The Witzard

While I wouldn't exactly go as far as to automatically mislabel Har Mar Superstar 's most recent album, Bye Bye 17 as "Blue-Eyed Soul" or anything resembling lazy new age Neo-Soul genre tags, frontman Sean Tillmann probably owes more to guys like Justin Timberlake , Mayer Hawthorne, and Robin Thicke than he would probably ever willingly like to admit. Tillmann's latest music video/single was directed by frequent Strokes collaborator Warren Fu , who's previously worked with long-time frontman Cult Records founder Julian Casablancas ; at it's core, "Restless Leg" is a charming, yet vaguely disturbing video centered around an interesting man-on-puppet pseudo-love triangle, which was co-directed by contained Viva La Puppet puppeteer Michelle Zamora . No matter how you may feel about a little tasteful man-on-puppet action, Bye Bye 17 is a very easily accessible album, chock-full of white boy Soul-Funk/R&B; something to the effect of mid...

"The way to my heart: the Vanity 6 shuffle, @HAIMtheband ," Tonight Show bandleader and Roots drummer Questlove Tweeted mere hours after "If I Could Change Your Mind"' s late night release. Multi-instrumentalist sisters Alana, Danielle & Este Haim did in fact work alongside esteemed choreographer Fatima Robinson and director Warren Fu . For those of you who have been living under a rock these last few years, HAIM could essentially be likened to a Hip-Hop & R&B -infused all-female version of Fleetwood Mac ; they've previously collaborated with A$AP Rocky , Childish Gambino, and Kid Cudi on wax [record]. The fifth commercial single pulled from their debut Days Are Gone , "If I Could Change Your Mind" is a moody oftentimes dimly-lit affair, which kinda resembles an old Soul Train sound stage. Inter-splicing back and forth between synchronized dance sequences and two separate performance clips, Warren Fu has effectively created ...

Pharrell was quite arguably the undisputed hit-making champion of Summer 2013; having his hand in chart-topping mega-hits like "Blurred Lines," "Get Lucky," and "Burgundy." Over the past 10-12 years, Pharrell has effortlessly transformed from a relatively in-demand producer/ N*E*R*D frontman to a viable Hip-Hop-R&B hookman and he's most recently become Daft Punk 's pseudo-lead singer, more or less. "Lose Yourself to Dance" has been slowing picking up steam since it's radio/online release back in August. It's one of 2 devilishly smooth Funk -based Random Access Memories (RAM) cuts that feature Pharrell and Chic bassist Nile Rodgers , along with founding members Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo & Thomas Bangalter , of course. Pharrell stated in a recent interview that the track "makes [him] feel like waking down the street in the middle of the night in London and it's 1984, 1985," elaborating that ...

While well-groomed "heart-throb" types like Justin Timberlake and Robin Thicke are busy concocting smooth baby-making Future R&B , lone scantily-clad showman Sean "Har Mar Superstar" Tillman 's bringing the Ron Jeremy to old school-sounding Soul-Funk/R&B . Har Mar Superstar 's been doing his thing for the past 10-15 years now and has toured or worked with a wide variety of underground/mainstream talent: Ben Lee , Fabrizio Moretti (The Strokes), Father John Misty , Britney Spears , Neon Neon , Beth Ditto, Jennifer Lopez , and Drew Barrymore. "Lady, You Shot Me" were supposedly crooner Sam Cooke 's last words, which now effectively doubles as Bye Bye 17 's lead single, of sorts. Julian Casablancas' newly-formed Cult Records quietly unleashed the 10-track album a little while back on April 23rd. Bye Bye 17 feels like Har Mar Superstar's first honest attempt @ some tried-and-true LEGIT R&B music and while I...