OK Go dish out slovenly, tuneful rock in the tradition of classic power pop: Cheap Trick, Big Star, the Cars and, of course, Weezer. The Chicago quartet's first major-label single, "Get Over It," is blowing up on modern-rock radio and has all the makings of a new-school arena rocker: a first-rate melody, a beat copped from "We Will Rock You" and a chorus big enough to make Creed sound like cocktail jazz.

More important, it goes great with pyrotechnics. "We opened for Nickelback," says singer Damian Kulash, "and they had all this fire and stuff coordinated with their music. We love that shit. We've been trying to do it for years."

After graduating from Brown University with a degree in semiotics, Kulash found himself, not surprisingly, unemployed. He went home to Chicago and formed OK Go with three buddies he knew from school and summer camp. They were an oddity on the indie-oriented local scene. "Chicago's about as great a town as you could have for music," says Kulash, "but I don't think we're terribly representative." Turning against the tide and embracing their pop roots as well as signing with a major label hasn't meant overnight fame, either -- they've toured almost nonstop within the past year and plan to remain on the road as long as it takes. One thing that's kept them busy is trawling around any given city with a video camera, asking anyone in sight, "What's wrong with rock & roll?" Says Kulash, "We got some really weird answers. This one woman -- she was about sixty -- said, 'Don't expose yourself, don't bite the heads off bats.' The funniest thing she said was, 'Ozzy Osbourne -- where is he now?' " CHRISTIAN HOARD
(November 19, 2002)