the last paracadet (please listen to ok go)

as always, my brain, treacherous bastard it is, has latched onto a band with virtually no active fandom.

i did a cursory search of spacehey and it seems no one has even mentioned them on this site. this is my luck. however, this also means i am free to shove this music down everyone's throat- i am BOUND to make a few people into fans. please indulge me on this one infodump, and forgive me for any word vomit, as it is 3am and i am deliriously high on hyperfixation juice.

left to right, you got andy ross (guitar+keyboards), tim norwind (bass), dan konopka (drums) and damian kulash (vocals+guitar) they're an altrock/power pop/pop rock/awesome fucking band. they used to be under Capitol Records and EMI, before they split and formed their own record label, named Paracadute. they are my indie darlings and i am obsessed with them.

they are most well known for their music videos, usually insanely choreographed and complex one take affairs.

have you ever seen that one music video of the four guys dancing on the treadmills? of course you have. it has 65 million views on youtube (and this is a reupload!) and was one of the first music videos to go viral solely off of people online sharing it. it got parodied on the simpsons, fairly oddparents, and foster's home. it won a grammy, for fucks sake. this video is ok go's low budget take on a video for their song Here It Goes Again, from their second album Oh No.

although this video is their most remembered in the collective pop culture brain, they are not exactly one-hit wonders, and theyve done nothing but get fucking cooler with the years. their current most watched video on youtube is for the song this too shall pass, off of their third album Of The Blue Color Of The Sky (if you had the misfortune of sitting through the flash (2023) you might know it as the ending credits song...) it's a fuck huge rube goldberg machine that is perfectly synced to the song, filmed in one long take.

this video took 2 days, 60 takes, and a crew of more or less 30 people to help the machine run smoothly. its fucking wonderful. and the song is INSANELY good.

i became aware of ok go's existence... well, probably as a kid having seen here it goes again, but i dont count that. a couple months ago, i got their music video for the song upside down and inside out on my tiktok for you page (see? good things can come from using tiktok... sometimes). they've been doing a really fun thing where they post their music videos with blurbs about production all thought. its like watching a director's commentary version and i adore it. the music video was crazy interesting, too- they got on a "vomit comet" (a reduced-gravity aircraft- a plane that does parabolic maneuvers to simulate low gravity, usually for training astronauts) and did a full choreo in one long take synced perfectly to the song.

holy fucking shit. i was hooked instantly. the music was great, the band seemed to lean fully into the silliness of what they were doing while also being completely aware that it was fucking awesome, and- and this is important- they handed me a truckload of fun facts right on a silver platter. (i am a fun facts man first and foremost.)

immediately i spent about an hour looking through their entire backlog of tiktoks. when i reached the end of the tiktoks, i searched them up on spotify and went slightly insane listening to their entire discography. then i read their entire wikipedia article... just because.

you know when you're neurodivergent and you know theres a new hyperfixation just looming there? and you cant do anything about it? its like standing on the train tracks and hearing, suddenly, a train horn. something something, deer in the headlights.

i found out the name for fans of ok go is "paracadets", after Paracadute, their record label. sadly, it seems all my fellow paracadets are in... deep cryogenic sleep or some shit, just waiting for the new album. oh yeah, did i mention they havent released an album since 2014????!!!!!!!

once again, i repeat, this is just my luck.

theyve done things since- touring and music videos and weird little side projects, including a series of educational videos named the OK Go Sandbox (if youre in an english speaking country and your teachers are nerdasses after my own heart, there is a chance you've watched ok go fuck around with maths and physics.). damian and his wife directed a movie, named the beanie bubble, which came out last year and included their first new proper music release in years. (if youre not counting the lockdown song and their cover of this will be our year, of course...)

they recently went on a short and sweet tour playing NEW MUSIC. it seems that the universe does not, in fact, hate me and want me to suffer, as i got into the fandom just in time for them to confirm that the album is expected to release in FEBRUARY OF NEXT YEAR!! for once, this is my luck.

if youve liked the videos up there, if youre into altrockpopindietweebullshit, if you've fallen in love with damian kulash (as most of the people ive shown this band to have...), consider taking a look at their other music videos, or give their albums a try. i really recommend Oh No and Of The Blue Color Of The Sky. even though theyre most well known for their visuals, that doesnt mean the music isnt fucking awesome, because it IS.

and if i havent convinced you yet, here- my favorite video of the band being complete fucking idiots. theyre the perfect nerds. give them a chance.