Tag Archives: ok go

#842: OK Go – A Million Ways

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You didn’t know OK Go had another dancing video, did you? No, it’s always been the one with the treadmills that got all the attention. Well, here in the UK at least, ‘A Million Ways’ came before ‘Here It Goes Again’ by at least a year or something. Though the latter was the video that skyrocketed OK Go’s name in the business, and got them doing the treadmill act at the MTV VMAs in 2006, ‘A Million Ways’ was probably the track that really started it all.

This was the first track I ever heard/saw by OK Go. Didn’t know that they had something of a hit with ‘Get Over It’ in 2002. The video showed up on the Amp music channel. All I know was that there were these four men dancing this somewhat elaborate routine. To a ten-year-old me, I thought it was truly captivating stuff. I probably didn’t catch the music as much, but I certainly couldn’t forget the video. The band held a contest on YouTube allowing people to do the ‘Million Ways’ routine. If I had been older and had friends who were into the same music as me, I could have done it. I do remember doing the dance at primary school, just at playtime or whatever. People thought it was funny. It’s not that great doing it solo though.

For a while there in 2006, OK Go was one of my favourite bands. YouTube was now a thing and you could watch music videos on there, it was pretty revolutionary at the time. During that time, I found the video for ‘Invincible’, ‘Do What You Want’ was a single and appeared on the soundtrack for Burnout Revenge. All these songs I liked. ‘Here It Goes Again’ and its success capped off that good year for the band.

#638: OK Go – Invincible

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‘Invincible’ opens OK Go’s second album Oh No, released in 2005. The track itself was released as a single in 2006 and was accompanied by its music video (above) where the band plays whilst various items and objects explode in a split screen.

I haven’t listened to that album in full in a while. For a brief period in 2006, I was really into OK Go. I had only seen the videos for ‘A Million Ways’ and ‘Do What You Want’ at that time. But I was convinced that they were my new favourite band. I just wanted to watch their videos on repeat. YouTube was just about starting at the time, but the video for ‘Invincible’ was online. The tune and video was what pushed me over. I had to get the album for myself. And I did. It’s gathering dust on the shelf in my room.

The album reminds me of those years. But I still enjoy ‘Invincible’ now as much as I did then. It’s a three and a half minute track with some chunky, clunky guitar riffs that are something of a staple throughout the whole record. That may be in part due to the work of Swedish producer Tore Johansson, who had helped Franz Ferdinand create some riffs of their own on their self-titled album in 2004. Damian Kulash, Jr. comes in with a silky lead vocal, interrupted by piercing slides up the guitar neck, singing about a superhero-type figure who is able to defeat enemies with his high-temperature atom-smashing laser vision. It’s a weird one to open an album with subject-wise but after what was a clean and very power-pop influenced debut album, ‘Invincible’ is most certainly a great way to show the audience the direction the band was going into.

My iPod #412: OK Go – Get Over It

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“Get Over It” was the first single OK Go released as a band in 2002. And what a way to introduce yourselves. The track is fun as hell and catchy as anything, and gives a lesson concerning ‘getting over’ the silly little things in life that shouldn’t really matter. It’s one of the most poppy tracks the band have ever done before changing to a more indie-rock style for “Oh No”.

It wasn’t until 2006 that I began listening to OK Go, so when I decided to look them up on the web and saw that they “Get Over It” had actually done quite well in the UK (it got to #16, which ain’t too shabby) I thought why not see what the song and video’s like. Maybe I had seen it before, and just forgotten about the track as time went on. It turned out that I had in fact not heard the song before.

The video is just as fun too. This is before the band went out to try out spectacular record-breaking stuff in their music videos, and instead just focuses on them playing the track as the camera zooms in to random objects that are mentioned in the lyrics. And ping-pong occurs for about 3 seconds. Damian Kulash, Jr. also looks very, very young in it, even though he was about 26/27.

My iPod #283: OK Go – Do What You Want

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This song has three official videos for it. Why, you might ask? I’m not particularly sure myself. But the one above isn’t the one I wanted up. This is the version I saw on the TV first so it has that extra sentimental value or whatever. The ‘tour’ version will have to do.
This is “Do What You Want”, a song by OK Go released as a single from their second album “Oh No” released in 2005. What a track this one is too. After seeing “A Million Ways” and being captivated by the band’s creative dance routine, I didn’t see anything from the band for a few months until this unexpectedly popped up in a random music chart on MTV2. It may have been in a “New Music” segment thing, but the memory’s a bit fuzzy.
I’ve never cared to think about what the song’s about. Not in a bad way; I’ve always liked the way it sounded. Really bright, with a clunky guitar riff and a smooth and deep bass line. Along with a nice positive message of doing what you want. It’s something to play at those parties where all you play is indie tunes. It’s bound to get some people on their feet. I’ve never been to any of those kinds of parties, so I wouldn’t know. Then the song was part of the soundtrack of Burnout Revenge, and it buried itself into my head that much more. Something about racing down the street and taking out cars at high speeds caused a proper adrenaline rush. This song, as well as the many others, made the experience so worthwhile. I should play that game again, I haven’t even completed it.
Enjoy the song.