I Want My, I Want My, I Want My OK-Go

My parents were fairly strict - almost afraid of popular culture - and I was not allowed to watch MTV as a kid, because SIN.  By the time I was old enough to out on my own, it was no longer very musical on the old Music TV.  So the bulk of my music videos have come to me via blogs like this one - people linking to awesome videos that I just. have. to. see. (Or JUST! HAVE! TO! SEE!!!!!)

I've seen a fair few videos this way, though after a few seconds of most I just minimize the window and listen to the song.  But the quirky synchronized feats of the Chicago band OK-Go always caught my attention and kept me watching.  

This Too Shall Pass.  This video starts with a line of dominoes, which kicks off a Rube Goldberg machine that includes a lego RV, a guitar that "plays" glasses of water by spinning in a circle and clinking them, an old tube tv playing another famous OK-Go video that gets a hammer right in the screen, a barrel rolling down a ramp, a Delorean, and a glorious finish in which umbrellas, beach balls, and paper airplanes rain down over a warehouse floor while the band members (who have wandered around the machine lip syncing and have been mysteriously covered in paint) line up to be shot with paint cannons, and the members of the company hired to create the whole silly project stand on a platform and cheer.

Here it Goes Again.  The four band members use six treadmills to do a very intricate, if not delicate, dance while mugging for the camera.  Heck ya'll, this even includes a preview of the horsey dance from Gangnam Style, so that's proof that OK-Go did it first and PSY is just a poseur. (Gangnam Style is another fave video that I will cheat and stick in here - I enjoy it because I know that PSY isn't being serious but is making fun of rich jerks in Korea, and also, the horsey dance!  I taught my children the horsey dance.  That's what kids are for - to do party tricks for you.)

Needing/Getting is not my favorite song, but the video's another silly romp, this time through a desert in a car.  The band members play the percussion on the car itself by banging, slamming doors, and clicking the wipers, and then drive it along a sort of plinko machine so that tiny tiles can clink out a tune.  Then it drives down a ramp, with appendages hanging off the cars banging keys on broken pianos lined up along the route, whacking into poles strategically positioned to be banged in time with the music, and doing other various silly things.  It's not as good as the others because it's not a single shot, but it's in the same OK Go vein.

That'll do ya, for a Tuesday morning.  Check those out, and I can't wait to see your selections!  Or rather - CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOUR SELECTIONS!!!!!!!!