OK-GO for the Win

Damian Kulash and Tim Norwind's colorful shoes — Damian Kulash and Tim Norwind’s colorful shoes (Photo credit: thaths)

What happens if you mix Blue Man Group, Inspector Gadget, and Nascar? You’d probably get something like OK-GO’s new video for their tune, Needing/Getting.

What I love about this video is taking the idea of the size of an instrument to an absurd and wonderful extreme. It’s also a great way to visualize the form of a piece of music, since you can actually see instead of “just” hear where the form repeats. And the question I have is: how the heck do you practice that instrument? Having a budget and a team would certainly help, but lead singer Damian Kulash seems to do a great job (and the most difficult one) of driving (at the right speed, of course) while singing. The band is great. Here’s what Ira Glass (of This American Life) had to say (the whole thing is here):

I am here to say that OK Go is more than those videos. The band’s frontman Damian Kulash sometimes makes big declarations like “We’re trying to be a DIY band in a post-major label world” or “Our whole bag is having good ideas and making cool shit.”

I find that convincing.

Yes, it certainly is.

Want to learn more about the best ways to practice? Get an e-mail with a discount code when The Practice of Practice is published (June, 2014). To learn more about the book, check out a sample from The Practice of Practice.