This is a little different than my usual album reviews, since this is a one and only copy of an album YOU CAN’T HAVE! If you’re nice I’ll let you listen to it though. First, a little bit about the band. If you haven’t heard of Postmodern Jukebox, and you think popular music is getting worse every year, then this is a band you should definitely check out. They are led by a jazz pianist named Scott Bradlee, who keeps a rotating cast of tremendously talented singers and musicians and whose main goal is to take what some might consider “pop trash” and rework it into a vintage masterpiece. The songs are always recorded as a group in a live setting, and all the videos are posted on Youtube for your viewing and listening enjoyment. I’ll dive into more details soon, but first let’s take a look at the exquisite, one-of-a-kind artwork of my special copy.
Here’s the front cover:
Here’s the inside, featuring a band of jazzy frogs:
Annnnd here’s the track listing on the back:
This album captures 22 of our favorites, but its hard to keep up since they’re recording new songs all the time! I’ll go through a few of my top favorites. “Break Free” translated really well to their vintage version, and is sung excellently by Morgan James. “We Can’t Stop” also translated rather well, and was such an awful song to begin with, it’s very enjoyable to listen to this version. The background vocals really legitimize the sound. “Rude” performed by Von Smith is my favorite overall, more on that one later. “Thrift Shop” is just excellent. The piano part is so much fun to listen to. For “All About That Bass” you really need to see the video. Kate Davis plays the upright bass while singing the song, and its just really cool.
PMJ has kept a pretty intense touring schedule going, but they somehow manage to make it back to Hyde Sunset in LA for their Dinner and a Show Speakeasy Series. One Wednesday, Mary and I, along with some friends, made the trip up to LA for the show. We were treated to some awesome performances, and got the opportunity to meet both Von Smith and Scott Bradlee! The show was actually Von Smith’s last with PMJ for a while, so it was awesome to see him perform one of our favorites, “Rude” in the style of a 1950’s sock hop. Just so you can get an idea of how awesome it was, here’s a video of their official performance of the song:
We got to see a few of our other favorites as well, including…
Shake it Off, sung by Von Smith
Womanizer, sung by Christina Gatti
Anaconda, Wiggle, and Problem sung by Robyn Adele Anderson
And a whole bunch of others that I can’t remember.
To get in the holiday spirit, check out their new Christmas songs on this playlist!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJZH8sevmMq4K-JEyfTCKBJskAzi3wTjm
Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness (Album and Concert Review!) »