OK Go exploded onto the music scene during the last year.
Their single, "Get Over It" and its music video got heavy rotation on MTV. Still, lead singer Damian Kulash does not consider them a popular band.
"Well, we travel on a bus," he said. "I guess that makes us big."
Years ago in summer camp, Kulash and bass player Tim Nordwind met over a game of pingpong. In 1999 Kulash and Nordwind formed the band, adding on college buddies Dan Konopka on drums and Andy Duncan playing keyboard and guitar.
The pingpong table has become the band's symbol.
"Over the years we've developed a theory that no one can dislike pingpong," Kulash said. "It's universally liked. We thought about trampolines for a while, but some people don't like them so we settled on pingpong."
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On the band's Web site, www.okgo.net, is a mock instructional video on how to play pingpong featuring the band members taking the sport very seriously.
OK Go's songs range from ex-girlfriends to a cat that ran away and moved to Hollywood. "One day my mom saw a commercial for this cat food and our cat was on the commercial," Kulash said. "We could only assume that he had packed up and gone to Hollywood."
When asked what inspired him to write songs, it was difficult for Kulash to give a definite answer.
"It's whatever's particularly important to me," he said. "Actually, wait, you know what it is? It's being heavily caffeinated on airplane flights. That's what gives me amazing inspiration."
While talking to Kulash it is very apparent that the singer, like the band, looks at things from an interesting standpoint. Kulash, who graduated from Brown University with a degree in semiotics, admitted to how frustrated he gets during interviews.
"The truth is the answers aren't all that exciting," he said. "Albums I like, things I write about, it's frustrating because I want to give a more interesting answer than the truth.
The songs sound like a mix between Weezer and Queen. Their music is happy pushing a mandatory clap-along drum beat, but intelligent and fun to listen to. There is no deep meaning in the lyrics. The songs are purely pop.
OK Go will be playing in a free show on Johnson Field alongside The Donnas and local band Mistletoe on Friday. The show, sponsored by the College Television Network, runs from 3-7 p.m.
When asked what to expect from an OK Go concert, Kulash said, "Have you been on a waterslide recently? Imagine that."
