The Postal Service: Such Great Heights (2003)
You may be familiar with the Iron and Wine cover of this song that ended up on TV with M&Ms gracefully pirouetting about. What I love most about this video are the plaintive looks between the two workers in the Skyworks Solutions wafer fabrication plant.
Ben Folds: Such Great Heights (2006)
Ben Folds was on jTV in Australia and decided to cover the song. So he gathered up several drummers and some found percussion and this is what resulted.
I’m just completely blown away by the music skill of Ben Folds and the percussion guys he grabbed here. Folds is the only one playing a REAL instrument, yet the song sounds fantastic! Oh to be able to pick up something that fast and run with it.
Yes, I heart Ben Folds.
I see your cover and raise you one with even fewer instruments …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIeoNP5VB4k
Ahh! How I wish the recording was better of the Achordants. What they are doing is great but you can’t hear it for the crowd.
Also, I hate that we lived in Durham for 8 years and never managed to see these guys while we were there.
The thing that’s wild to me about that Ben Folds video is the sound of the piano. At first I thought that somebody offscreen had to be playing a synth and that his piano pickup wasn’t working well, but then I started to grok that somehow he had stuffed a bunch of towels or something into the baby grand to make it SOUND like a synth.
I’m a sucker for prepared piano pieces like that. I’m guessing it’s a combination of towels and bits of metal.
That was so completely awesome. The way the video was put together in the first was awesome. Then, I get completely blown away (as always) when Ben Folds covered it. Holy cow, the things that man can do with a piano are astounding!