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. They utilise an irreverent mix of pop culture and rock music, notably in their album Smell No Evil (2001) - the world's first monkey rock opera. They provided the theme song to Disney's Fillmore!,1 and scored the feature film Bite Me, Fanboy! They (or Rand and Adam) have won 4 Pegasus Awards 234 for excellence in filk music. Their song "Tantric Yoda" was the #1 most requested song of 2012 on Dr. Demento's syndicated radio show, 5 and their music has twice been included on Dr. Demento compilations 6.
Band members:
Rand Bellavia (1992-present): vocals, guitar, trombone, keyboards, kazoo,
Adam English (1992-present): vocals, guitar, keyboards, accordion, trumpet,
Luis Garcia (1994-1998): drums, vocals,
Michael Mallory (1996-2005): bass,
Doug White (1997-2001): bass, guitar,
Chris Gajewski (1999-2003): drums,
Joe Pepper (2005-2007): drums,
Wolfram Neff (2006-2009): bass,
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 titled "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. And "Spot The Cat" from Dave Lennon sets to music a poem originally read by Star Trek's Data (written by Clay Dale). A song about the actor Gary Coleman is included on Oh Ok 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 installment of MarsCon (Bloomington, Minnesota), and the International Guests of Honour at the 2009 British Filk Convention.
