Ookla the Mok (band)

Ookla the Mok is a filk band fronted by Rand Bellavia and Adam English. The two met as undergraduates while attending Houghton College in 1988. The band is named after a character from the Ruby-Spears Productions cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian, created by Steve Gerber.

This article is about the filk band. For the reggae band, see Ooklah The Moc.
Ookla the Mok at DucKon 2008

They provided the theme song to Disney's Fillmore!,[1] and scored the feature film Bite Me, Fanboy! They have won four Pegasus Awards[2][3][4] for excellence in filk music, and the 2014 Logan Award[5] for Outstanding Original Comedy Song ("Mwahaha"). Ookla the Mok had the most requested song on Dr. Demento's syndicated radio show in both 2012 ("Tantric Yoda") [6] and 2013 ("Mwahaha").[7] Two of their songs ("Stop Talking About Comic Books or I'll Kill You" and "F. People") have appeared on Dr. Demento CD compilations.[8]

Band members

Current
  • Rand Bellavia – vocals, guitar, percussion, trombone, keyboards, kazoo (1992–present)
  • Adam English – vocals, guitar, keyboards, accordion, trumpet (1992–present)

Rand and Adam continue to perform live with Luis Garcia and Mike Mallory whenever geography and convention budgets allow for it -- most recently at Windycon in Chicago in November 2016.

Former
  • Luis Garcia – drums, vocals (1994-1998)
  • Michael Mallory – bass (1996-2003, 2010-2013)
  • Doug White – bass, guitar (1997-2001)
  • Chris Gajewski – drums (1999-2003)
  • Joe Pepper – drums (2005-2007)
  • Wolfram Neff – bass (2006-2009)
  • Jeremy Stock – bass (2014-2015)

Musical style

Although Ookla the Mok has released many songs about more universal topics like relationships and lost love, they are best known for filk songs that cater to the interests of listeners at science fiction and comic book conventions, where the band makes the bulk of their public appearances. For example, their song "Arthur Curry" from Less Than Art pokes fun at Aquaman and the way his super-powers don't seem to compare favorably with the rest of the Super Friends. Another example is "Stop Talking About Comic Books Or I'll Kill You" from Super Secret. "Song of Kong" from Smell No Evil takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the relationship between King Kong and Godzilla. "W.W.S.D.?" from oh okay LA asks its listeners to ask themselves "What would Scooby do?". "Mr. W" from the same album paints a nightmare scenario of Mr. Worf being in command of Star Trek's starship Enterprise. "Spot The Cat" from Dave Lennon sets to music a poem originally read by Star Trek's Data (written by Clay Dale). Tribute songs about celebrities Gary Coleman, Michael Jackson, Cher, and Sting also appear on oh okay LA.

Other appearances

Rand's voice and Adam's keyboards can be heard on the international top five hit "Cupid's Chokehold" by Gym Class Heroes.

Performances

Ookla the Mok were the musical guests of honor at the 2007 MarsCon in Bloomington, Minnesota, the international guests of honour at the 2009 British Filk Convention, and the music guests of honor at the 2014 FenCon.

Discography
  • Poor Man's Copyright (1993)
  • Less Than Art (1997)
  • Super Secret (1998)
  • Sucking Out Loud: Ookla the Mok Live at Windycon 25 (1999)
  • Smell No Evil (2001)
  • oh okay LA (2003)
  • Dave Lennon (2005)
  • Less Than Art 10th Anniversary Edition (2007)
  • Nerdvana EP (2012)
  • vs. Evil (2013)
  • Live at Windycon (double album) (2017)

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-08-12.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/groups/ookla-the-mok.html
  3. http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/people/rand-bellavia.html
  5. http://www.loganawards.com/
  6. http://dmdb.org/cgi-bin/plinfo.pl?drd12.1229.html
  7. http://dmdb.org/cgi-bin/plinfo.pl?drd13.1228.html
  8. http://dmdb.org/discographies/demento.disco.html
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