#((do y'all know how hard it is to find NOLA street performers on youtube.))

[concubuck]

A delivery for Alastor that somehow made it to him in rehab.

It's several albums from Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox. A note provided with it reads, "Thought you might appreciate these while you're going through all this. Welcome to the Black Parade made me think of you.

-C.C."

((Due to the mun being busy, this wasn't answered when it was sent on August 30 and Alastor was still in alcohol detox. Pretend it got lost in the mail for a month. We'll overlook the fact that he only told two people privately that he was in detox.))

I take it you're the same person who sent me this!

Now, I've never been terribly fond of this group's gimmick. "Rewrite a recent song in an 'old' genre"—swing or jazz or doo-wop or what have you. Because it acts like nobody else is playing in old styles. Like the swing revival of the nineties never happened, or like jazz clubs don't still host jam sessions, or like there isn't a successful Satanic doo-wop group touring right now.

Anyway, it's all too clean, too over-produced for the sounds they're trying so hard to replicate. Tell me their "New Orleans marching band" cover sounds anything—like—this. Sure, over the decades, the genre's drifted a bit from the style they're trying to replicate. But let me assure you—because I was there—that the energy in modern second line bands has more in common with what I heard than Mr. Bradlee's self-controlled little dirge.

The difference between Joey Cook singing so perfectly over a sedately improvisational wind section and a real second line marching band is like the difference between a Broadway soprano singing about dying, and a raw howl of pain.

If you want to hear Top 40 pop and rock in "New Orleans" style, don't ask a rotating band of genre-dabblers headed by a New Jersey pianist to attempt to sound New Orleanian. Ask a New Orleans band to play the song.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you—

Hot 8 Brass Band performing Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing"

The Soul Rebels performing Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams"

New Creations Brass Band performing the Beatles' "Come Together"

Sunshine Brass Band performing Blondie's "Heart of Glass"

The Original Pinettes Brass Band performing Katy Perry's "Roar"

Blown Away Brass Band performing OutKast's "Spread"

Where Ya At Brass Band performing Bruno Mars's "Treasure"—for half a minute, at least

—or, if you want to hear a real New Orleans band play a song about funeral parades, pick one that already fits the genre.

Or hell—if you can't get a genuine "second line" band, at least get a real brass band:

The Cincy Brass from Ohio performing Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance"

No BS! Brass from Virginia performing Michael Jackson's "Thriller"

Dirty Catfish Brass Band from Canada performing Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off"

Broken Brass from the Netherlands performing Macklemore's "Thrift Shop"

Brass Délirium from France performing The Offspring's "The Kids Aren't Alright"

Hit Brass from Colombia performing Reel 2 Real's "I Like to Move It" and Lipps Inc.'s "Funkytown"

Bieranjas from Switzerland performing Adele's "Rolling in the Deep"

And that's just the ones I could find before I got bored. I'm not even touching on artists like Lucky Chops or Brass Against, they're popular enough.

Now, I have nothing against Mr. Bradlee personally. His arrangements sounds fine. But the trouble with the glorification of this one artist for dressing up in a genre for a song or two is that it treats him like a unique novelty. As if he's the only man in the market who's ever set a Top 40 pop hit to jazz.

Meanwhile there are living, performing, struggling bands who dedicate their entire careers to playing these genres. Notice how many of the recordings I offered come from cell phone cameras rather than nice, professional music videos! If you adore it so much when the novelty act pretends to play in those styles for five minutes, why don't you show any of that adoration to the bands playing those styles every day?

Listen to some bands that really perform those styles—not just the band that plays at those styles.