Chicago/Washington D.C. band OK Go have been moderately successful from the start, especially with their first hit song “Get Over It”. The song, although great, reeked one-hit-wonder and until late 2005 it looked as if it would prove to be true. Then something interesting happened.

Their follow-up album to 2002’s self titled release arrived in the summer of 2005. The first single from “Oh No” was “A Million Ways” and just like any good commercial act, they release a video for said single. However, it was the do-it-yourself style of the video that got them plenty of attention. The video was filmed in a single shot in their own backyard, the camera operator (oooh, fancy words!) being lead singer Damian Kulash’s sister Trish Sie. In short order, the video became the most downloaded ever with 9 million hits to date.



Seeing the huge success the video for “A Million Ways” garnered, the band decided to continue the same style on the next single, “Here We Go Again”. This time, instead of the band dancing in their backyard, this video featured the boys playing on carefully placed treadmills with choreography that surpasses their previous effort. Both videos are clever and fun and it should come as no surprise that they’ve both been very successful. “Here We Go Again” was viewed over a million times in the first week on YouTube and has surpassed it’s predecessor.



One interesting point is that in both videos, the band member who’s lip synching to each song is not Kulash, but bassist Tim Norwind. Kulash has appeared on The Colbert Report to discuss the videos while the band performed the latter video (not the song) at this year’s MTV VMAs, complete with treadmills that had OK GO printed on the treads (see video below). They’ve been nominated for the MTV Europe Music Awards (Best Video for “A Million Ways”), VH1’s Big in ’06 Awards (Big Web Hit for “Here it Goes Again”) and even a Grammy (Best Short Form Music Video for “Here It Goes Again”). That’s impressive.



Both of these videos could easily be the top of the year and they’d certainly make the short list on my site’s (www.kmnr.ca) Year End Issue if it were a category. I do cover the album and concert of the year though and if you feel like having your voice hear, submit your own choice (mailto:cristovao@kmnr.ca) for album and concert of the year today! They kMNR Year End Issue arrives on December 28th!


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