OK Go: Artesanal Media Geniuses

Here’s the latest video from OK Go. No one rocks with available materials better than they do. I’ve always loved their way of going completely against the grain with their labor-extensive, craftsmanlike pieces of art.

Let’s start with their first video, “A Million Ways“. How could 4 normal guys — all non-dancers — take the time to learn all that choreography, and do it all in one take? How many rehearsals did it take? And then, once the camera was set up: how many takes? Imagine the sheer labor that must have gone into making that video, between rehearsals and takes.

When I first saw the “Million Ways” video, I thought, “That was a great video. But what will they do after that?” That video was so great, it reeked of One-Hit Wonder syndrome. There was no way to top a video like that… I thought.

Then they came out with “Here It Goes Again“. I’m not crazy about the song, but the video is what sells it.

And now this latest one:  though it’s their most complex, big-production video to date, it’s still true to their signature, artesanal ethic; a technical triumph using ordinary, unscientific household objects to create beautifully useless machines. Stunning… and absolutely entrañable.