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Biography
Refimprove|date=January 2010Mergefrom|Andy Duncan (musician)|date=April 2010Infobox musical artist|name = OK Go |image = OKGo.jpg|caption = OK Go performing in May 2006 (from left) Tim Nordwind, Dan Konopka, Andy Ross and Damian Kulash.|landscape = yes|background = group_or_band|origin = Chicago , Illinois , United States Washington, D.C. , United States|genre = Alternative rock , power pop , indie rock |years_active = 1998–present|label = Capitol Records|Capitol , Paracadute|associated_acts = Debate Team (band)|Debate Team , Secret Dakota Ring |website = http://www.okgo.net/ www.okgo.net|current_members = Damian Kulash Tim Nordwind Dan Konopka Andy Ross |past_members = Andy Duncan (musician)|Andy Duncan OK Go is an United States|American alternative rock band originally from Chicago , Illinois , but now residing in Los Angeles , California . The band is composed of Damian Kulash ( lead vocals , rhythm guitar|guitar and car ), Tim Nordwind ( bass guitar and backing vocalist|vocals ), Dan Konopka ( drumkit|drums and percussion ) and Andy Ross ( lead guitar|guitar , Keyboard instrument|keyboards and backing vocals|vocals ), who joined them in 2005, replacing Andy Duncan (musician)|Andy Duncan . They are perhaps best known for their often elaborate and quirky music videos.
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 Awards|Grammy Award for "Best Short-Form Music Video" in 2007.
History
Formation (1998–2002)
The band's lead singer, Damian Kulash , met bassist Tim Nordwind at Interlochen Arts Camp when they were 11. Kulash was in for graphic design, Nordwind for music. The band name comes from their art teacher saying, "OK...Go!" while they were drawing. They kept in touch after camp, often exchanging mixtapes which influenced each other's musical taste and their future sound. They met the band's former guitarist and keyboardist Andy Duncan (musician)|Andy Duncan in high school, and drummer Dan Konopka in college. OK Go was formed in 1998.
The band served as the house band for the public radio program This American Life on the show's fifth anniversary tour.
OK Go (2002–2005)
The band released its OK Go (album)|self-titled debut album in 2002. In the United Kingdom, "Get Over It" debuted at no. 21,cite web | url = http://acharts.us/song/8615 | title = OK Go – Get Over It – Music Charts | publisher = aCharts.us in the UK 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 music video|video was named video of the week by Q magazine . The single was featured in the EA Sports video game s MVP Baseball series|Triple Play 2003 and Madden NFL 2003 .
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. 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 .
Oh No (2005–2009)
The band's second album, Oh No (OK Go album)|Oh No , was recorded in Malmö , Sweden, and produced by Tore Johansson ( The Cardigans , Franz Ferdinand (band)|Franz Ferdinand ) in the fall of 2004. After recording, in 2005, Andy Duncan left the band and was replaced by Andy Ross , who auditioned for them in Los Angeles. The album was released in August 2005.
Oh No gained popularity for its first single, " A Million Ways ", in 2005. The video featured the band in their back yard performing a dance choreographed by lead singer Kulash's sister, Trish Sie . By August 2006, the video had become the most downloaded music video ever with over 9 million downloads.cite news | url= http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1539637/20060828/index.jhtml | title= YouTube Faves OK Go: The Band Least Likely To Become Famous For Their Dancing | last= Kaufman | first= Gil | publisher= MTV | work= MTV News | date=2006-08-29 | accessdate=2008-03-26 The band performed the dance live on British TV show Soccer AM , as well as on the late-night American comedy show, MADtv .
They also performed a choreographed dance for the song "C-C-C-Cinnamon Lips" at shows after the release of their first album. It was based on 'N Sync dance routines, which they had developed for the public-access television cable TV show Chic-a-Go-Go , which required bands to lip-sync their songs.cite news |url= http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-11-27-ok-go_x.htm |title=Blend of old, new media launched OK Go |last=Maney |first=Kevin |publisher= USA Today |date=2006-11-28 |accessdate=2007-03-25
On July 31, 2006, the band released a video for " Here It Goes Again " featuring an elaborately choreographed dance on treadmill s, also directed and choreographed by Trish Sie . This video was viewed by over one million people on the media site YouTube in the first six days. The original video upload for "Here It Goes Again" had been viewed over 52 million times, putting it in 42nd place for the most views of any video and 29th place for most viewed music video as well as the 7th most favorite video and the top favorite music video of all time on YouTube , until being removed from their channel. As of December 2011, the new upload has more than 10 million views. The band has worked with directors including Francis Lawrence , Olivier Gondry (brother of Michel Gondry ), Brian L. Perkins, Scott Keiner, and Todd Sullivan. On August 23, 2006, Damian Kulash appeared on The Colbert Report to talk about the videos "A Million Ways" and "Here It Goes Again". The latter video won 2006 YouTube Award in the Most Creative category.cite news | url= http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/26/earlyshow/main2608313.shtml | title= YouTube Presents First Awards | publisher= CBS News | date= 2007-03-26 | accessdate= 2008-03-26
In OK Go's choreographed videos, their bassist Tim Nordwind lip-sync s instead of their lead singer, Damian Kulash, following the format from the dance choreographed for the song "C-C-C-Cinnamon Lips", which Tim sings. On August 31, 2006, OK Go appeared live at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards performing their treadmill routine for "Here It Goes Again". On November 7, 2006, OK Go released a deluxe limited edition CD/DVD of the album Oh No (album)|Oh No . The DVD contains their music videos (dancing and playing instruments), a video of 180 fans performing the "A Million Ways" dance for a YouTube contest, previously unseen footage, and a behind-the-scenes look at their treadmill rehearsals for the "Here It Goes Again" video and for the MTV VMAs.
In May 2006, they toured with Panic at the Disco ; in September they were in the U.K. supporting Motion City Soundtrack , and continued their U.S. tour supporting Snow Patrol into Spring 2007.
On February 11, 2007, OK Go and Trish Sie took home a Grammy award for "Best Short-Form Music Video" for their music video "Here It Goes Again".
Also, "Here It Goes Again" was featured in Rock Band (video game)|Rock Band , Guitar Hero 5 and SSX on Tour ; while "Do What You Want" was featured in the video games EA Sports NHL 06 , Guitar Hero On Tour , and Burnout Revenge .
In 2007, OK Go wrote the fight song for the 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 (song)|Gigantic " for American Laundromat Records Dig for Fire: A Tribute to Pixies CD.
In 2008, Damian Kulash said that the band had not produced the YouTube videos as part of any overt " Machiavellian " marketing campaign. "In neither case did we think, 'A-ha, this will get people to buy our records.' It has always been our position that the reason you wind up in a rock band is you want to make stuff. You want to do creative things for a living."cite book | last = Kirsner | first = Scott | title = Fans, Friends & Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age | url = http://www.scottkirsner.com/fff | year = 2009 | publisher = CinemaTech Books | location = Boston, MA | isbn = 1-4421-0074-5 | page = 88
After visiting New Orleans in 2006, the band recorded an extended play|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 (EP)|You're Not Alone , was released on February 5, 2008.cite web|first=Larry|title=Needing/Getting & Chevy Sonic|url= http://firewireblog.com/2012/02/06/ok-go-chevy-sonic-needinggetting-music-video/|publisher=THE FIRE WIRE
Of the Blue Colour of the Sky and Paracadute Recordings (2010–present)
On October 12, 2008, OK Go announced that they had finished writing new songs for their third album and were in the studios in upstate New York with producer Dave Fridmann ( The Flaming Lips , MGMT ).cite web | url= http://www.okgo.net/news.aspx? StartingDate=10-12-08#11977 | title= The Rock is Cooking | work= News | publisher= OK Go | date= 2008-10-12 | accessdate= 2008-10-15 Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot The band previewed their third album, titled Of the Blue Colour of the Sky , on a short sling of dates on the East Coast of the United States that March, starting in Philadelphia on March 6, 2009 at the TLA Theatre. The name of the album comes from a pseudo-scientific book written by Augustus Pleasonton in 1876 entitled The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Colour of the Sky . They have stated that these songs are the "danciest, most anthemic, most heartbroken, and honest songs" of their career, and the album itself takes a much more funky, dance-prone, yet melancholy sound to it, drawing influence from Prince (musician)|Prince . On May 7, 2009, a song from the album, titled "Skyscrapers," was released for streaming online.cite web |url= http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/05/ok-go-skyscrape.html |date=2009-05-07 |accessdate=2009-05-09 |title=OK Go's Damian Kulash talks new album, plus exclusive stream of 'Skyscrapers' |last=Pastorek |first=Whitney |work=Entertainment Weekly The first single, " WTF? (song)|WTF? ", was released on November 10. On January 8, 2010, OK Go appeared on '' The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and performed a song from the album, " This Too Shall Pass (song)|This Too Shall Pass ". Of the Blue Colour of the Sky was released on January 12, 2010.cite news | url= http://livinthelimelight.typepad.com/home/2010/01/okgo.html | title= Shooting the Moon with OK Go | publisher=LivInTheLimelight | date=Retrieved 2010-01-13
On March 10 it was announced that OK Go had cut ties with EMI and Capitol Records|Capitol and formed the independent record label|independent label Paracadute Recordings.cite web | last=Peoples | first=Glenn | title=OK Go Splits With EMI | url= http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3id98ddd2a7feb2ad800e58a6a9d37d36d | publisher=Billboard | date=2010-03-10 | accessdate=2010-03-10 Of the Blue Colour of the Sky was re-released on April 1, when the new label took over the promotional campaign and all distribution responsibilities for the album.cite web | last=Karan | first=Tim | url= http://www.altpress.com/news/okgone.htm | title=OK Gone: OK Go leave EMI; create their own label | publisher=Alternative Press | date=2010-03-10 | accessdate=2010-03-10Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot While the official statement was that the two parties were departing on good terms, it was speculated that the split was caused by the band's discontentment with the major label over efforts to block viral video|viral distribution of the music videos from Oh No and Of the Blue Colour of the Sky .cite web | last=Collins | first=Clark | title=OK Go depart EMI following criticism of the company, set up own label with two dogs | url= http://music-mix.ew.com/2010/03/10/ok-go-depart-emi-following-criticism-of-the-company-set-up-own-label-with-two-dogs/ | publisher=Entertainment Weekly | work=Music Mix | date=2010-03-10 | accessdate=2010-03-10 On January 12, 2010, the first video for the song "This Too Shall Pass" ( University of Notre Dame Marching Band Version http://ndtoday.alumni.nd.edu/site/c.gsJJKXPJJtH/b.5692351/k.2905/OK_Go_Collaborates_with_ND_Band.htm) was released. On March 1, 2010, OK Go released their second video for "This Too Shall Pass"( Rube Goldberg Machine version), directed by James Frost (video director)|James Frost . On June 15, 2010, the band released a music video for their single " End Love ".cite web | url = http://www.antimusic.com/news/10/june/10OK_Go_To_Make_History_This_Weekend.shtml | title = OK Go To Make History This Weekend | date = 2010-06-10 | accessdate = 2010-06-17 | publisher =Antimusic On April 29, 2010, the group appeared on The Colbert Report where they performed "This Too Shall Pass". On May 6, 2010 The Baltimore Sun reported that OK Go is selling USB flash drive s with recordings of each show on the Spring 2010 U.S. Tour cite news |url= http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-05-06/entertainment/bs-ae-music-ok-go-20100507_1_videos-emi-band |title=OK Go Sets out on Its Own |last=Sessa |first=Sam |publisher= Baltimore Sun |date=2010-05-06 |accessdate=2010-05-22
OK Go has earned considerable fame for their creative but often low-budget music video s, most of which have been promoted through Internet video sharing sites like YouTube .cite web | url = http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/11/10/ranking-the-ok-go-video-catalogue-are-the-videos-always-better-than-the-songs/ |title = Ranking the OK Go Video Catalogue: Are the Videos Always Better Than the Songs? | work = Time (magazine)|Time | date = 2010-11-10 | accessdate= 2010-11-26 | first = Nate | last = Jones Many of these have become viral video s; the 2006 video for "Here It Goes Again", in which the band performed a complex routine with the aid of motorized treadmills, has received over 50 million views four years later. cite web | url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/sep/25/ok-go-white-knuckles | title = Here they go again: new OK Go video is a White Knuckle ride | first = Priya | last = Elan | date = 2010-09-25 | accessdate =2010-09-25 | work = The Guardian Their newest music video, Needing/Getting, released February 5th, 2012, already has 17 million hits on YouTube and is part of a Chevy Sonic commercial. Samuel Bayer , who produced many music videos in the 1990s, asserted that OK Go's promotion of music videos on the Internet was akin to Nirvana (band)|Nirvana 's ushering in the grunge movement. Many of the videos also use long or single-shot takes, which Salon.com|Salon 's Matt Zoller Seitz claims "restores a sense of wonder to the musical number by letting the performers' humanity shine through and allowing them to do their thing with a minimum of filmmaking interference".cite web | url = http://www.salon.com/entertainment/2010/09/21/how_ok_go_could_save_the_movie_musical/ | title = Can OK Go save the movie musical? | date = 2010-09-21 | accessdate = 2010-09-25 | publisher = Salon.com | first = Matt Zoller | last = Seitz The success of OK Go's music first won the band the 14th Annual Webby Awards|Webby Special Achievement Award for Film and Video Artist of the Year.cite web | url = http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/specialachievement14.php | title = 14th Annual Webby Special Achievement Award Winners | date = 2010-05-04 | accessdate= 2010-05-04 | publisher = Webby Awards The video for "This Too Shall Pass" was named both "Video of the Year" and "Best Rock Video" at the 3rd annual UK Music Video Awards .cite web | url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8060133/OK-Go-win-video-of-year-award.html | title = OK Go win video of year award | date = 2010-10-13 | accessdate = 2010-10-13 | work = The Daily Telegraph "This Too Shall Pass" won the LA Film Fest's Audience Award for Best Music Video,cite web | url = http://2010.lafilmfest.com/award-winners/ | title = OK Go win Audience Award For Best Video UK MVA Awards – Music Video of the Year Winner 2010,cite web | url = http://www.ukmva.com/ | title = OK Go Win UK MVA Awards Music Video of the Year among others.
Ara Anderson& nbsp;– keyboard, percussion, trumpet (2002, 2004)
Tom Brislin & nbsp;– keyboard, percussion (2004)
Jerry Welborn& nbsp;– guitar, drums only during the band's break
Discography
Main|OK Go discography
Studio albums
OK Go (album)|OK Go (2002)
Oh No (album)|Oh No (2005)
Of the Blue Colour of the Sky (2010)
Awards
Grammy Award|Grammys :
*Best Short Form Music Video (2007) for " Here It Goes Again "cite web
| url= http://www.grammy.com/GRAMMY_Awards/49th_Show/list.aspx#31 | title= 49th Annual Grammy Awards Winners List | work= GRAMMY.com | publisher= The Recording Academy | accessdate=2008-03-26
YouTube Video Awards :
*Most Creative Video (2006) for "Here It Goes Again"
Nominations
MTV Europe Music Award s:
*Nominated: Best Video (2006) for "A Million Ways"cite news
|url= http://www.nme.com/news/justin-timberlake/24395 |title=Nominations for MTV Europe Music Awards announced |date=2006-09-19 |publisher= NME |accessdate=2008-10-14
Grammy Awards of 2012
*Nominated: Best Short Form Music Video for " All Is Not Lost (song)|All Is Not Lost "
OK Go was also nominated "Best Music Video That Should Have Won a Moon Man" for their hit video, "Here It Goes Again" in the 2009 MTV Music Video Awards.
References
Reflist|2
External links
http://www.okgo.net/ Official website
http://thewilltorock.blogspot.com/ Band Blog
IMDb name|2037328
OK Go DEFAULTSORT:Ok Go Category:Grammy Award winners Category:American power pop groups Category:Capitol Records artists Category:American Internet personalities Category:American indie rock groups Category:Alternative rock groups from Chicago, Illinois Category:Musical quartets Category:Musical groups established in 1998
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