Haley touring with PMJ -- Feb 2015 - March 2016 (& March 2017)

[Tusk]

Adam has been posting pretty funny Instagrams during this trip

adamkubota_bass
One of these items is truly dangerous and capable of inflicting torture on its victim

[john]

Cush Nichols ‏@MsCushB 8h8 hours ago
Best gig this year! @PMJofficial you guys rocked this city!! #pmjtour

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Brady Dyer ‏@BR4DY 2m2 minutes ago
Did you go along to Postmodern Jukebox's sold-out Wellington concert last night? Here's the pics! http://ift.tt/1JFmrhh

[XAtlantic]

It's exciting to follow this new adventure!
Nice pictures, too!!

Thank you again and again a ton for all of you who know who you are who faithfully keep posting it all from the stream, you are the heart and soul of this Halien production! #TrueDedication

[riley]

AMEN

[InItToWinIt]

Well, this is an interesting review of last night show. He's sort of liked it.

stuff.nz.com: It's a gimmick but Postmodern Jukebox charm with jazz makeover of pop hits

A band of talented instrumentalists is augmented by four vocalists, the biggest applause was always saved for Halley Renard and Morgan James, both stunning vocalists. But then so was Maia Sykes and the MC for the evening, Mygoal Kilmore – perhaps James and Renard are better known due to their YouTube channel appearances?

[XAtlantic]

Well, this is an interesting review of last night show. He's sort of liked it.

stuff.nz.com: It's a gimmick but Postmodern Jukebox charm with jazz makeover of pop hits

A band of talented instrumentalists is augmented by four vocalists, the biggest applause was always saved for Halley Renard and Morgan James, both stunning vocalists. But then so was Maia Sykes and the MC for the evening, Mygoal Kilmore – perhaps James and Renard are better known due to their YouTube channel appearances?

Well Mygoal is now to find out about this Renard, because she must be a Halley'f a singer, kilmoring all of her songs and quite a fox at it!! Holey Morgan!

(renard = French for fox)

[john]

It's a gimmick but Postmodern Jukebox charm with jazz makeover of pop hits
SIMON SWEETMAN


Scott Bradlee is an American pianist, arranger and bondholder. His Postmodern Jukebox started as more of a concept than a band. Millions of views on YouTube and now they're a live act. The gimmick is for this band of jazeeras to take the pop songs of today and cast them as standards from the 40s or with girl-group backing vocals, a little splash of Motown here, a touch of New Orleans jazz club there.

Well, it's been done before of course, from "Weird Al" through a run in the 1990s that included The Mike Flowers Pops, The King, Dread Zeppelin and Frank Bennett, but what makes the Postmodern Jukebox work is a simplicity and sincerity. This is about the music. Turned on its ear, sure. But this is about celebrating the charm of the pop song through the medium of great jazz playing.

A band of talented instrumentalists is augmented by four vocalists, the biggest applause was always saved for Halley Renard and Morgan James, both stunning vocalists. But then so was Maia Sykes and the MC for the evening, Mygoal Kilmore – perhaps James and Renard are better known due to their YouTube channel appearances?

The world doesn't really need any more po-faced jazz-makeovers of songs like Seven Nation Army and Creep but the beauty of this band, discovered online, made into a viral hit, is that they're pitching to an audience perhaps unaware that it's all been done (even re-done) before.

Good as they are – and it really was a spectacular group of players and a generous set, built as 'show' with walk-ons, banter and a wonderful solo piano medley from the bondholder – it is still just a gimmick, a party-trick. Part of me wishes the Postmodern Jukebox would serve up a set of covers of songs from the era they're evoking, go back to actual jazz standards, celebrate their musicianship without the cheap laughs that come when the audience recognises a song by some pop throwaway like Megan Traynor or Taylor Swift. But where would the fun, and importantly the money, be in that now, right?

Is referring to Scott as the "bondholder" a way of emphasizing the notion that these folks are just out to make a buck copying what has been done before (that being covers of songs, especially with a specific twist)? Or is that his autocorrected way of saying bandleader?

A number of us have commented we found that some of the PMJ covers, particularly in the past were gimmicky. But the talent level that Scott has available is excellent and the covers are generally quite good. A song like Barbie Girl was gimmicky but it was well done and fun; light fare for the summer. I don't know what "po-faced" would have to do with PMJ. The audiences seem quite pleased with their experience.

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I tweeted the author

John ‏@JohnKess 27m27 minutes ago
@BlogOnTheTracks Those singers names are Haley Reinhart, Maiya Sykes, and Mykal Kilgore. LOL shit. @PMJOfficial http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/715...f-pop-hits …

Simon Sweetman ‏@BlogOnTheTracks 19m19 minutes ago Wellington City, New Zealand
@JohnKess @PMJofficial weird stuff sometimes happens between submitting and publishing, nothing to do with me. Going to get them to correct.

Simon Sweetman ‏@BlogOnTheTracks 4m4 minutes ago Wellington City, New Zealand
@JohnKess @PMJofficial better? http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/715...f-pop-hits …

#Better?

[dswim2]

This guy is a...i can't even say the word...

[Miguel]

Sounds as though he might have dictated the article and a speech-to-text program wrote it for publication. If that were the case, "bandleader" might have become "bondholder."

It seems like he enjoyed the show and recognized the group's musicianship to the point he wanted to hear them do "serious" music.

...what makes the Postmodern Jukebox work is a simplicity and sincerity. This is about the music.

I think it's fair to call what PMJ does a gimmick, but only in passing. He went overboard in stressing it to the point that it became the focus of the article.

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Good comment on the article from someone who attended the show:

Maybe the audience were aware of what has been done and redone, but celebrated the wealth of talent on stage and the admission from them that without the audience, they'd be nothing. From what I saw, the audience were a collection of people from across the spectrum, young to old, hipster to (um) everyone else - not exactly fresh off the block. This was an excellent display of quality singing and music which is effectively by the people, for the people.

[john]

When I first read the article I found the tone of it, along with the many error very annoying. He has been correcting errors to that reads better, but it seems the author is trying to walk down several related paths that end up dangling in the short piece.

He seems to have a cynical edge that I don't think is warranted with PMJ. Sure it's been done before, but he makes it seem that ignorance by the audience is central to what makes it work. As the commentor on the article noted PMJ audiences include young and old, and many fans have seen "it" before and find that irrelevant. PMJ does covers with unique arrangements and a jazz type ensemble. Lots of bands and singers do covers, the ability of Scott and the performers to make their covers fresh and enjoyable is key.

As far as doing jazz standards goes, Scott and others in PMJ have "been there, done that" and found not much of an audience for it. It's not fun if no one is listening and indeed the money isn't there either. But I'd love to see Scott sneak and jazz standard or two into the show.

Simon writes that part of him would like to see PMJ "celebrate their musicianship without the cheap laughs that come when the audience recognises a song by some pop throwaway." It doesn't sound like he is familiar much with PMJ, but the audiences is. I think what he hears as "cheap laughs" is more likely to be the happy audience reaction when the band kicks into a popular PMJ track.

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Postmodern Jukebox puts vintage spin on pop hits
Simon Collins

...Meanwhile Haley Reinhart’s soulful rendition of Radiohead’s Creep is truly superb and has amassed nearly 8.7 million views since being recorded — in one take — in April on a day off during their recent European tour....
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/2...-pop-hits/