OK Go

From Free net encyclopedia

OK Go is an American indie rock band from Chicago best known for their singles "Get Over It" and "A Million Ways." They play rock music, with influences such as Cheap Trick, T Rex and Queen. They share management with They Might Be Giants, with whom they toured before signing to Capitol Records. They served as the house band to the public radio program This American Life on the show's fifth anniversary tour. Ira Glass, the show's host, wrote their first official bio, calling them "living catnip" and describing their songs as "part indie rock, part stadium rock, part straight up pop with the occasional whiff of the Pixies or The Cars or Elliott Smith."

In the United Kingdom, "Get Over It" debuted at No. 21 in the singles chart on March 16, 2003, and the band performed it on that week's edition of Top of the Pops. Also that week, the single's video was named video of the week by Q magazine. The single was also featured on the EA Sports video game Triple Play Baseball series in 2002.

The band contributed a cover of "This Will Be Our Year," the Zombies classic, as the lead track of Future Soundtrack for America, a political benefit album put out by Barsuk Records in the fall of 2004. Lead singer Damian Kulash also became somewhat politically active during that election cycle, writing a heavily downloaded how-to-guide entitled "How Your Band Can Fire Bush" for bands hoping to help unseat President George W. Bush, which garnered him an avalanche of hate mail.

The band's second record, Oh No, was recorded in Malmö, Sweden and produced by Tore Johnansson (The Cardigans, Franz Ferdinand) in the fall of 2004. Released in August 2005, it gained notoriety for its first single, the Clash-esque "A Million Ways." Its popularity was due in large part to its video, which proved to be a viral internet sensation in the fall of 2005. The ultra-low budget, one-take video featured the band in their back yard performing a dance choreographed by lead singer Kulash's sister, Trish Sie. Using a camera borrowed from a friend, the video was produced for under ten dollars and released without the knowledge or consent of their label, Capitol Records. By November 2005, the video had become the most downloaded music video ever with over 3 million downloads.

The nontraditional video for "A Million Ways" is not without precedent for the band. Previous oddball video efforts featuring OK Go include their Ping Pong Instructional Video and the Federal Truth In Music Project. The band has worked with both world-renowned and fairly unknown directors including: Francis Lawrence, Olivier Gondry (brother of Michel Gondry), Brian L. Perkins, Scott Keiner, and Todd Sullivan.