Postmodern Jukebox, a group known for taking hits from the present and covering them in an old-fashioned style, will be playing at the State Theatre of Ithaca on Nov. 8.
Postmodern Jukebox became well-known from its YouTube channel, where each of the group’s videos has received several million views. The group’s cover of Lorde’s song “Royals,” for example, has over 13 million views.
Scott Bradlee is the brains behind Postmodern Jukebox. He can be seen playing piano in most of the Postmodern Jukebox videos, and he is also responsible for creating the group and arranging all of its music. Bradlee remixes songs in many different styles, such as swing, 1920s jazz and 1970s soul, to name a few. The band uses traditional big band instruments like trombone and sax, but sometimes mixes them with guitar or bass. The group members typically dress up in retro clothing that goes with the time period the piece is trying to exemplify. Members change depending on the arrangement, with guest singers like Haley Reinhart and Aubrey Logan providing vocals on the group’s various videos.
“I reimagine a song in another style because I want to hear it that way,” Bradlee said in a statement on the Postmodern Jukebox website.
The group is currently on tour, with the State Theatre being one of its stops. Dan Smalls and his agency, Dan Smalls Presents, are responsible for booking artists, which Smalls said is a matter of artists being available on the right dates for the right price.
“It’s relationship–based, and I’ve been following Scott’s rise for sure. I have a lot of interest in this style of music, and I’m glad they’re having success,” Smalls said. “Their agent reached out to us and had some dates available, so we were happy to send them an offer that made sense.”
Smalls said he believes hospitality is important to being able to book acts.
“In general, we really focus on trying to make them comfortable, and I think that’s one of the reasons why Ithaca is back on the map as a place to play because we treat people a little differently and better than in other places, and we make it special to them to come play in our town, and it’s been working very well,” Smalls said.
Smalls said ticket sales have been very good for this show in particular and encouraged buying tickets now because he suspects the show will come very close to selling out.
Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox will be performing at 8 p.m. Nov. 8 in the State Theatre at 107 W. State St. Tickets can be purchased online at http://dansmallspresents.com/events.
