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...

Pharrell arguably had one of the most successful years of his career last year with the combined mega-success of "Get Lucky," "Blurred Lines," and countless other chart-topping hits. Late Tuesday night, news broke that Pharrell 's long-rumored second solo album, now titled G I R L will see a March 3-4th release. Pharrell himself described the album as "the difference between [age] 30 and 40" during a career-spanning Complex interview and in stark contrast with both In My Mind (2006) and N*E*R*D , G I R L will supposedly feature "no rapping" whatsoever. While I've always thought Pharrell was a pretty impressive rapper-producer, he's a damn awesome singer and hook-man, as well. "Happy," the first single of the album's 10 currently untitled tracks, is a prime example of Skateboard P 's singing chops; it was originally composed for the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack and almost functions as a modern day all-a...

Depending on who you ask, Ron Burgundy is quite arguably actor-comedian Will Ferrell 's coveted career-defining role and in recent weeks, he's somehow managed to supersede the confines of a mere film role; appearing alongside Daft Punk on an MTV EMA's promo, partnering up with Dodge to sell some 2014 Durangos , manning real-life news broadcasts, interviewing football mega-star Peyton Manning , getting his very own Ben & Jerry 's flavor, etc. Tuesday afternoon amidst the impending East Coast snow storm, "Ron Burgundy" teamed up with Blue-Eyed Soul crooner Robin Thicke for a buttery smooth cover of "Ride Like The Wind." The original Christopher Cross version was released way back in 1979-80, and his self-titled Soft Rock magnum opus it appears within famously beat out Pink Floyd 's equally great The Wall for an Album of The Year Grammy later that year. Christopher Cross' track, as well as Robin Thick & Ron Burgundy 's...

Pharrell has long surpassed anyone's expectations who previously pigeon-holed him as a Snoop Dogg & Jay-Z- affiliated Neptunes producer, on-and-off Funk-Rock N*E*R*D frontman, or mere smooth-voiced hookman; he single-handedly co-fronted 2 of the summer's biggest mega-hits, "Get Lucky" and "Blurred Lines" (but you already know that much). Pharrell has recently started flexing his original soundtrack/composer chops as well, working on the original Despicable Me , it's sequel Despicable Me 2 , and a rumored Amazing Spider-Man 2 super-score with composer Hans Zimmer , Mike Einzinger (Incubus), former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr , and Dave Stewart (Eurythmics). Fresh on the heels of Bob Dylan 's inter-active "Like a Rolling Stone" video, Pharrell and directing team We Are from LA unleashed the world's very first 24-hour music video for Despicable Me 2 single, "Happy" online Thursday-Friday. It reportedly feature...

for their latest video-remix treatment, Scott Bradlee & Postmodern Jukebox recruited Puddles The Clown (aka Big Mike Geier ), a 7-foot-tall sad clown and Atlanta -based performance artist with a voice not unlike Tom Jones ; together, they recorded a sprawling "throwback"-style cover of Lorde 's recent mega-hit, "Royals" in Bradlee's living room. It's a pretty amazing track, nonetheless, which wouldn't have been entirely possible without Robyn Adele Anderson , Cristina Gatti, Adam Kubota , Allan Mednard, and of course, Puddles' gold-plated vocal chords. "Royals" is far from Postmodern Jukebox 's first go-round; in fact, they've recorded genre-shifting covers of everyone from Robin Thicke to Katy Perry and even laid down an entire Nickelback album, A Motown Tribute to Nickelback ! Bandleader-pianist Scott Bradlee has composed a staggering mix of re-arrangements, including all sorts of broad-spanning styles: Doo-Wop ,...

Even though she released a new John Lewis -backed Keane cover just the other day, British Indie-Pop star Lily Allen has finally returned with "Hard Out Here," which could be a sonic indicator of her forthcoming third studio album. It's titular refrain goes something like "Forget your balls, and grow a pair of tits / It's hard, it's hard, it's hard out here for a bitch" and Allen addresses jarring topics such as body image, media-propelled sexism, super-sexed up video vixens, non-equality, injustice, etc. "Hard Out Here"'s companion Christopher Sweeney -directed video essentially conveys everything that Lily Allen whole-heartedly despises about Hollywood/London elite: plastic surgery, TWERKIN', Robin Thicke , wasteful champagne-pouring, ridiculous weightless ideals, wildly expensive cars. It's done in a very tongue-in-cheek way though, whereas if you didn't know any better, you might think that Allen was a terribly ...

Preceded only by a vague, Bob Dylan -like teaser clip earlier in the week, Justin Timberlake unleashed his BRAND NEW single, "Take Back The Night" late Friday afternoon; oozing Off The Wall era Disco vibes, I guess Timberlake's track shares it's name with an anti-rape organization of some sort (creepy coincidence or not). One particular commenter at Stereogum , michael_ , actually said it perfectly: "What has changed since the release of [The 20/20 Experience] and this upcoming one is Daft Punk 's "Get Lucky" and Robin Thicke 's "Blurred Lines" copping their own shares in this Neo-Disco Pop ..." The 20/20 Experience (Part 2) is slated for a September 30th release, along with the "JT Complete Package," which'll re-collect all 21 tracks from parts 1-2. "I originally recorded a massive amount of material and decided on the 20 tracks that I wanted on the album(s) over a year ago," Justin Timberlake l...

Ye, I can almost picture it now: Justin Timberlake pleading with his semi-distraught wife, Jessica Biel , "But babe, it's NOT nudity...it's art!" Billboard reports that Timberlake's latest album, The 20/20 Experience has sold 2 million+ plus copies since it's March release and previous singles, "Suit & Tie" and "Mirrors" still remain firmly fixed atop the Billboard Hot 100 . Just in time for Fourth of July Weekend , Justin Timberlake unleashed a steamy new video-single for "Tunnel Vision," which was co-directed by Jonathan Craven, Simon McLoughlin , and Jeff Nicholas . Call it a gentlemen's rivalry, if you will, but some might compare Timberlake's scantily-clad music video to Robin Thicke 's original banned-from- YouTube "Blurred Lines" clip. Although one could also argue that Thicke basically stole Timberlake's Blue-Eyed Soul musical style [SWAG] or even vice versa. "Tunnel Vision...

Blue-Eyed Soul brother and Growing Pains offspring, Robin Thicke finally scored his first Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit with "Blurred Lines." The infectiously Funky track teeters the [blurred] line between mainstream success and Internet weirdness. While it was initially pulled from YouTube and then edited/re-uploaded, "Blurred Lines" has gained most of it's wide success without much label promotion, strictly based off word-of-mouth and social media shares. We're talkin' about Robin Thicke, Pharrell & T.I. singing, dancing, and getting generally weird with a bunch of scantily-clad models (It's just something you HAVE to see for yourself)! Robin Thicke & Pharrell stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live Thursday night to celebrate their #1 spot; actually filmed @ MySpace's re-launch party the night before, where Miley Cyrus and label-mate Leah LaBelle danced on stage during a slightly more Caribbean -sounding "Blurred Lines" ren...