OK Go sucks, but NU concert a good move
This year’s A&O Fall Show breaks away from the rap-centric focus of previous shows featuring the likes of Kanye West, Jurassic 5 and Clipse, as Chicago rockers OK Go will grace Patten Gym Dec. 5 for the annual concert. My instant reaction to this news: bleh. OK Go generate extremely cut-and-copy rock sound with lyrics offering insight as deep as “you’re so damn hot,” relying on whatever-guitar hooks and words stolen from 80’s hair bands. The most damning strike against the Chicago group (who actually have NU ties, as one of the founding members went to our fair school before leaving the band) is how they got famous – while some bands toil away for years trying to gain a little attention, OK Go used the power of the Internet and exercise equipment to break on through. Now, I love this video, it’s awesome, but I don’t want to listen to OK Go’s boring brand of rock swagger just because they know how to choreograph videos well. If they just dance the whole time at Patten, great, but they better step away from the guitars.
Yet A&O’s decision to sign OK Go may be their most brilliant move of the year. Recent productions from the group have been great, but not buzzed about that much. Last year’s Fall Show, featuring rap groups Jurassic 5 and Clipse, barely made a blip, while even the Wilco show earlier this year, while amazing, didn’t bring the entire campus together. OK Go actually has a chance to draw a wide variety of people to Patten. Most people not living under a rock have seen the treadmill video, and know who this band is, something Wilco and Jurassic 5 couldn’t boast. This group actually breaks down genre walls pretty well, and will get a wide variety of music fans up north Dec. 5 – I’ve seen frat dudes and sorority kids lose it to “Here it Goes Again,” indie kids appreciate the group’s guitar work and even rap-heads getting into the group, or at least the video. As much as I may loathe OK Go, I’m not dumb enough to expect any campus group to bring obscure acts like No Age or Crystal Castles (guess what I’ve been listening to?) to campus just because hipsters dig them. A&O has found an act with great appeal to a lot of different students, and should expect a great turnout, and I applaud them for that. Plus, anything that gets people out to a concert is a good thing, except maybe “Crank That.”
Oh, here is the other big YouTube video the group had. Not as neat as treadmills, but still impressive. Why can’t they just work on Broadway?
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Think A&O should have brought, say, Sufjan Stevens to campus? Well, you can read about his recent concert in New York. Or you can return home.
Crystal Castles is mind poison. After watching their set at Metric, I can’t imagine how anyone could listen to them and not want to perform self-castration with a rusted pair of gardening shears.
John
November 19, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I like Ok Go. I think their music is fun. I don’t care if their music is repetitive or shallow (which it is), because I have a good time listening to it. I can’t wait for the show.
Scott Olstad
November 19, 2007 at 1:12 pm
So you “loath” (misspelling not mine) OK Go, but you like Justice’s tacky I [heart] the ’80s stunt? I’m very, very confused. You’re wonderful, Patrick, but c’mon, this post is written with an incredible amount of condescension and smugness (as much as you try to use “hipster” self-deprecatingly). As in, “OK Go is perfectly awful. But at least it’ll give everyone else on campus something to do while I sit at home watching Bergman…” Oh yeah, and a quick Facebook search shows that you might be wrong entirely: A campus devoted to The Beatles (#2), Radiohead (#3) and Ben Folds (#5) is more likely to listen to Wilco than a flash-in-the-pan MTV pop novelty act, no?
Paul Schrodt
November 20, 2007 at 4:31 am
OK Go are supposed to be fun. They clearly aren’t striving to be this prolific band that uses screw drivers in a way no one had even considered. Think about it, where would we be without “Vogue,” “Stayin’ Alive,” or “California Girls”?
Also, I don’t think it’s fair to make it seem like exploited the internet for their own personal gain. Most bands are getting their sound heard this way. Would the Arctic Monkeys be filling up venues across continents without the internet?
clare
November 20, 2007 at 5:10 pm
You clearly haven’t heard much of OK Go. “You’re So Damn Hot” is one if their fun songs, but the bulk of what they write is very deep and insightful. In fact, the lead singer has a degree in semiotics (a field centered on symbolism) from Brown university. The fact that other bands struggle does not deter in any way from the fact that OK Go is smart enough to take advantage of the internet- it’s immature and obnoxious of you to think that. Your whole piece is a babyish rant on why your favorite bands are better. You need to grow up.
Sally
December 2, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Are you serious? OK Go is “deep and insightful”?!?!?
Please kill yourself.
urdumb
December 2, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Yeah man, Ben Folds is so quality. Not tacky at all.
urdumb
December 2, 2007 at 3:27 pm
First off, OK Go used to be the house band of NPR’s This American Life. The lead singer has also written widely distributed political essays and his articles on the music industry’s failing fight against piracy via DRM have been published in the New York Times. Not to mention again his degree in semiotics from Brown. OK Go’s latest album is actually an exploration of the darkness of the modern world, according to Kulash himself.Just because you’ve seen 1 music video and heard 1 song doesn’t mean you can view an entire band’s music as superficial. “Please kill yourself” just goes to show that you have nothing intelligent to say and so you respond like a baby.
Sally
December 4, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Hey Sally,
I actually got the chance to meet Damion and talk to him. He’s a cool guy, but OK Go’s music and lyrics aren’t very deep. “GETGETGETGETGET OVER IT”? If that’s your definition of insight, I’m worried.
urdumb
February 7, 2008 at 11:00 pm