So, here are two videos using the same principle. First up we have Michel Lauzière making music on American television years ago….
Then a few days ago we have OK Go using the same principle on a much larger scale….
My question is – which do you think is better? Simplicity or scale? Vote now!
Richard Wiseman 
Original is always best.
I see two versions of the same attempt to score an inexpensive effect. Neither is well done. Neither is humorous. Both bore me stiff. So, my answer to which one I prefer is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcRyjkYdDxM
Priceless. Where can I buy the horns – I need to do that!
It sounds studio recorded. I would like to see them on stage. Here is someone who actually does it on stage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMhPdjN1APQ
You are correct. It is a studio recording. However, this is a group that does live performances all the time and is quite well-known. Here is a recording of a live performance:
I don’t like it, there seems to be something very wrong with the sound, it sounds too thin. But then, this is simply a recording by some amateur.
The reason I like Konis Hupen is the same reason I like Star Trek: they just “get on with it”: they perform, it is funny, they don’t take themselves seriously, but they also don’t behave like idiots just to show how well aware they are of their own “funnyness”.
Note to edwardv – not only is it someone who does it on stage, it’s the same someone (Lauziere) who does the rollerblade/winebottle stunt.
I did not know it’s the same guy. I like his horn playing better. The bottle roller blade stunt I only need to watch once.
Or, if you’re a gaming fan, there’s this version too – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed4CHkN-Dkw
Is that Borat’s brother in #2? Still, I like #1 better.
It’s simpler and to the point w/o the need for a sophisticated background drum track to keep it all together.
Anybody can hit a piano with a stick from a car window, but who can roller skate carefully enough to hit all the notes in the tune?
There was no drum “track”, that was also being played by a rod hitting a load of barrels to the right of the car
Carefully enough to stay within a given distance from the bottles (the length of each stick), is all it took. It’s great fun, but not hard. All he had to do was line the bottles up and skate in a straight line. Anybody could do that… but not the OK GO one.
Seems to me the first one is a genuine demonstration of skill, while the second is a commercialized fake. The car is clearly driven by a professional stunt driver, and the effect only works if you maintain a constant speed, which the car doesn’t.
Just so you know, yes, it was a commercial link up with a car company, but the band are real and the guy driving really is the lead singer who took stunt driving lessons to be able to do this and the video took four months of planning to get it right – that all said, I still voted for the first clip!!
Interesting – I’m happy to stand corrected. Whoever was driving did a pretty impressive job. I think OK GO have made a bit of a rod for their own backs though. The treadmill and Rube-Goldberg videos were fantastic, but this one just felt unnecessary somehow. I would have preferred to watch a straightforward performance, but they’re trapped in a loop of always trying to top their previous effort.
And now I fully expect someone to tell me that this video predates the others by some years. Ah well….
First. No contest.
#1 – simple, witty and entirely credible. I’m afraid #2 bored me, and I just didn’t believe that what I was hearing was actually recorded in a single take and not then manipulated afterwards. I quite liked the start but it went on far too long.
The first one didn’t involve much skill; just keeping both feet close enough to the bottles for every one to be struck, and not so close as to knock them over. The second one took way more preparation and, sponsored by Chevrolet or not, is much more of a work of art, and hilarious to boot. OK GO are genius idiots.
How about the skill in filling each bottle with just enough water to tune it? That must have been an immense task.
I think that task would have been pretty tedious, but wouldn’t have required a great deal of skill. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun and entertaining piece of art, and I tip my hat to the guy. After all, he’s done it and I haven’t. But the OK GO is more of an achievement, I would say. Certainly more difficult.
Just a few milliliters too much and your bottle is out of tune, though. I remember that from making my own bottle organs as a child. And these are a lot of notes.
Yebbut you can take all the time you need to get that right. There’s no real-time skill involved.
By that reasoning, there’s nothing to any non-immediate skill. If there’s no time constraints, it’s no big deal? How so? I think the skill in the OK Go video (assuming it’s real, rather than images over a studio recorded track) was in tuning those pianos and guitars to play the proper melody when struck. Otherwise, it’s just stunt driving, which is admittedly an awesome sport to watch — but it’s a very different category of entertainment. I think this sort of installation, if genuine, should be seen as art rather than as a stunt.
#1. Sometimes simpler is better. The OK Go vid is kind of cool, but at the same time, they’re basically destroying a whole lot of musical instruments, which is a shame. The first one uses only old wine bottles, which adds a lot of charm.
The first one is quite sweet, the second one was quite annoying
First one is nice and simple!
The first was OK. The second seemed like a lot of expense and time for something that did not turn out very good.
The second one clearly has a faked soundtrack. No doubt some of the sounds were sampled, but it’s also obvious it isn’t recorded straight from the “performance”. Among other things, electric guitars (unlike acoustic) produce very little sound without amplification, and there’s sign they were plugged into anything.
So the first is much better and less contrived.
Actually, the guitars you see in the movie were connected to amps.
Can’t I like them both?
Fine. If you’re making me choose I’ll go with OKGO. Because everyone else seems to hate it.
I thought they were both awesome. Maybe I’m just easily entertained.
I’m partial to the lyrics of the OK Go song, which is why I chose them…but also love the original
The first one.
I like the one they did on “Bang Goes the Theory”.
I have an Apple MacBook Pro and the videos did not work?
I like the OK Go one better. It is more varied and interesting. It did make me rather agitated. The fast driving and constant smashing of things. At least there was some thought put into it. The desolate location and disheveled-look of the course is rather appropriate given the lyrics.
Of the two, I like the OK GO video better.
That said, given the choice between simplicity and scale on most other things, I prefer simplicity. I find that a lot of times production companies (especially for movies and video games) think that if they have a big scale and flashy pictures nothing else matters.
I liked the first one better…obviously it was easier, but the second one was just too sloppy. Too much of…everything…for the resulting effect.
I like the first one best. Both are really clever, and the second obviously took enormous amounts of time and energy to set up, but somehow watching all those instruments hanging out in a dust storm really bothered me. And it was just all too contrived.
Also, they should do more of that nice harmony they finished with!
I really liked both. But I felt that the second one was more honest. I’m not sure what sounds the things the car was hitting in the second video were actually making. The first video was much simpler. It was a pretty lame version of the piece(!), but it was recognisable.
Sorry! I meant that I thought the first one was more honest!
I feel like OK Go are just trying too hard these days. The first one isn’t earth-shattering but it’s charming in a DIY way.
Simplicity is more pleasant. Scale is impressive, but hard to enjoy.
I couldn’t even finish the OK Go video. The excess made me want to barf. Odd that none of their other videos have had that effect, but this one really made me sick.
The first. Just because I have a far greater attachement to him than Ok Go. I began watching Lauzière appearance ond TV in the 90s.
But giving what its due, the OK Go lyrics still resonate in my head.
OK Go. Because complexity is not something I deride.