Scott Bradlee and Postmodern Jukebox...big in Japan?

It’s difficult to tell these days how ‘big’ a band is in each country. In the past the ‘big’ bands would be on telly and in music magazines and things were pretty clear but now...lord (or indeed Lorde) knows. Having left school about a million years ago I have no idea what dem yoot is listening to either. Probably for the best. Of course we still have the charts but they seem to be filled with different names every week, many of which vanish without a trace as quickly as they appeared. That’s the power of the intermess I guess. One day you can be in your bedroom singing into your hairbrush and recording it on your iPhone, the next you can have a squillion hits on You Tube and a record deal. The reason for today’s musings is a band/collective of musicians known as Scott Bradlee and Postmodern Jukebox from America whose covers of new and old tracks in a vintage style have attracted up to 8 million hits each on You Tube (see the Puddles the clown vid above for instance). Is that a lot these days? It seems pretty impressive to me. They’ve done around a hundred or so to date, naturally some work better than others whilst a fair few are ruddy great (they're all good fun though). They’re popping over to the UK in June so you can judge for yourself (they play The Institute on Monday 16^th June, tickets here). Here’s a few more to help pass the time on a slow Friday afternoon at work...