OK GO HEADLINE DARFUR BENEFIT SHOW AT UCLA

OK GO talk about headlining the Save Darfur Benefit Show at UCLA and the importance of US Doctors for Africa.

OK Go are set to headline the 2nd Annual Mighty Mic Human Rights Awareness: Save Darfur Benefit Concert on campus at UCLA on May 29th as part of the Darfur Now Campus Tour. Proceeds from this non-profit event, presented by Mighty Mic at UCLA in collaboration with STAND (Student Anti-Genocide Network) will benefit US Doctors for Africa’s Mobile Clinic project, which will send a mobile 747 airplane health clinic to a camp providing sanctuary and urgent medical assistance primarily to refugees from the Darfur region in Chad who have been displaced from their homes in Sudan.

We caught up with Damian Kulash and Tim Nordwind of OK GO to get their thoughts on being a part of the Darfur Benefit Concert and raising funds to send medical supplies to where they’re needed most.

“It does seem to be a good cause. We’ve been involved with a lot of causes recently and of course we’re weary of being one of those artists with vanity for these causes all the time, but it’s pretty hard to argue with a bunch of kids who want to send a full 747 with medical supplies to a refugee camp in Darfur. That seems to be really good.”

So have OK GO been following the genocide and human rights atrocities happening in Darfur?

“I’ve read a bunch of news stories on Darfur and it certainly a lot of horrifying misery. It’s sort of beyond my capacity to understand that level of suffering. Millions displaced and hundreds of thousands killed, it’s just like…yeah, it does make you feel almost guilty about you view your own lives I think.”

Part of the nine-day Mighty Mic event, the concert with OK GO will cap off Genocide Awareness Week at UCLA. More information on ticketing and how to support the organization can be found at www.mightymic.org. In their downtime during the recording of their highly anticipated next album, OK Go have been donating extra time to causes they care about besides Darfur. ‘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, who are still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Charter members of Rock The Net, OK Go are also committed to the fight to preserve the open internet, as lead vocalist Damian Kulash recently testified before the House Judiciary Committee Task Force on anti-trust issues and the internet.