For OK Go, the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" wasn't quite enough. The Chicago guitar-pop quartet instead prefers "if it ain't broke, do it again 15 times."
The band famously tore up the Internet in 2006 with the video for "Here It Goes Again." Yes, it's the one with the treadmills and, oh, about 50 million views on YouTube. So in preparation for OK Go's third release, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, due out in January, the band decided to shoot videos for all of the record's 15 songs.
Calling from a shoot in Indiana, bassist Tim Norwind reported that the first music video, for "WTF?," is in the can and due out in November, with three more ideas ready to roll. "A lot of people ask if we'll top the treadmill video. We don't really look at making videos in such a competitive way. We like doing it," said Norwind. "Instead of trying to top a video, we want to keep on entertaining our ideas."
But good videos or not, bands are made of musicians because they make music. With Blue Colour, OK Go has left behind The Cars-like retro-rock for another '80s icon: Prince. "We've exorcised a lot of our guitar demons with the first two records. So we started looking even further back to when we were younger for inspiration," said Norwind. "A lot of what we listened to growing up was '80s pop radio -- you had Prince, Michael Jackson and Cameo."
And hey, doing the moonwalk is a lot easier on a treadmill.
OK Go with Donora 8 p.m. Wed., Nov. 4. Mr. Small's Theatre, 400 Lincoln Ave., Millvale. $12. All ages. 412-821-4447 or www.mrsmalls.com
