OK Go

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 7, 2008

Playing their first Los Angeles-area gig in over a year, OK Go will headline the 2nd Annual Mighty Mic Human Rights Awareness: Save Darfur Concert at the University of California at Los Angeles’ Ackerman Grand Ballroom on Thursday, May 29th, from 7pm – 11pm.

Proceeds from this non-profit event, presented by Mighty Mic at UCLA in collaboration with STAND (Student Anti-Genocide Network) and the Darfur Now Campus Tour, will benefit US Doctors for Africa’s Mobile Clinic project – which will send a mobile 747 health clinic to a camp providing sanctuary and urgent medical assistance primarily to refugees from the Darfur region in Chad – and STAND.

“The sheer scale of suffering in Darfur is unbelievable — hundreds of thousands raped or murdered, millions displaced, hungry, and in danger,” said Damian Kulash, lead vocalist for OK Go.  “For those of us lucky enough to live without constant struggle and fear, it’s difficult to imagine. And it’s tough to find meaningful ways to help, so it’s great that UCLA students are making something real happen. I mean, a rock concert is usually more party than social justice work, but at the end of this one there’ll be a plane full of medical assistance on its way to people who need it.”

Part of the nine-day Mighty Mic event, the concert will cap off Genocide Awareness Week at UCLA. Promoting awareness about past and present genocides through a variety of events, Mighty Mic coincides with the 60th anniversary of the 1948 Genocide Convention; founded by Raphael Lemkins, this is where the world first internationally proclaimed its opposition to genocide and ethnic cleansing. More information on ticketing and how to support the organization can be found at http://www.mightymic.org.

OK Go is currently hard at work on the follow-up to Oh No. The L.A.-based band re-wrote the book on the way musical acts achieve international acclaim in the Internet-era with two self-directed breakthrough music videos. “A Million Ways” and the Grammy-winning “Here It Goes Again” became word-of-mouth viral phenomenons and among the most downloaded music clips in online history – and helped to make YouTube a household word. Downloaded more than 100 million times around the globe, “Here It Goes Again” won YouTube’s best music video award in 2007.
In their downtime between records, OK has been donating extra time to causes they care about. You’re Not Alone, OK Go’s five-song digital EP with New Orleans funk/soul trombone band Bonerama, was released earlier this year as an iTunes exclusive; proceeds from its sale benefit members of New Orleans’ music community such as R&B legend Al Johnson. Charter members of Rock The Net, OK Go is committed to the fight to preserve the open internet. Kulash recently testified before the House Judiciary Committee Task Force on anti-trust issues and the internet and penned an Op-Ed piece for The New York Times on the topic (check it out at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/opinion/05kulash.html).

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For more information, please contact:
Bobbie Gale, Big Hassle Media

310-821-6916

or visit:

http://www.mightymic.org

http://www.okgo.net 

http://www.myspace.com/okgo