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Make trippy music in VR with pals (and OK Go)
When I heard that OK Go frontman Damian Kulash was teaming up with VR studio Within to create an interactive music-making experience, I was stoked. But when I checked out Lambchild Superstar: Making Music in the Menagerie of the Holy Cow at the Tribeca Film Festival, I was simply bewildered. Not in a bad way, though. Although it's not the traditional jam session I was expecting, Lambchild was still a supremely quirky and unabashedly weird trip of discovery and collaboration.
Google joins forces with band OK Go to create classroom activities
Rock band OK Go is known for their complex, nerdy music videos. They danced in microgravity inside a parabolic plane in one, set a Rube Goldberg machine in motion in another and used the sounds they could create inside a car in yet another one. Since teachers love to use their videos as a teaching aid -- say, to challenge students to identify the science behind them or to recreate the way they used various tools to make sounds -- the band has decided to create teaching materials for K-12 educators.
Microsoft wrote an OK Go music video to DNA
OK Go's song "This Too Shall Pass" is merely a serviceable song with an interesting video that features contraptions inspired by Rube Goldberg. Microsoft and the University of Washington have deemed it important enough to write it to the largest DNA storage trove created to date.
OK Go flies in zero G for its latest music video
Chicago-based band OK Go has released a fun and colorful music video shot entirely inside a parabolic plane. Since a parabolic flight goes up and down like a wave, it induces periods of microgravity and hypergravity (1.8 times the strength of gravity). Space agencies have been using the technique for decades to train their astronauts before shipping them off to space.
Korg's OK Go Volca Sample is pre-loaded with sounds from 'Hungry Ghosts'
Last fall, OK Go released their latest album Hungry Ghosts. If you happen to enjoy the samples the band used on it, you can employ those sounds yourself thanks to Korg. The audio company revealed a limited-edition of its Volca Sample emblazoned with OK Go art and loaded with clips the band used to make the aforementioned release. In fact, there's 100 different sounds total that are all available for use. This version of the Volca Sample features the same multi-touch keyboard, 16-step sequencer and can run on six AA batteries for mobile music making. It's part of the larger Volca line that includes the Volca Keys, Volca Bass and Volca Beat compact synths. And the original Volca Sample, of course. If all of that sounds too good to pass up, you'll be able to sang one for yourself this month after parting with $160.
OK Go plans to release an album as DNA
Most bands release a new album as MP3s, and on both CD and vinyl. If you caught any of OK Go's music videos, you know they prefer to do things a little differently. In addition to the aforementioned formats, the band plans release its latest album Hungry Ghosts as DNA. Yep, that's right, nanograms of Deoxyribonucleic acid will carry the music. With the help of a biochemist from UCLA, the record's digital files -- basically a collection of ones and zeroes -- were translated into the genetic code. "Legally speaking, it's unclear whether we will be able to sell the DNA to anyone, or how we would physically get it to them," Kulash told The New Yorker. "This stuff is regulated really fucking heavily." For example, fans may see the DNA version of the album as a small vial with a few drops of water that carry copies of the tunes. "Obviously, it's an artistic gesture and a scientific project, not the most efficient way to actually buy our album," explained Kulash. [Photo credit: Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty Images]
OK Go's new music video has robotic seats, drones and life-sized pixel art
Say what you will about OK Go's music, but the band has a knack for attention-getting uses of technology in its videos -- and its latest project only drives that point home. The new "I Won't Let You Down" promo has band members performing dance numbers on Honda's UNI-CUB robot stools, letting them bust moves that aren't possible with legpower alone. And that's only part of the technology involved. Director Morihiro Harano uses an octocopter drone to capture dramatic pull-out shots, while a legion of Japanese schoolgirls creates giant pixel art by dancing in Busby Berkeley-style routines. Is it over the top? You bet, but it's doubtful you'll forget this mechanical extravagance any time soon.
Say the Same Thing: a self-explanatory mobile game from OK Go (video)
Bored of Words with Friends? How about a word game created by band (and internet neutrality advocates) OK Go instead of a floundering corporation? Believe it or not, the Grammy-winners have just released a free game for iOS and Android called Say the Same Thing, which actually has nothing to do with the group or its music. It lets you play with a friend or random partner as you try arrive at the same word, by each choosing a new word in common with your previous choices. We gave it a shot, and it's actually rather fun -- yours truly and random internet guy Jason H. each arrived at "Caddyshack" from "Bill Murray" and "movies" after four rounds. You can even play with one of the band members, though there was quite a queue when we tried -- see how they roll in the video after the break, or grab the app at the sources.
The Humble Bundle tries something different, lets you name your price for albums from They Might Be Giants, Jonathan Coulton, and more
The Humble Bundle may have gone mobile on Android earlier this year, but that's proven to be a relatively small jump compared to the organization's latest expansion. It's now rolled out its first Humble Music Bundle, a collection of six albums that, as always, you can name your price for. Those include an album of rarities from They Might Be Giants, Jonathan Coulton's Greatest Hit (Plus 13 Other Songs), an exclusive MC Frontalot collection, Christopher Tin's Calling All Dawns, and game composer Hitoshi Sakimoto's Best of the Valkyria Chronicles -- plus OK Go's Twelve Remixes of Four Songs if you pay above the current average price. Naturally, all of the albums are DRM-free and available in both MP3 and FLAC formats, and you're able to choose what percentage of your payment goes to the artists, charities (Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation) and the Humble Bundle organization itself. You can get a taste of what's in store in the video after the break, or get previews of each album before you buy at the link below.
Engadget Distro Issue 24: CES Roundup, OK Go's Andy Ross and SOPA comic relief
We've spent the past week recuperating and reflecting, and while we're ready to put CES 2012 behind us, we're bring you this special roundup edition to cover all of our consumer electronics bases. In this issue, we'll dive deep into product categories that were overlooked in our previous CES editions, like audio, and flesh out those categories that dominated this year's coverage. Also in this issue, OK Go's Andy Ross takes on the Distro Q&A, we bring you a visual breakdown of Engadget's CES Vital Stats and Box Brown takes a comic look at the SOPA / PIPA debate. So join us in grabbing a cold one and get to downloading.Update: And we're back! Let the downloads begin!Distro Issue 24 PDFDistro on the iTunes App StoreDistro in the Android MarketDistro APK (for sideloading)Like Distro on FacebookFollow Distro on Twitter
OK Go's impassioned plea for net neutrality, quirky videos
It looks like Damian Kulash has given some serious thought to the issue of net neutrality, going so far as to voice his concerns in the Washington Post this weekend. The OK Go man began with a brief overview of the Google / Verizon "net neutrality" scheme, but this is the part that really caught our interest: The Internet is the purest marketplace for ideas that the world has ever seen, and the amazing power of such a level playing field has revolutionized everything. Google knows this better than anyone. It started in a garage and became an industry leader by having great ideas, not mountains of cash. And it's wonderful: The Internet works! It rewards innovators such as Google, and it relegates protectionist, defensive, idea-squashing fogies such as record companies to the dustbin of history. Now that the Internet has been around long enough to have developed its own giants, though, we need to make sure they don't ruin what's great about the technology that made them. We need to make sure they don't crush the idea industry the way the music giants crushed the music industry... And this is why net neutrality is important: it preserves the virtues of the technology (and protects them from a market that would erode those virtues for short-term gain). Really, the whole thing's worth a quick read. Hit up the source link to check it out for yourself.
That awesome OK Go video is in the iTMS
OK Go is a pretty rocking little band signed to a major label, but they release their videos using the grassroots goodness of the internets like YouTube and Google Video. Their latest craze is the video for a song called Here It Goes Again, and it's the work of pure genius.While the video is of course available in crummy Flash quality for free, I just noticed today that it appeared in the iTMS (link) for $1.99, and I'm having a hard time thinking of many other bands who deserve a purchase as much as OK Go for such hard and creative work - no matter how measly their cut may be.
