Har Mar Superstar – Lady, You Shot Me
[S]ean Tillmann (no relationship to Josh) could moonlight as a stuntman for Ron Jeremy, (he never seems to want to wear clothes anyways). And he’s about to disembark on his fifth album, Bye Bye 17, on Cult rRecords, and this first single grabs ahold of the Motown sound in all it’s scratchy early 60’s glory. Huge horns sections, organs and Tillmann’s soulful vocals, sometimes scratchy vocals that seem to fit so damn perfectly on a song where the narrative is about a young lady who has done him wrong. It seems to be the perfect sound for him, remarkably his voice seems to be set free by this pastiche, it’s refreshingly throwback and raw sounding.
Bye Bye 17 was written in New York City, the 10-song album was recorded at co-producer Jim Eno‘s (Spoon) Austin studio with a full live band. Focusing this time more on his voice, Tillmann says, “I was listening to a lot of Otis Redding and Sam Cooke at the time, and I’ve always been obsessed with those guys…”Restless Leg,” “We Don’t Sleep,” “Prisoner” and “Rhythm Bruises” came out of people playing together. But the rest were just like me in a room, gettin’ weird, by myself.”
Look for Tillmann’s Har Mar Superstar on tour later this month, with a stop here in Boston in April.
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