"Little Boxes" performed on little boxes

Robbo sez, "The band Walk Off The Earth performs Malvina Reynolds' song 'Little Boxes' - on boxes. In fact the whole set for this music video is made of cardboard. Really cool and a sweet rendition of the tune. Most people know the song now as the opening theme for 'Weeds" but when I was a kid we'd make all sorts of cool shit out of cardboard and we'd sing along to a scratchy 78 we had of Pete Seeger doing the tune. With my own son I've had years of fun making cardboard crap including an intensely awesome Iron Man costume for Halloween. He carries on the tradition although now that he's in his teens he's into building detailed replicas of weapons from Halo - and he doesn't sing the song as he's doing it. Ah well."

I absolutely love this song. Weirdly, I first heard is in Spanish -- the Victor Jara rendition -- and then heard the same Seeger version that Robbo mentions. This one is just lovely.

Little Boxes - Walk off the Earth

• [EricH]

  This reminds me of when I was a kid who couldn’t afford all those cool star wars sets to play with my figures. I build a base out of a refridgerator box, elmers glue, and decorated it with markers. It was all fun and games until the empire came along with its top secret magnifying glass. :)

• [Senor Schaffer]

  Wow. They just keep doing cool stuff, don’t they?

• [Preston Sturges]

  That set does not meet OSHA flammability standards

• [jennybean42]

  I got turned on to them when I saw their cover of “Somebody that I used to Know”
  http://youtu.be/d9NF2edxy-M
  This is great too.

• [invictus]

  This may well be my favourite bb post. Ever.

• [NoneL]

  Well, f me.

• [suburbanhick]

  I love this song! My crazy/cool Aunt Fran used to sing this when we’d all pile in and drive her old Datsun B210 thru the backroads of New Hampshire, kids and dogs hanging out the windows. Man – probably haven’t heard it since then!

  • [Beanolini]

     My mother used to sing me to sleep with this, along with ‘Puff The Magic Dragon’ and a bunch of Beatles songs. I was strangely disappointed when I heard the commercial recordings.

• [Brainspore]

  I loved how the show “Weeds” used this song for their title sequence, especially during the second and third seasons when they had a variety of different musicians perform cover versions. I think this one is my new favorite.

• [LightningRose]

  For the SF Bay Area Boingers, Malvina Reynolds is reported to have been inspired by the now $500K houses in Daly City.

• [yamaplos]

  hmm, youtube down or something?

  502. That’s an error.

  The server encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request.
  Please try again in 30 seconds. That’s all we know.

• [Purplecat]

  And it’s an advert.
  Anti- conformity, anti consumerist classic song, used to sell stuff. It’s a neat video, but does everything have to be turned into another damn billboard.

  • [jennybean42]

     How is it an advert? They link to their other stuff at the end, but that’s more self promotion than advertising. Am I missing something?

    • [bazzargh]

      In the UK the tune is used as an advert for O2.

• [Erin Gwynn]

  I’ve seen the cardboard set idea before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoTYCCUMoYY

• [kairos]

  “Most people know the song now as the opening theme for ‘Weeds” but when I was a kid we’d make all sorts of cool shit out of cardboard and we’d sing along to a scratchy 78 we had of Pete Seeger doing the tune.”

  I know it isn’t really, but hopefully you won’t mind if a slightly modified version of this makes it into a hipster character’s mouth in a webseries script..

• [bytefyre]

  I just recently heard a song about Victor Jara, 
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGtCeyu9hxQ&feature=slpl

• [jeffrey perry]

  Director Thom Glunt’s cardboard-themed video for the Meeting of Important People’s music video “Brittney Lane” from 2009…eerily similar?
  http://vimeo.com/6502463

  • [lyfedrain]

     My thoughts exactly when I saw this video. Reminds me a lot of the Brittney Lane one.