Meet Postmdern Jukebox, the band acing the covers game

Nestled not very far under the surface of YouTube and Spotify lies the cover band anyone with a functioning ear needs to know about: Postmodern Jukebox. 

Known as PMJ to its fans - and with over six million subscribers on YouTube, there is a very large handful of us - the group is the brainchild of musical mastermind and jazz pianist Scott Bradlee, who revamps popular hits and polishes them into vintage jewels in the manner only blue wish-granting genies otherwise know how. 

If you have ever listened to a supermassive hit single - a motley collection of 90s hits instantly springs to mind - you may have:

a) Snootily pondered - aloud - why on earth anyone let such a monstrosity be released to the world

b) Disconcertingly - and privately - wondered what on earth possessed you to spend hours poised by the radio with a blank cassette tape waiting to record said monstrosity.

If you are the abashed owner of that radio and that blank tape, then you have come to the right place. PMJ has been known to turn Wanna Be by the Spice Girls into harmonies that would otherwise emanate from The Chordettes (think Mr Sandman), morphed MMMbop by Hanson into a 1950s-style number, and even made Oops!... I Did It Again sound surprisingly tolerable. (Britney Spears is a remarkable woman for having survived all she has, but no one will ever call her the Mozart of the 90s, bless her). 

I must hastily note that Bradlee is not calling himself the Mozart of the twenty-first century either, but there is no denying that this is a man who knows his piano intimately. Bradlee began as an out-of-work jazz pianist performing in his basement apartment with his friends when a light bulb went on his head, and he put up one of their friendly music sessions on YouTube. There was no looking back. Having looked only up since then, Bradlee and the rest of PMJ have gone from strength to strength, gaining a loyal following online, and are now in the position of touring the world. Just a few days ago, the PMJ crew put on various shows across Ireland. Without a record label in sight, Bradlee has done what all musicians think they will do when they start their careers: stayed true to his music and gift-wrapped it for his fans.

What, pray, is so great about a cover band?

With YouTube providing a somewhat scalable entry into the world of music for aspiring musicians, cover bands are a dime a dozen – but with musical snobs and purists also a dime a dozen, it can be nigh on impossible for a cover band to build up a following. Even established, highly skilled musical geniuses can struggle to conquer the hearts of aforementioned snobs. Weird Al Yankovic, no slouch in the brains department, will either make you howl tears of joy with his absurd tongue-in-cheek rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, or make you swear to cut off your ears. And Michael Buble’s voice may be the equivalent of rich amber warmed-up honey that seeps straight into your soul, but a small part of him will forever be known as That Sinatra Guy (when he is not being called That Christmas Guy). What sets PMJ apart is their ability to trick their fans into believing that their cover version is what the original should have sounded like. You haven’t lived until you have heard a 1920s Gatsby-style version of Bad Romance, or a happy 1950s My Heart Will Go On, which Jack and Rose may well have danced to in an alternate life if only there had been room on that door. 

So what exactly does PMJ do?

In essence, what Bradlee does can be broken up into four simple steps.

1. Take up a popular song. With music being as subjective as it is, this could be anything ranging from Love Story to Call Me Maybe to Last Christmas. 

2. With a rotational crew of sublimely skilled musicians on hand, assign each one a different part. Just two minutes into any PMJ video will assure you that Bradlee invites only the best musicians for his projects, and it is as plain as the nose on your face that every single one of them is having fun. Bradlee himself is nearly always on piano. His right hand flies along the higher octaves as his left hand flits across the lower keys, driving every number forward with his signature relentless bass line. Sometimes, when a percussion kit just won’t do, there is a tap dancer in the wings, leaping forward to breathe new life into old songs. Other times there is a woman in a glittery dress who begins singing The Final Countdown and then casually pulls out a trombone to blast out the rest of it, slinging away her trombone mute halfway through her solo. 

3. Bring on board a phenomenal vocalist, with ‘phenomenal’ being someone who has on their CV the skillset ‘can sing Smooth Criminal with the tempo of Michael Jackson and the diction of Henry Higgins’.  Or perhaps ‘can whistle like a Disney princess and croon like a jazz star.’

4. Throw everyone together. Step into a time machine to produce a sound from a decade long since passed. Record it live in one take. Put it up on YouTube.

Waste no more time. Head on over online, look up PMJ, secure in the knowledge that you will not have to skip a single track once you begin.

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