under-covers: The Pixies/Henry Lim and His String Quartet

Perhaps, one of the greatest guilty pleasures in my life: the perverse enjoyment I get listening to musicians covering other artist's songs. The weirder the cover, the better! It doesn't matter how awkward or horrible the quality (shitty cell phone video, I'm looking at you), I'm an absolute sucker for this stuff. Here's the latest installment of "under-covers."

The Pixies, one of the most influential and underrated rock bands of the past two decades. Like a lot of people my age, this is the song that first exposed me to the band thanks to the end credits of David Fincher's Fight Club. The song fit so perfectly with the film's theme/finale, I wondered if it was written specifically for the movie! I had no idea who The Pixies were but quickly fell in love with the tune. No wonder, I had grown up on bands like Weezer and Nirvana who worshiped The Pixies pretty hard. Anywaaaaaay, here's the song:


That's so rad. Kim's backing vocals are absolutely haunting. Also, DAT droning guitar wail.

Well here is the cover, from a diehard Pixies fan and a nifty string orchestra backing him up:

Dude's voice is no match for Frank's in terms of sheer insanity, but he sure don't sound bad either. That lovely young woman doing backup vocals is heavenly (audio & visual you dig?) and although I miss the drums, the string arrangement does a phenominal job of highlighting the song's melancholy undertones. So yeah, I love this cover. I still enjoy the original version more, only because it's just one of the coolest fucking songs ever written.

What's your take on this?