Friday, May 14, 2010

Tributing Stuff (Part 12): OK GO

This tribute goes out to the band OK GO. I have never really been a huge OK GO fan of their music. Its just kind of filler music really, no disrespect but I never think to download their songs after I hear them on the radio. This is not because of copyright protection, I just don't feel that their will ever be a moment where I'll think to myself "Hey, wouldn't it be great to hear that OK GO song right now?". Not that I hate all/any of their songs, I just don't see that moment happening.

What grabs this blogger's attention (as I type this, on my blog site - named Blogger - I am noticing that the spellcheck does not recognize the word "blogger"... is this what they mean when they speak of irony?) what they do around their music. Have you ever seen their homemade videos? That's where all their caché is hidden. They have the treadmill video for that otherwise annoying song Here We Go Again, and you have to admit that it was pretty cool. Here is a copy of the video since the real "official version" does not enable embedding (into my blog or any other site).



Does this look familiar to you? Maybe you are thinking: "Hey isn't that the same choreography my 10-12 year old sister, niece, daughter or grandmother use when her friends come over for that sleepovers?". You'd probably be right! But isn't it so much more entertaining when it is preformed by grown men who should normally be doing something more productive like working on a construction site, playing hockey or gambling?

The next video of the song "This Too Shall Pass" is the one that really caught my eye and made me think, (in my inside Rodney Dangerfield voice of course) "Hey, you guys are all-right! Now who wants to party?".



After Rodney's confetti disapears as mysteriously as it appeared, you probably start to wonder "Why is that video so much better than the last? The answer is simple: I love my elaborate Rube Goldberg machines. (BTW there used to be a video of one on display at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa which you could see for free if you go on Thrusdays between 5-8PM.) The song was better too but this was all about he Goldberg. So when I saw this video I wanted to see what else these OK GO fools may have in store. So I clicked on the related videos and came up with the second video for that song which includes a marching band. And who doesn't like marching band? In the words of Toronto mayor and cheap furniture pusher Mel Lastman "Nobody". Here is your marching band:



The next reason this band caught my attention is that they preformed "This Too Shall Pass" on one of my favorite fake news shows The Colbert Report. The reason this is kind of a big deal is that Colbert's format doesn't regularly include a musical piece. In fact the only other artist that preformed on the show and comes to mind is Willie Nelson (and Tobi Keith after a google search). I can't put those videos they are protected and get pulled.

Finally, the nail in the coffin for me was when I realized hat the Marching Band from the "this too shall pass" video was the Marching Band from the University of Notre Dame. Anyone who knows me would understand that from the ages of 14-16 about half of my wardrobe had some Fiighting Irish of Notre Dame logo on it. I can't think of any other sports team whose hat I ever wore either. Except for a red corduroy Chicago Blackhawks hat I bought in grade 5 at a Atom hockey tournament in Levis near Quebec City. But by grade 6 I had replaced it with my first Notre Dame hat. Fittingly the brand of the hat was called Starter, which was actually the top sports apparel brand at the time.

Even while writing this blog I found another cool video from this band, introducing Including my favorite k9s: Dogs! Here they are promoting this new YouTube feature called Musicians Wanted. This feature allow musicians to get paid when their YouTube videos get played. Isn't that amazing mon osti? It's another Festivus Miracle by OK GO (I now follow them on Twitter).



Finally here is a video of BadBoy owner turned mayor of the biggest city in Canada Mel Lastman. Yes, Canadian's have skeletons in their closets too.

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