Har Mar Superstar + Marijuana Deathsquads + Zorch (February Residency Series)

@ Mohawk Austin Wed 02/08

Event Details

Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, Har Mar Superstar returns this fall with Dark Touches, his first album since 2004’s critically acclaimed The Handler. The new Har Mar retains his defiant sexiness and uncanny knack for irresistible R&B hooks, but fans his colorful wings in the spirit of inclusion. “Har Mar has always represented the most out-there and outrageous and in your face aspects of me,” says Sean Tillmann, the Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter and producer behind the Har Mar Superstar moniker. “I’ve gone through phases where there’s been angry Har Mar and different versions of this guy, but lately it’s all been this vibe that everyone’s included and everyone’s part of this thing, and you feel like you added something to it just by being there. It’s about me going out and getting as sweaty as possible, moving around as much as I can, and in a sense glamour-ing everybody for the night and making them feel better about themselves.”

Tillmann spent the past several years playing music with his other projects – Sean Na Na and Neon Neon, whose album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize. For Dark Touches, Tillmann recorded with friends like Greg Kurstin of Los Angeles band the Bird and the Bee, rapper P.O.S. of the Rhymesayers collective, singer-songwriter Adam Green, the Faint beatmakers Clark Baechle and Jacob Thiele, and The Handler producer John Fields, whose credits include Andrew W.K., Rooney and the Jonas Brothers. The results soundtrack a retro-futuristic dance party, an exuberant pastiche of late Eighties R&B grooves, crisp synth samples, Tillmann’s soulful falsetto – part Usher, part Todd Rundgren – and cheeky lyrics describing the courtship practices of the lothario known as Har Mar Superstar.

In July of 2009, Zorch recorded their self-titled 4-track EP at Cacophony Studios in Austin, TX. It's the duo's first attempt to capture their sound and demonstrate their wide palette of musical colors, ranging from tribal to pop. Choosing to self-release the EP and offering it up as a free download through their website, Zorch also gives fans the opportunity to design and create their own CD cases at live shows. Disregarding notions of intellectual property, they post the stems to all their songs online as well, ready to be mixed and morphed to each listener’s content. Traeger and Shmu work incessantly to produce a new kind of musical experience; the breadth of their creative output is intimidating. From a Rod Stewart cover project (with songs constructed on Stewart’s lyrics alone) or Shmu’s side project of evocative and expertly composed shoegaze, to a hefty collection of improvisational mixtapes, they have surely mastered eclecticism. Along with the constant creative flow that Traeger and Shmu produce, they are always inventing new ways to bring their fans into their live shows and work.

@ Indoor ALL AGES $8 Advance ($10 Day of Show) Doors @ 9pm. Show @ 10pm.

Poster

Performing Artists

Har Mar Superstar

Marijuana Deathsquads

Zorch