NEPA Scene Staff

Postmodern Jukebox puts vintage twist on modern pop hits at the Sherman Theater on May 14

Postmodern Jukebox puts vintage twist on modern pop hits at the Sherman Theater on May 14
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From a press release:

The madness: pop hits of the present performed à la pop hits of the past. Miley Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop” assayed as a doo-wop number; Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop” tricked out in flapper jazz; Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” rendered a 1940s big-band standard. In fact, Scott Bradlee’s method runs deeper.

He’s educating his audience about 20th-century song styles; he’s commenting on the elasticity of the pop form; he’s confounding cultural context; he’s uniting generations; he’s breaking the rules. He’s manifesting postmodernist ideas in his approach to production and business as well as music. But, as far as the fans are concerned, it’s just fun (and sometimes funny). Bradlee himself will tell you, simply, “I reimagine a song in another style because I want to hear it that way.”

Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, a group that basically makes every day “Throwback Thursday,” will be performing at the Sherman Theater (524 Main St., Stroudsburg) on Thursday, May 14. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show starts at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $25 in advance and $28 the day of the show. VIP Boxes are available for this show and include eight tickets, an appetizer platter, and waitstaff.

This revolving collective of artists take pop hits and cover them with a vintage twist. They’re also hugely popular, with millions of YouTube views, albums that top the Billboard charts, and a recent sold-out European tour. Even Meghan Trainor herself approved of their rendition of “All About That Bass” via Twitter:

NPR called their music “oddly infectious and quite viral.” Billboard wrote about their “massive YouTube success, with over 100 million views in 2014 and 70k new fans subscribing per month.” The Huffington Post marveled over the fact that “millions have watched them re-interpret modern music in unconventional ways on YouTube.”

During a recent episode of “American Idol,” contestant Joey Cook performed a cover of Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” with a 1940s twist. When host Ryan Seacrest asked her how she came up with such a unique arrangement, she told him and the millions of viewers watching that she was inspired by Postmodern Jukebox.