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OK GO is mostly remembered for thier treadmill choreographed videoHere It Goes Again and gained alot of respect for originality without getting super famous out of the deal, but they have done even better. This Too Shall Pass is the game Mouse Trap on nerd steriods, anyone who enjoys Rube Goldberg machines should check it out... where else can a guitar play spoons?
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posted
I'm not a huge fan of their music videos. They use their one shot sequences more as gimmicks than anything else. More artfully done one-shot videos have been made. Also I don't really think their music is that good. Just my two-cents.
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Soap, it's not just that it was one shot, it was that the entire video was a giant Rube Goldberg.
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Yeah, the Rube Goldberg aspect was well-done but this wasn't done in one shot. Watch carefully, there are a couple of cuts that are disguised. Think of how the movie Cloverfield was done.
Posts: 1158 | Registered: Feb 2006
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Soap, the video you linked is interesting, but in such a completely different category as This Too Shall Pass that trying to compare them is almost pointless. (Though I will note that This Too Shall Pass is also so different from the treadmill video that I don't think you can really compare those two either).
Whether the Rube Goldberg Machines was one shot or not doesn't (much) impact the fact that it was a seriously awesome rube goldberg machine.
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Meh, if you ask me they should spend the time they spent making cutesy videos like that on actually making good music. But I guess its a good way for them to get fans.
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I admit that the music is not to my taste, but nothing about it struck me as particularly bad, just not the type of music I'd listen to if it wasn't attached to a cool video (for the record, I also did not particularly like the music in the video you linked). I'm pretty confident that if they happened to make the kind of music that I like to listen to, it'd be perfectly good music that wouldn't improve dramatically if they stopped doing gimmicky videos. (And they didn't do the machine themselves anyway, they got a bunch of engineers to do it).
I already have plenty of music I like to listen to for its own merits. I do not have plenty of music synced up with giant perfectly orchestrated awesome machines.
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quote:if you ask me they should spend the time they spent making cutesy videos like that on actually making good music.
This presumes that one can exchange time spent on one activity for the other. I imagine the way it worked out is that they wrote a song they liked, then sought to figure out a video to go with it. It's not like they said "Well, the song's no good, but we've used up our songwriting time budget so we better get started on that video."
Posts: 3275 | Registered: May 2007
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Why does it have to be a gimmick? They do these because they want to and they enjoy making them. Frankly the videos they make are far superior to the usual music videos bands make.
That said, I don't really enjoy their music or listen to them. But that video is awesome.
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I don't much like their music either, but they're creative in their videos. And I love Rube Goldberg setups.
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My question for Soap (or anyone really) is... is it the quality of the music that seems bad, or merely not to your taste? Is there anyone here who finds themselves wishing they'd do the same music, just... better?
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I'll weigh in because I have a few Ok Go albums. I just got the new one so maybe it needs to grow on me, but I don't like it as much as their self-titled album or "Oh No."
There is a certain playfulness missing. Ok Go is what I put on for driving music. Or cleaning/dancing around the apartment. The new album doesn't have that magic.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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They are a really derivative and uninspired band. The music is bad only because they stick to a formula and an image that they have formed for themselves (sounding like Weezer), and when they started to deviate from that formula on their last album the results weren't pretty. It's not so much that their music is bad as much as it is that there is simply much better versions of their music floating around in the form of the artists they try to imitate.
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I see nothing wrong with creating fun but fairly simple music. Mostly the people that have problems with bands that are pretty ordinary that I know are my friends that are musicians. I inderstand them not liking "simple uncreative" music, but I don't care at all. I don't know many OK GO songs, but I wouldn't immediately say they were bad. Here it goes is one of my favourite songs to blast and dance around to. Them being unimaginative posers wouldn't matter one bit.
I like pretty much all music (except Metal and Country) so all I want in a song is to make me feel good, or make me think. I've made plenty of posts here on music that reveal I'm and Indie/Electronica/Alternative nut that also loves pop and rap (not exclusively).
Posts: 856 | Registered: Jun 2007
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Fantastic video, song is at least just alittle catchy. Seriously one of the best concepts for a music video I've ever seen.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Love the video, love the song. I spend far more of my time than is probably healthy thinking about music, and I don't find anything OK Go's ever done to be "derivative" or "uninspired." They wear their influences on their sleeves (and those influences have far more to do with the Pixies and '80s new wave than Weezer of all things), but so do lots of great bands. Interpol owe their existence to Joy Division. Radiohead happily admit their massive debt to REM, the Pixies, and the entire IDM scene. Hell, even the Beatles shamelessly stole from their best contemporaries - and I don't think anyone would dare argue that "Rubber Soul" is anything less than a great album, despite the fact that, omigosh, its style is clearly derived from the Byrds and Bob Dylan's music.
OK Go write catchy melodies, memorable hooks, and clever lyrics, and have a playfulness and exuberance sorely missing in most of their indie rock peers. And they create great effing music videos.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Sep 1999
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I don't see a need to get defensive. You're the one going around throwing out words like "derivative" and "uninspired."
Tarrsk, thanks for making the Pixies/80s reference. I can't stand Weezer and didn't see the connection to OK GO. But I adore the Pixies and my interest in a few other bands would explain why I enjoy the previous OK GO albums and not the most recent one.
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I think OK Go is alright. I don't own any of their stuff, but if some friends were going to show, I'd go along.
Soap, you don't like them, okay...many of the people in this thread either do like them, or happen to think the video was great. No one is forcing you to defend anything.
posted
I love Weezer and the Pixies as well. I often like bands that have no relation whatsoever, even if you try to travel through intermediary bands.
I don't really see a connection between Weezer and OK Go. They are both fun, playful bands however and I like that for some of my music.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Strider: Soap, you don't like them, okay...many of the people in this thread either do like them, or happen to think the video was great.
Probably because those who don't/didn't haven't bothered to open the thread more than just to see what it was.
But I'm bored at the moment.
Soap, I entirely agree with you.
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How odd that I find this thread just as I was listening to OK GO on Pandora. Granted, I am listening to my OK GO station, but it's still weird!
Posts: 2064 | Registered: Dec 2003
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This is the second music video they have done for This Too Shall Pass. And I thought the first video was awesome! It's lame compared to this one.
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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When I first saw their treadmill video, I loved it. But I couldn't remember the tune to the song 10 seconds after the video ended. Now, having heard it about 20 or so times, I can remember it. But I've watched the new one three times, and can't even remember a snatch of the tune.
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One thing I thought was neat to see, is that there are artifacts in the background that show how many practice runs they went through, like the pile of destroyed TV sets. And on the second run through, you realize that the first shot, which looks like the guy is covered in blood, is due to the fact that in the last shot they get hit with the paint cannon... "Oh I get it!"
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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When I showed it to Tova, she immediately asked why he had paint all over him. She kept asking as the video continued, and I kept telling her to shush and wait. When they got shot with the paintball guns at the end, she said in a very dry voice, "Oh. Funny." I'm a bad influence on her, I guess.
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quote:One thing I thought was neat to see, is that there are artifacts in the background that show how many practice runs they went through, like the pile of destroyed TV sets.
I liked how the tv they destroyed was playing the Here it Goes Again video.
Here's something that's been bugging me about this conversation. The advent of music videos didn't JUST provide another outlet for bands to get people to hear their music, it created an entirely new mode of entertainment. Everyone here would agree that music is a form of art, correct? Well so are music videos, not only as an extension of the music, but in their own right.
So what if the song isn't spectacular on its own? The piece of art is a music video. When I hear a great song I may listen to it a lot of times. OK Go's video for Here it Goes Again didn't make me go and LISTEN to that song repeatedly, but it DID create a piece of art that I have WATCHED repeatedly.
I understand the song precedes the video, and that most bands aren't creating songs specifically to make them into a music video. But I just think songs and videos can be judged separately on their artistic merit. OK Go makes FANTASTIC videos. That's enough for me, regardless of how good the music is on its own(though I find their music catchy as well).
posted
Anyone else think the first band member was covered in blood and was therefore expecting a very different ending? No? Just me? Okay.
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@Strider: The best example I can think of to coincide with your idea is Johnny Cash's video for Hurt, his only music video and arguably his most successful single in decades. With very artistic groups like The Yeah Yeah Yeah's and Gorrilaz out there who wish to act upon more than thier audio inspirations without just making a video to get airtime on the all to precious moments that MTV plays music at all.
Honestly, YYY's Y Control video has no aspirations beyond being creepy and I assume fun to make.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008
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I find that in re-listening to some of the other Ok Go songs that, first of all, I do remember them once they start playing, but I can't remember much of the words. I think the biggest problem is that they don't enunciate very well, and/or they distort the vocal track or just don't balance the levels well enough to pick out the words.
I'm not familiar enough with the Pixies to make any comment, but I looked up the words to Here it Goes Again and found the line "Surfer Rosa" which made no sense to me, so I googled it. Turns out to be a Pixies reference, and that according to wikipedia, the pixies intentionally used low fidelity recording for effect. That may explain Ok Go's indecipherable lyrics.
In any case, I find Ok Go's music very listenable, but that doesn't mean it's memorable, because to me, I need meaningful lyrics to remember a song. That said, I now have "here it goes again" stuck in my head.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Since this is a music related thread I'd just like to say I've just discovered the superbness of Frank Sinatra. He's like the best musician ever. I wish I hadn't waited until yesterday to try to listen to any of his albums. Anybody have a favourite Sinatra song? I like That's Life and Fly Me to the Moon.
This is making me happier than the time I discovered Florence + the Machine
I'm not a huge fan of OK GO, but I think I'm gonna try to listen to some of their older stuff, since I do enjoy the song Here It Goes.
Posts: 856 | Registered: Jun 2007
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Their lyrics are actually pretty decent, too. They're a slightly more mainstream version of Harvey Danger, as far as I'm concerned.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: Their lyrics are actually pretty decent, too. They're a slightly more mainstream version of Harvey Danger, as far as I'm concerned.
Do you like Harvey Danger Tom?
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: Their lyrics are actually pretty decent, too. They're a slightly more mainstream version of Harvey Danger, as far as I'm concerned.
That's a pretty good comparison, although their musical styles aren't terribly similar (HD being punk-influenced 90s alt-rock and OK Go being 80s dance rock-influenced 00s indie rock). But both bands are the sarcastic wise-asses of their respective musical generations.
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