Thinking outside the PostModern Paintbox?

 

Turning cheap plastic modern toy soldiers back to Steampunk 19th Century Infantry?

Turning khaki grunge back to stylish redcoats?

What have my oddly painted Pound Store Plastic Warriors got to do with YouTube music sensation Scott Bradlee and his band Postmodern Jukebox?

Could it be that perennial chore of all gamers – “all about that base, about that base”? – to misquote Meghan Trainor?

Lots of different variations on the same cheap pound store penny dreadful figure.

Desert warriors from modern infantry … 

Cheap penny dreadful figures into something more expensive looking? 

So what is the connection between my paint converted penny dreadful plastic toy soldiers and throwaway hiphop or dance music tracks? Postmodern Jukebox (or in toy soldier modelling terms, should that be Postmodern Toolbox or Postmodern Paintbox?)

Take a toy soldier or music track – strip it down, look at it afresh, re-present it in a different way or time period. That is kind of the Pound Store Plastic Warrior blog philosophy and much the same with Postmodern Jukebox.

  I have just finished reading Scott Bradlee’s ‘band’ autobiography

Is the connection – Taking one cheap throwaway thing like a modern pop song or a pound store plastic toy soldier and turning them (back in time) to something else more interesting with a bit of hard craft?

Cheap plastic 32mm modern soldier into 1930s Flash Gordon space warriors …

Talented American piano player Scott Bradlee has teamed up with a range of jazz musicians and vocalists to take modern pop songs from the 1980s classics onwards to today’s chart  hits – and take them back in time. Stylish and spirited “Period covers of Pop Songs”.

What would 90s Canadian grungy punk band Nickelback sound like as Motown?

What would modern pop classics like Myley Cyrus’s We Can’t Stop sound like as a 50s doo-wop number?

What would Carly Rae Jepsen’s modern pop hit Call Me Maybe sound like as a 1920s ragtime flapper number?

That is the musical joy that is Postmodern Jukebox … everything I  have been doing with cheap toy plastic soldiers in musical form!

It’s also what I often listen to whilst painting, if not listening to period specific music to match the figures on the painting table.

There are now several years worth of free PMJ YouTube videos and plenty of albums to enjoy at http://postmodernjukebox.com/home/

Don’t just take my word for it. I’m not the only  Toy Soldier and game blogger to like this stuff. The Duke of Tradgardland himself no doubt employs them as Court Musicians. https://tradgardland.blogspot.com

Postmodern Jukebox PMJ  – court musicians to the Duchy of Tradgardland.

Outside the Jukebox, Scott Bradlee’s autobiography, is an interesting and easy read about being a modern basement creative in the internet and social media age. It reads as an honest mistakes and failure through to success and attendant pitfalls story.

Well worth a listen … anyway, back to Bass-ics? Enjoy.

 

You might also find other YouTube groups like the Gardiner Sisters stripping back to acoustic and slowing down fast modern pop songs into more interesting versions:

Blog posted by Mark, Man of TIN on 15 March 2019.