BEN FOLDS FIVE GOES FRAGGLE ROCK IN NEW MUSIC VIDEO FOR “DO IT ANYWAY” FROM THE NERDIST CHANNEL

Available Exclusively Online September 18th at youtube.com/nerdist

ALBUM IN STORES THIS FRIDAY

Groundbreaking alternative rock innovators Ben Folds Five have reunited
and on September 18th, the Nerdist Channel (youtube.com/nerdist) will
exclusively premiere the video for Do It Anyway, the first track from
the band’s much anticipated album The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind due
out September 21st through ImaVeePee Records / Sony Music Entertainment
Australia.  A production of Nerdist Industries, the video features the
Fraggles, stars of The Jim Henson Company’s perennial fan-favorite
Fraggle Rock.  Ben Folds, along with returning band mates Robert Sledge
and Darren Jessee, are joined by Gobo, Mokey, Wembley, Boober, Red and
Uncle Traveling Matt. Also making cameo appearances are Academy
Award-nominated actress Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air), comedian Rob
Corddry (Children’s Hospital) and Nerdist Industries’ Founder and Chief
Creative Officer, Chris Hardwick.

Hardwick describes how this cluster of awesomeness happened:

“In a meeting with Lisa [Henson, CEO, The Jim Henson Company], she
casually said, ‘Next year is the 30th anniversary of Fraggle Rock. Would
you want to do anything with the Fraggles?’ ‘WHAT THE [expletive]??
That’s an OPTION?!’ I loudly replied. I think I scared her a little. I
knew Ben had a new album releasing in September so I threw his name out.
Lisa said ‘that would be amazing’ without hesitation. It was beautifully
serendipitous.  It seemed like a no-brainer to me, but I still
cautiously pitched it to Ben, not really knowing his relationship with
the show. I think I just spit words out, ‘YOU. VIDEO. FRAGGLES. ME PAY
FOR!'”

Folds was VERY interested, it turns out, and had the perfect song in
mind. “When Ben sent me Do it Anyway, I knew within the first five
seconds that the song was perfect-the bouncy piano… the dancing bass
…it actually sounded like it was intentionally written for the
Fraggles. I can never fully express the amount of nerdy joy that I felt
on set seeing Red Fraggle jump around on Ben’s piano,” said Hardwick.
“And the fact that I was able to weasel my way into the video was a
dream come true.”

Formed in 1994, Ben Folds Five changed the course of indie rock in the
mid-1990s before amicably parting ways in 2000 to pursue different
artistic ventures. Now, after twelve years, the indie pop trio has
returned to bring their unique pop sensibility to both Fraggle Rock and
the Nerdist Channel.

Red Fraggle said, “We had a great adventure in Outer Space!  Ben, Robert
and Darren love music as much as Fraggles do, so we had lots of fun.  It
would be wonderful to have them come play more music in the caves with
us, but I am not sure they can fit through the hole in the floor!”

ALBUM: THE SOUND OF THE LIFE OF THE MIND –
AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 21, 2012 THROUGH SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT AUSTRALIA

www.bandit.fm/benfoldsfive
www.benfoldsfive.com
http://www.facebook.com/BenFolds
Tweets by BenFolds

ABOUT BEN FOLDS FIVE

Ben Folds Five–Ben Folds (piano), Robert Sledge (bass) and Darren
Jessee (drums)–launched in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1994.  The
trio’s high energy gigs garnering an intensely loyal fanbase, BFF signed
first with an indie before a move to the majors wrought 1997’s watershed
Whatever And Ever Amen.  A slice of pure pop perfection, the album
introduced the ballad “Brick,” broke the band commercially and sold more
than two million copies worldwide.  BFF recorded its last album, 1999’s
The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner, which included the
single “Army,” before disbanding in 2000.  (The trio reunited for a
one-off live performance of The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold
Messner on MySpace in 2008).

In 2011, the original three members of Ben Folds Five came together to
record three new studio tracks for The Best Imitation Of Myself: A
Retrospective, a career-spanning Ben Folds anthology. The band’s magic
rekindled in the new tracks, BFF launched its first tour in more than a
decade to a spellbound audience at New York’s Mountain Jam Festival on
June 2, 2012. In the wake of the group’s triumphal return at Mountain
Jam, the group performed a short run of key US summer festival dates
including Bonnaroo, Milwaukee Summerfest, and Old St. Patrick’s Church
Block Party in Chicago.  BFF returns to the road this fall with a major
North American tour, with dates in the UK, Ireland, and Australia to
follow.

ABOUT NERDIST INDUSTRIES

Nerdist Industries is a multi-platform creator of genre and popular
culture content – a true next generation media company. Nerdist was
founded in 2008 by comedian, author, podcaster, new media personality
and AMC’s The Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick. In 2011, Nerdist and
GeekChicDaily merged to form Nerdist Industries with Hardwick serving as
Founder and Chief Creative Officer and digital media entrepreneur Peter
Levin, serving as Chief Executive Officer of the new company. Levin had
previously co-founded GeekChicDaily with Peter Guber’s Mandalay
Enterprises. In 2012 Legendary Entertainment, a respected and successful
creator of genre films and comics such as The Dark Knight trilogy, 300,
and Inception acquired Nerdist Industries. Hardwick and Levin serve as
Co-Presidents of Digital for Legendary, in a dual role with their
Nerdist positions. Nerdist Industries now consists of a popular website
at Nerdist.com; a premium YouTube channel with over 176,000 subscribers
(youtube.com/nerdist
<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=fiv86njab.0.0.zgq5l6dab.0&id=preview&p=http
%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fnerdist> ), a top comedy/popular culture
podcast network on iTunes that is also produced as a TV show on BBC
America; the Nerdist News daily e-newsletters, a following of over 1.7
million Twitter fans, a book, The Nerdist Way, by The Penguin Group; a
plethora of live events such as The Nerdist Podcast Live! and Course of
the Force, the annual Comic-Con lightsaber relay. Nerdist Industries is
headquartered at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood, CA, with additional
offices in Santa Monica, CA, at The Jim Henson Studios in Hollywood, CA,
and the Warner Brothers Studio lot in Burbank, CA.

ABOUT FRAGGLE ROCK

Created by Jim Henson, Fraggle Rock stars a cast of five puppet
creatures called Fraggles, diverse and quirky cave-dwelling creatures
who live in an underground world alongside their hard working green
neighbors, the Doozers, and a family of enormous Gorgs. The three very
diverse but yet surprisingly similar communities learn to live and work
in harmony with music, fun and adventures.

Premiering in 1983, Fraggle Rock was seen in over 80 countries in more
than ten different languages. Fraggle Rock continues to enjoy a loyal
international fan following.  In its 96 episodes, the show encouraged an
understanding and embracing of friendship and diversity and featured a
unique mix of music of all genres from folk, blues, gospel, country and
rock.

Category: News