BlogFight!

My friend and fellow grammarian, Damian Kulash, is now picking fights on blogs. Words are being said over which words are being said. Go read the thrust and the parry and then weigh in on the obsessiveness of it all. Extra points to Andy, Darbie & Jade who weighed in before you did.

Lots more extra points to the first person who, refusing to defend Damian, instead insists that utilizing the word 'officious' instead of one of its less snobby synonyms is a worse crime than utilizing the word 'utilize.' And extra, extra points if that person then gets Damian to respond in a comment, with even more points given if it turns into an argument, and infinite points given in the highly unlikely event that it's an argument Damian loses. More extra points for defending Damian in either the primary or (as yet non-existent) secondary argument. And even more extra points will be given for humor, nit-pickiness, and needlessly bringing in the names of other bands, including, but not limited to, ? and the Mysterians, !!!, and Five For Fighting, a band name that could mean so many different things, depending on how you punctuate.

Let the nonsense begin, or rather, continue: BlogFight!

Chapter Fifty-Four: Blender's Treats & Rendered Meats

Two reasons why you should pick up the new issue (December 2005) of Blender magazine:

1. We host their holiday gift guide. Hosting duties include posing for some snazzy pictures. You'll see Dan looking like a European telecommunications mogul, Damian, not looking mogul-y but wearing paisley pants, and Tim and I sporting matching old lady broaches (The broaches match, not the old ladies. Although if two old ladies wore them, I guess they'd match...broaches are weird.) Best of all, the good people at Blender misspelled our album as "OK No," which is, in my opinion, very funny.
   
2. The Toyota spread on pages 24 and 25 features a shot of Coney Island Hot Dogs from my hometown of Worcester, MA. They serve pretty solid tube steaks in the New York style (mustard, onions, chili). To be honest, I've been obsessed with hot dogs since our last visit to Chicago in which we rocked Wiener's Circle and Maxwell St. on consecutive evenings. I realized that after spending literally two hours reading this website that things were getting a little out of hand. I also realized that I was really hungry.

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!

Love,
Rusty

-----
a note from jorge:
Rusty, next time you're in Chicago, stop messing around and just go to Hot Doug's. Not only are their encased meats amazing (Today's Specials, Regular Menu), but they've got their own theme song (with remixes!): Rock Mix, Techno Mix, Hybrid Mix. Yummy.

Chapter Fifty-Three: Piping? Hot.

After Wednesday's show in Minneapolis, Damian and I tore through some horrendous gas station pizza, flipping through the local weekly as we ate. We were particularly pleased by this ad in the "Musicians Wanted" section:

"Drummer for orig, innovative bagpipes/hard rock/alt/acoustic type band. This is gonna go off - hurry call!"

Bagpipes? I wasn't aware that was a genre. Can't you totally imagine the following conversation?

"So, Chuck, what's your band sound like?"
"Ah, well, we got like a Staind meets Alice In Chains meets Goo Goo Dolls meets Scottish folk music type thing. You know, like supah fuckin' heavy, but still really pop. You know, like, real fuckin' melodic. And when my cousin Tommy starts rippin' on the fuckin' pipes... I mean, he's a fuckin' genius. You know what I mean? We take what Korn did and we bring it to a whole new level... We don't hold nothing back. We're takin' pipe-core to its limits."

I can't wait to eat my words when that "band from Minneapolis with the bagpipes" blows up, sells 10 zillion records, and graciously invites us to open for them. Seriously... I can not wait.

New News For Chicago, Toronto & DC

Some people argue that the denizens of Chicago, Toronto and Washington DC have absolutely nothing going for them. Screw those people.

Chicago has an OK Go show on Friday, Nov. 18th. Because it's 18+, we've scheduled an in-store performance & signing at the Tower Records on Clark, down the street from the Metro. That's from 7 to 8pm. Bring your friends, if you've got some. Make sure to download this flyer, print it, make copies, and spread it all over the city that never weeps (in front of other cities).

Toronto gets a special, private performance. OK Go is playing the launch party for the Xbox 360 on November 21st. It's going to be pretty effing electric, so we strongly suggest you find a way to get in. Click here for one. If we figure out more, we'll let you know.

Washington, DC gets a newly announced all-ages show on Nov. 20th at the Black Cat, one of our favorite clubs. The opening band is called Shortstack, and it features former OK Go traveling partner Burleigh Seaver (The Surly Beaver) on guitar.

The rest of you can have fun online. Start with Damian's latest post on Coolfer.com. It's a doozy.

Tim On Tour: AudioBloggery

Tim is back with a bold new plan. Your life is about to get a whole lot better. All you need to do is listen.

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Chapter Fifty-Two: The Bullets Bite Back

It's been a little while since my last post and much has happened, so I'm going to have to rock this post list-style. Nah, check that: I'm taking this jam bullet-list-style. Deal with it.

• Rufus Wainwright hit on me. Swear to God. After telling him that the quality of his music and talent of his band was depressing me, he simply replied with, "Oh sweetie, I can make you happy." While he and I don't play on the same team, I can't help but think that getting hit on by a guy NME calls "one of, if not the best, songwriters of his generation" is a victory for Ol' Rusty. Rufus wins, too, because everyone knows that getting turned down by a member of OK Go is an honor in itself.


• Not only did my parents and sister come to the Northampton show, they also brought grandmother, who enjoyed her first OK Go experience. (I considered using de-virginizing just now, but "de-virginizing" and "grandmother" in the same sentence made me barf seven times.) My grandmother loved both our and Rufus' set, but she gave me a funny look when Rufus said from stage that OK Go had "cute butts." I know how you feel, Grandma.


• Thanks to the Toronto message board crew who brought eleventeen tons of pumpkin-related products. Our evening of intense pumpkin snackery culminated in the carving of Tim into a jack-o-lantern.


• Speaking of Toronto, we're playing an XBOX 360 launch party in Toronto on November 21. If you want to come you have to sign-up to win tickets. Click here, to sign up.


• In recent days, I've taken to tossing the tambourine over my head to our guitar tech during "Don't Ask Me." It just feels like the right thing to do. The one kink in that plan: ceiling beams. When I tried throwing it to him in St. Louis, the damn thing bounced off a ceiling beam and flew back into the crowd, nailing a girl in the front row. It's amazing how "cool" goes to "pathetic" in a heartbeat. To that unfortunate fan, I have two things to say: A belated "heads up!" and I'm really, really sorry.

Love,
Rusty

Damian Kulash, Blogger

Damian doesn't want me to tell you this, but I'm going to do it anyway. We've caught the man a-bloggin'. And guess what? He's not a-bloggin' here.

For the next week or two, Damian will be a-bloggin' at coolfer.com, which is widely considered to be the very best music industry blog. The closest competion is a guy named Fred Marshall, but he's more of a performer than a writer. Get Fred to sing an OK Go song on camera, though, and we'll send both of you a free t-shirt.

Read Damian's first post here.

AudioKonopka: Kansas City

Dan the Drummer, back on top!

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Your assignment for the next few weeks:
If you see Dan at a show, go up to him and hand him a note with the one single sentence the world needs to hear him read, and the celebrity in whose style the world needs to hear it. Do it!

AudioKonopka: Chicago

A sober, chastened Dan the Drummer.

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Your assignment for the next few weeks:
If you see Dan at a show, go up to him and hand him a note with the one single sentence the world needs to hear him read, and the celebrity in whose style the world needs to hear it. Do it!

Goodbye, Dear Friends. Goodbye.

Today is a sad day.

I've just been informed that 7th Heaven, the world's greatest television show, has been cancelled. Let's take a moment to think about all the good times we shared. The days ahead will be difficult. Try to remember that sadness and loss are a part of life, and that we can all get through this together.

Entertain Yourselves, For Once.

It's Thursday, which means that you're looking for excitement. We've got none of that, but here's some stuff to do while waiting for a drugged unicorn to crash through your window, destroy your couch and threaten to gore you unless you throw him a wild unicorn party on Mars. (Or whatever it is that you find exciting. We're all so different, after all.)

Radio KOL Interview
Damian and OK Go answered questions from fans and tried to sort their ungulates on Radio KOL. Listen, in two clips.
Radio Kol mp3 #1
Radio Kol mp3 #2

CJIQ Interview
Matt Schichter, CJIQ music director and host of The Backstage Pass the best radio program in Kitchener, Ontario, interviewed Tim and Damian a few days ago. You can hear the interview tonight at 7pm on 88.3, or you can listen to all 42 minutes of music and chatter right now, right here:
streaming!
mp3!

More MTVu
Vote for us on the MTVu Dean's List. Somehow we've fallen from 1st to 2nd place. That's horsepucky. Fix this horrible wrong by voting here. If you've got a PC you can also watch the Woodies on the MTVu site, with Damian presenting in fine form.

AudioKonopka: Cleveland

Mr. Dan checks in from the midwest. Hear how happy he sounds when he gets near home.

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Your assignment for the next few weeks:
If you see Dan at a show, go up to him and hand him a note with one single sentence the world needs to hear him read, and the celebrity in whose style the world needs to hear it read. Do it!

MTVu Hear It First

MTVu news is running a little interview with Damian and Tim. Here are the hours, if you've got the access (and if you do, get it on the web and send it to me. I dropped out years ago.)

Tues 11/8:
1:45am, 3:45am, 5:45am, 7:45am, 9:45am, 11:45am, 1:45pm, 3:45pm, 6:45pm, 8:45pm

AudioKonopka: Poughkeepsie

This is what Mr. Dan sounds like right before he's eaten a Whopper Jr.:

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This is what he sounds like right after:
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Your assignment for the next few weeks:
If you see Dan at a show, go up to him and hand him a note with one single sentence the world needs to hear him read, and the celebrity in whose style the world needs to hear it read. Do it!

Calling All Canadians & Internet-able Non-Ontarions

OK Go is in Canada right this very moment, heading over to the Much Music studios. They'll be doing a live in-studio interview and a little bit of dancing at 3:30pm EST.

After soundcheck, they'll head over to 102.1 The Edge for an interview with the one-and-only Dave "Bookie" Bookman. Listen live at edge.ca or on your, you know, radios.

Chapter Fifty-One: New York Minutiae

In the wake of our performance at the Beacon Theatre*, we OK Go-ers wasted no time in tearing up the great city of New York.

The first stop on the trail of destruction was Fuse TV. OK, fine. It's obviously hard to reconcile "trail of destruction" and "choreographed dance" in the same sentence (unless you're waving a baseball bat at a bunch of scared ballerinas) but take my word for it: some of those kids left the studio audience on stretchers, crippled by our display of charm, manliness and in-time-with-the-music-ness. By the way, those two hosts are constantly in "Hey! I'm crazy TV show host persona person!" even when the cameras are off. It's slightly endearing, slightly creepy**, and totally answers the question "I wonder how you get a job like that?"

Next we were on to B.B. King's for the release party for Sandra Boynton's new book/CD, which features bands and celebrities singing and playing her songs. Weird Al and Kate Winslet sing a duet. Hell just froze over. I didn't understand at first that this party was for some sort of kid's product, so I got a little bugged out by the playpen area, and the huge spread of mini grilled cheeses and bagel-pizzas that served as finger food. The open bar didn't seem to fit the occasion either, but it suited me just fine. Because I don't know much about these things, I didn't realize that Ms. Boynton is one the most successful designers and authors out there. Her greeting cards sold 50 to 80 million copies a year in the 80s, and all her books are best sellers. She could crush you and kill you and then write a really cute obituary. Had any of us been smart enough to figure out how accomplished Ms. Boynton was, or that she could destroy us with her Oprah-like powers, we would have been kissing serious ass. Instead, we just stood there open-mouthed, throwing back free booze and enjoying the very odd sight of dressed-up adults getting blitzed among throngs of screaming toddlers (insert Michael Jackson joke here). Things didn't get any less weird when Weird Al popped up on stage to announce a surprise mystery guest: the Spin Doctors. The Spin Doctors? To answer your question: yes, they still exist. And they have a new album that will be heard by 1/10000000000000000000th of the people who'll listen to this kids book, probably while pooping their pants. Somehow, The Spin Doctors made the whole scene a little less exotic and a bit more depressing, so we had to bust.

There was important business at hand. OK Go was off to our first awards show extravaganza. That's right folks, we were invited to the second-ever MTVu Woodie Awards. Even better, Damian was asked to present the award for International Woodie of the Year (or "Vooooodie Intearnacccionaaaal" as Damian referred to it on camera, probably freaking out his college student co-presenter.) It was a very fun time, and not just because of the wide open bar. (If you can't see where this night was going, you're drunker than we were.) We were treated to performances by Death Cab For Cutie, The Go! Team (I want to tour with them, just because the bill would look super funny: OK Go & The Go! Team), and Matisyahu, "The Hasidic Reggae Superstar," who everyone thought did a fine to pretty good job, except for Tim, who was enraged by his presence. (Dr. Nordwind has just informed me he'll be writing a post about Matisyahu in the next few days explaining the fury that burns inside his little Tim tummy.)

I bowed out at this point, as did brother Dan, but I've heard unconfirmed reports of Jorge and Damian mistaking a fancy upper-west side apartment building for Damian's hotel, somehow getting by the worst doorman ever, walking around the fifth floor for half an hour before banging on some poor lady's door at 3am. Which brings up this service announcement: don't drink and be Damian.

Love,
Rusty

* - I've been to the Beacon once before, when I had nose-bleed seats for one of the Allman Brothers annual "50-billion-shows-at-the-Beacon-in-a-week" stints in 1999. To be playing on that same stage six years later was weird, but not as weird as the acid-tripping hippie at the Allmans show. He smelled bad. And he had no rhythm.

** - I take that back. They were both really nice.

AudioKonopka: Burlington

A delighted (and delightful) Mr. Dan reports from the north country.

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Your assignment for the next few weeks:
If you see Dan at a show, go up to him and hand him a note with one single sentence the world needs to hear him read, and the celebrity in whose style the world needs to hear it read. Do it!

AudioKonopka: NYC (Day 3)

A new love letter from Mr. Dan.

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Your assignment for the next few weeks: If you see Dan at a show, go up to him and hand him a note with the single sentence you think the world needs to hear him read, and the celebrity in whose style the world needs to hear him read it. Don't do it for you or Dan or me. Do it for the world.

Chapter Fifty: I Quit

Ladies and gentlemen, I have decided to quit rockandroll, music, and performance for life.

I'll explain. We've just seen (and played) two shows with Rufus Wainwright. I don't know where to begin. His songs are incredible, his voice other-worldly and his band... good lord, his band. Every single member of his band plays nineteen instruments and sings pitch-perfectly. As the show goes on, each band member comes forward and throws a fistful of amazement, jealousy, and depression into my simmering emotional broth until the cauldron boils over and I run from the venue screaming to holy heaven, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF SANITY, PLAY ONE BAD NOTE!"

OK, I've calmed down. Damian bought me a pumpkin-spice doughnut (damnit!) and convinced me not to quit. He said it would be way too hard to find another guitarist/computer programmer/nerd named Andy before our Fuse appearance. I understand... it's in about twenty minutes. Go find a television, people!

Love,
Rusty

A Visit To Uncle Fuse

OK Go will be on Fuse TV's Daily Download this evening, from 6 to 7pm EST. If you haven't checked out this critically acclaimed drama about a cop on the edge in a city spiraling out of control, then you're in for a treat. It's a live show, so if you're in the audience--please don't flash the bassist. He blushes.

And since you're too lazy to hit the tour page, here're some tour dates:

11/03--Higher Ground--South Burlington, VT--Ages: All
11/04--Calvin Theatre--Northampton, MA--Ages: All--(w/ Rufus Wainwright)
11/05--Bardavon 1869 Opera House--Poughkeepsie, NY--(w/ Rufus Wainwright)
11/07--Horseshoe Tavern--Toronto, ON, CA--Ages: 19+
11/08--Grog Shop--Cleveland, OH--Ages: All
11/09--Blind Pig--Ann Arbor, MI--Ages: 18+
11/11--Mississippi Nights--St. Louis, MO--Ages: All
11/12--The Hurricane--Kansas City, MO
11/13--Mojo's--Columbia, MO
11/15--University of Iowa Wheelroom--Iowa City, IA--Ages: All
11/16--The Quest - Ascot Room--Minneapolis, MN--Ages: All
11/17--The Annex--Madison, WI--Ages: 18+
11/18--Metro--Chicago, IL--Ages: 18+
11/20--Black Cat--Washington, DC--Ages: All

Chapter Forty-Nine: It's The Not-Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

We go to Starbucks a lot. Damian is certifiably addicted to caffeine, our tour manager Mike needs his decaf in the morning (?), Tim enjoys the soy chai, and Dan likes to play with the stuffed animals in the gift section. In case anyone from Starbucks corporate is reading this (and I know you are), I'd like to report my great disappointment in your pumpkin-spice flavored products. I'm a big fan of seasonal foods and beverages (cider, eggnog and green beer top the list), and, also of all things pumpkiny: ravioli, seeds, jack-o-lanterns, Billy Corgan, etc. Logic dictates that your pumpkin-spice latte and doughnut would cause me great happiness, but somehow it feels like I've been Linus VanPelted. These products are mediocre at best and sucktastic at worst. It's like the new Weezer record: I expected so much, and got so little. Please work on improvements for next Halloween. Also, you've totally got permission to start selling our album in your stores.

Love,
Rusty

AudioKonopka: NYC (AM)

He's the drummer. His name is Dan. What to audioblog? He don't give a damn!

Dan's latest update:

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Windows Media!

Your assignment for the next few weeks: If you see Dan at a show, go up to him and hand him a note with the single sentence you think the world needs to hear him read, and the celebrity in whose style the world needs to hear him read it. Don't do it for you or Dan or me. Do it for the world.