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Sep 17, 2012 Ben Folds Five By Mike Hilleary

Poised to release, The Life of the Sound of the Mind, their first album in 13 years, Ben Folds Five have premiered an amazingly nostalgic music video for their lead single “Do It Anyway.” Just as Weezer got to hang out with the Muppets for “Keep Fishin’,” Ben Folds, Darren Jessee, and Robert Sledge find themselves enjoyably interacting with Jim Henson’s underground dwellers The Fraggles. Starring Gobo, Mokey, Wembley, Boober, Red and Uncle Traveling Matt, the clip also features appearances by Rob Corddry, Anna Kendrick, and Chris Hardwick, whose Nerdist Industries made the whole thing possible.

According to a letter from Hardwick, “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.”

Click below to watch the fun. Life of the Sound of the Mind comes out tomorrow.

(www.benfolds.com)