You, Man starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel.[123]
In April 2010, OK Go collaborated with Brett Doar of Syyn Labs to build a speciality Rube Goldberg Machine called "The Colbert Machine" for the band's appearance on The Colbert Report.[124] At the end of the episode, the band performed "This Too Shall Pass" with host Stephen Colbert singing lead vocals.[124] Later that year, the OK Go song "Here It Goes Again" was included in the soundtrack for the children's film Ramona and Beezus.[125]
In 2011, OK Go were featured in the meta-documentary The Greatest Movie Ever Sold by Morgan Spurlock with the song "The Greatest Song I Ever Heard". In the film, Damian Kulash says: "Does that mean... Hold on, if we make the theme for The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, does that mean that we're the greatest rock band ever to write a theme song?" whereby Spurlock responds: "Absolutely."[126]
On May 9, 2013, the band, through its label Paracadute,[64] released "Say the Same Thing", a collaborative word guessing game app for iOS and Android in which two players attempt to guess the same word, by finding common points between two random starting words.[127] The app, which was created by guitarist Andy Ross during the band's down time, is based on an improv game which the band plays together while on tour. The band advertised the app by releasing a comedic video that introduces and explains the game.[128] On May 15, 2013, "Say the Same Thing" became the 50 billionth download in Apple's App Store.[128]
OK Go also contributed a song to the 2015 film Hot Tub Time Machine 2, titled "You're a Fucking Nerd and No One Likes You".[129]
In February 2015, the band was featured in a segment created to help children learn colors in a premiere for "The Cookie Thief", a Sesame Street movie special.[130]
In March 2015, OK Go made a cameo appearance in the music video for "Pick Me Up" by Japanese electropop group Perfume, following Perfume's cameo appearance at the beginning of OK Go's "I Won't Let You Down".
In June 2019, the band was featured in the Ripley's Believe It or Not television program on the Travel Channel, showing the making of the music video for their song "The One Moment".
In 2021, the band recorded the theme for the Apple TV+ children's show Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show, entitled "Try a Little Act of Kindness", and appeared as themselves in the season finale.
A rendition of their song "This Too Shall Pass" titled "This Too Shall (Flash)" was included in the 2023 film The Flash.
Charity work[edit]
In 2007, the band released You're Not Alone, a charity EP whose proceeds raised money for musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The successful EP, which helped purchase a home for New Orleans musician Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, was the most public example of the band's increasing interest in politics and social issues, as the campaign included promotional appearances on Late Night with David Letterman as well as charity concerts. Earlier examples of the band's activism include a ten-page PDF titled "How Your Band Can Fire Bush," which was written by Kulash and distributed on the band's website.[131][132] Other efforts have included direct appeals to fans of the band via the band's email newsletter,[133] auctioning themselves off on behalf of Sweet Relief Musician's Fund,[134] and the Burrito Project in which the group enlisted fans to join them in handing out burritos to homeless people before concerts. In Chicago, the band partnered with the Inspiration Corporation, a local provider of services to the homeless.[135] The band has played several high-profile political and charity events, including a Super Tuesday Voter Awareness show hosted by Stella in 2008,[136] and a star-studded benefit in Los Angeles led by Frank Black, and including "Weird Al" Yankovic, Tenacious D, and others.[137] Lead singer Damian Kulash has written op-eds in The New York Times on digital rights management[138] and net neutrality,[139] an issue he also testified about in front of the House Judiciary Antitrust Task Force about in March 2008,[140] and also discussed with the FCC commissioner. The day after that meeting, it was announced that the Internet would be reclassified under Title 2 of the telecommunications act — one of the band's short-term goals,[141] which the band members nodded to in their five-word Webby acceptance speech: "Fight for Net Neutrality now."[142]
The band has also used the massive popularity of its videos to further its favored causes. Downloads of the "White Knuckles" video went to ASPCA and were earmarked for rural animal shelters, and the video itself ends with a call to support animal rescue.[143] A marching band costume from "This Too Shall Pass" was auctioned off to feed the homeless[144] and eleven of the signed Gretsch guitars and amplifiers used in "Needing/Getting" were sold to benefit the Fender Music Foundation, which provides instruments to music education programs.[145][146]
OK Go has also allowed its music on benefit albums, most notably Dear New Orleans, a 31-song online compilation that benefits a variety of New Orleans organizations. Lyrics from the band's contribution, "Louisiana Land", reference a number of New Orleans personalities and institutions, which the New Orleans Times-Picayune called "indicative of just how deeply the members of OK Go waded into the local gestalt."[147] and the Future Soundtrack for America, a compilation released by Barsuk Records that benefited MoveOn.org and Music for America, which included OK Go's cover of "This Will Be Our Year" by The Zombies.[148]
On January 18, 2017, two days before Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States, OK Go released a cover of the politically charged Morrissey song "Interesting Drug". The music video includes images of Trump and other prominent political figures as bad people and ends with a list of organizations the band recommends viewers support. Fans of the band had mixed reactions, prompting this status update on OK GO's Facebook page: "Morrissey Official wrote this song almost 30 years ago but it seems truer to us now than ever. The comments we’ve gotten over the past day are fascinating. We especially applaud those who disagree with us without abandoning civility or respect. You give us hope."[149]
In recent years, OK Go has worked on OK Go Sandbox to create music videos and educational tools with the Playful Learning Lab (a partnership with the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota).
