Off the treadmill -- and on to new causes

DAMIAN KULASH has advocated plenty of worthy causes during his tenure as OK Go’s singer-guitarist: Internet-neutrality legislation, relief for homeless New Orleans musicians and off-label treadmill usage, among them. His band’s concert tonight at UCLA’s Ackerman Ballroom (a rare local appearance while they prep their next album) has similarly altruistic goals: getting a plane of medical supplies to Darfur, via U.S. Doctors for Africa’s Mobile Clinic.

What a mensch, you might say. But for a band that’s been on the receiving end of so much unlikely good fortune (particularly of the YouTube-spurred dance craze variety), it’s the least OK Go can do.

Ever since the band’s acrobatic breakthrough video for “Here It Goes Again,” OK Go has found all sorts of new platforms for its sprightly, raucous power-pop and the sociopolitical aspects of life as musicians.

“We as a culture are pretty insulated from suffering,” Kulash says. “Many musicians go for the activism that makes them feel the best, and not what gets something done. We were looking for a project with a tangible result, and I think it is our obligation to give a care.”

Kulash in particular has emerged as an unlikely pundit in the war over telecom legislation. His recent New York Times op-ed pieces lashing out against Internet service providers who favor more profitable or expedient content were articulate and impassioned arguments, and he’s testified before a congressional task force about how crucial the Internet’s egalitarian anarchy is to art.

“ ‘Net neutrality is an easily clouded issue, people don’t realize how it grew from laws that kept it a meritocracy,” Kulash says. “People feel that it’s so robust and flexible that it could never be controlled by oligarchs, but that’s just not true.”

On the music front, the band released “You’re Not Alone,” a rollicking collaboration with trombone ensemble Bonerama to raise funds for New Orleans R&B; staple Al Johnson after Hurricane Katrina, and is feverishly writing a follow-up to its 2005 album “Oh No.”

Kulash thinks it’s too soon to tell how the songs will shape up (or what any potential videos might look like), but his extracurricular pursuits have reminded him of the potency of music, for activism and pleasure alike.

“In New Orleans I saw a musical community on the brink of extinction, where music doesn’t come from an iPod or synthetic car speakers,” Kulash says. “I’d been on tour for two and a half years and felt like a promotion machine. New Orleans reminded me what music was really for.”

--

-- August.Brown@latimes.com

--

OK GO

WHO: with Rhymefest, Nico Vega and more

WHERE: UCLA Ackerman Ballroom

WHEN: 7 p.m. today

PRICE: $15 suggested donation

INFO: (310) 825-4401