Back From Kathmandu

This song about a dream of a relationship made perfect is a track from Chicago rock band OK Go's third album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. The titular Kathmandu, which does not feature in the lyrics, is the capital and largest metropolitan city of Nepal. It maybe an allusion to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1795 poem Kublai Khan, which was inspired by an opium-influenced dream about Xanadu, the summer capital of Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty in China.

The song's music video was shot on November 17, 2010 and featured the band, along with 150 fans, parading over an eight-mile stretch of Los Angeles. The marchers used Range Rover's "Pulse of the City" iPhone app, which outlines your path as you travel, to spell out the words "OK GO" along the route. "The idea is ... we are going to make one giant painting, essentially, with Los Angeles," OK Go frontman Damian Kulash explained to MTV News at the time. "We are marching a loop that spells out 'OK Go' through Los Angeles. We're hoping when people see this, they'll think, 'That's a great idea. I'm going to get into my car and drive all over Southeast Asia and make the Mona Lisa!'"

As the band proceeded on the parade, along with their fans and a large collection of acoustic instruments, they invited curious onlookers to join in on the celebration. Kulash told Billboard magazine that the inspiration came from a brief period he spent in New Orleans: "I was blessed to be involved with a bunch of second line parades [wherein bystanders join], and nothing will invigorate your love of music like seeing 500 people in the streets banging on pots and pans, playing trombones, hollering along in their crazy costumes," he said.