The Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra
The Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra is a chamber group formed in 2011 by Jared Gutstadt, the CEO of Jingle Punks Music, the New York-based music production and licensing company. The purpose was to arrange both indie and pop contemporary hits as well as established classics for a string-based chamber group. The Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra was initially launched as a whimsical way to garner more composing and arranging work for the parent company Jingle Punks’ creative studio.
The group is signed to the Razor And Tie record label. The group is composed primarily of Jingle Punks employees and in-house musicians. The Hipster Orchestra has released two albums: Hipster Dinner Party Vol. 1 and The Nirvana Sessions.
The Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra was formed in 2011 by employees at Jingle Punks Music, the New York-based music production and licensing company. The purpose was to arrange both indie and pop contemporary hits as well as established classics for a string-based chamber group.
The group began posting videos of songs in April 2011, beginning with a cover of the Strokes then-newly released “Under Cover Of Darkness.” New York Magazine immediately described the cover as “classy.” In May 2011, covers of MGMT’s “Time To Pretend” and the Black Keys’ “Tighten Up” followed, also premiered via online video.
On September 27, 2011, the Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra released two albums: Hipster Dinner Party Vol. 1 and The Nirvana Sessions.
The Hipster Dinner Party Vol. 1 album compiled previously released tracks and augmented them with newly recorded covers of modern indie hits by Phoenix (“Lisztomania”) and the White Stripes (“Seven Nation Army”).
The Nirvana Sessions came about after Primary Wave, Nirvana’s publishing company, asked the Hipster Orchestra to cover songs originally found on Nirvana’s Nevermind album to help celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Nevermind’s release. The resulting The Nirvana Sessions, which MTV described as “incredible” and “pretty inspiring to say the least,” included “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “In Bloom,” “Come As You Are,” “Lithium,” “Polly,” and “Something In The Way.” The Nirvana Sessions was released twenty years to the month after the original release of Nevermind. The group’s cover of “Lithium” was featured on the front page of YouTube as part of the site’s celebration of Nevermind’s twentieth anniversary.
In January 2012 the Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra released a medley of hip-hop covers called “4 Strings and an 808.” The title refers to both the normal instrumental make-up of the Hipster Orchestra as well as the 808 drum machine, a mainstay of hip-hop sonics. The medley includes snippets of material from major hip-hop artists including JAY-Z and Eminem, as well as a quote from Bruce Hornsby’s pop hit “The Way It Is.”
On January 20, 2012, the Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra debuted “Blue Ivy Lullabies,” a medley of JAY-Z and Beyoncé tracks performed as a lullaby to the couple’s then-newborn daughter Blue Ivy Carter.
The Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra’s touring history includes shows in New York at the Soho House and Rockwood Music Hall, in Chicago at Schuba’s, and in Los Angeles at the Soho House. Additionally, the Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra has drawn attention from media outlets such as the New York Times for performing in non-traditional venues, specifically the offices of major advertising houses such as Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide (Los Angeles), Wieden and Kennedy (New York), DDB (Chicago), Leo Burnett (Chicago), and Grip (Toronto).
On television, the Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra has made several appearances on NBC’s Last Call with Carson Daly.