Shit! Christ! This is the problem with using the internet when you have so much to get done.  This is can be an even bigger issue when you need to use the internet to finish what you needed to get done.  SXSW is coming.  Sasquatch! is coming.  I have a record review piling up on my plate.  I have 2 more show reviews… some networking….I need to edit another article… I need to do a lot of shit.  Fuck, I need to get a real job!  Then I come across something else and it catches my attention.  Maybe it’s some  crazy story about a 7 yr old that steals the family car.  Maybe it’s some ridiculous right wing propaganda, insisting that a imprisoned sea mammal get stoned to death (like it says to do in the bible).  Maybe it’s a trailer about a futuristic martial artist/lady of the night/cyborg.  Whatever it is, it threatens to stall me out every time.  “Post this now!  Fuck what you’re doing.”  These things scream at me, but I can usually blow them off.  “This is and/or will be posted to death anyway.”  I tell myself.  Or, perhaps, I just throw it on the “I’ll get to that later” pile.  Sometimes it doesn’t matter.  Sometimes, I have to stop what I’m doing immediately and enjoy something with the rest of the world.  “Then sometimes, just sometimes, the Crow can bring the soul back and put the wrong things right “- [I couldn’t help myself].  Sometimes, it’s just a music video.

I’m sure that I won’t be the only one prefacing the following video by stating that I’m not particularly a fan of OK GO‘s music, but that I am becoming a fan of their growing catalog of music videos.  By now, most people have witnessed the video for the groups breakout hit “Here It Goes Again“, that features the members performing elaborate choreography on treadmills.  That video helped to show the power that videos, as a whole, could hold, as well as the power that Youtube held as a promotional tool.  Unfortunately, as far as MTV was concerned, videos were on their way out (they’ve even gone so far as to remove “music television” from their station identification logo).  Still, amazing videos seem to surface now and then, continuing to raise question of their relevance with today’s shifting focus and internet age.  3 Months ago, OK GO released a new data mosh-style glitched-out video effort for their song “WTF?”  Innovative?  Sure.  Definitely worth checking out?  Indeed, but it didn’t carry anywhere near the hype of the “Here It Goes Again” video.  It didn’t transcend barriers to the point where it has become embedded forever in popular culture.  Everyone remembers the video for “Take On Me“, but it seems like my girlfriend is the only person that followed A-HA‘s career into other albums.  About 2 months ago (Jan. 8th), OK GO released another inventive video for a song called “This Too Shall Pass“.  That effort featured the group performing as a marching band with the surprise of a horn section camouflaged in sniper ghillie suits.

That wasn’t enough to reclaim their titles as kings of the Youtube music video either.  Two days later, the band posted the following video, which mocks their past internet fame and the fear that it may overshadow their futures in the industry:

Just yesterday (Monday, March 1st), the pop group finally located the right formula and unleashed something that is already beginning to spread like Aids-Fire.  One of the most interesting things about this new video is that it’s popularity can, in no way, be solely credited to the music.  This is because it’s just another version for the song “This Too Shall Pass“, creating the argument that the internet may actually be giving second life to the “video star” and that it may be jumping the shark to present an updated reworking of the Buggles classic.  If you don’t like something about this video, I’m just going to assume that you’re just an asshole.

See what all the hype is about:

DETAILS:

Directed by James Frost, OK Go and Syyn Labs.
Produced by Shirley Moyers.
The official video for the recorded version of “This Too Shall Pass” off of the album “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky”.
The video was filmed in a two story warehouse, in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. The “machine” was designed and built by the band, along with members of Syyn Labs ( http://syynlabs.com/ ) over the course of several months.

For those who will be in the Los Angeles area this Friday, March 5th, the group will be making a special appearance at LACMA (the Los Angeles County Art Museum).  The following are the details of the event.

Celebrating the video release for “This Too Shall Pass”, OK Go will perform a rare acoustic set on the terrace of the LACMA West Penthouse. There will be a special screening of “This Too Shall Pass,” along with past OK Go videos, followed by a Q&A with the band. The night will also feature a DJ set by Tim Nordwind and pieces of the Rube Goldberg machine custom built by Syyn Labs for the “This Too Shall Pass” video will be on display. Cash bar.