To be honest, I’ve sampled his recorded music before and have never been that enthused. For the same reason I’ve passed up tickets to his show in the past. But the music really isn’t the point. It’s a prop along with the spandex cloak, the African tunic and, erm, his underpants. Not one to blush at pretentious ideas like artistic integrity, there’s even a spell of ‘yelling at the soundman’ drama, where HMS makes it clear the music player dishing out the backing track (including vocals from the likes of Beth Ditto and Karen O) is his fourth band member. The other two floppy-haired fellas being a bassist and drummer, both play it relatively straight as Har Mar pounces and preens through his dance/funk R&B, undressing at will.

Finally, the crowd has what it wants – HMS sporting little more than the garb that brought him into the world. And there, within his ‘barefaced cheek’ lies the crux of my enjoyment: Har Mar exults and adores us humans at our basest, most sordid, most ironic. Like a 40-year old accountant fantasizing about winning gold at the 100 meter sprint and getting it on with a supermodel. Har Mar just brings this fantasy to the stage as an urban yank version of the laughing Buddha. One that gets the last laugh.

More on Har Mar Superstar

A selection of hits from the sleek Har Mar Superstar website (I guess we’re still awaiting his release of a clothing line):

Surprisingly downbeat whilst being interviewed in a launderette:

Dirty Laundry Presents: Har Mar Superstar from Dirty Laundry on Vimeo.

You’ll find a collection of his ‘works’ on YouTube and he’s not too prouo to Tweet.

White Feather – Wolfmother
Farewell to the Fairground – White Lies
The Reeling – Passion Pit
Rabbit Heart [Raise It Up] – Florence And The Machine
This Tornado Loves You – Neko Case
1901 – Phoenix
Too Many Dicks [On The Dancefloor] – Flight Of The Conchords
Fast Fuse – Kasabian
Must Be The Ganja – Eminem
Love And Let Love – Gossip
Panic Switch – Silversun Pickups
Lady Don’t Fall Backwards – Peter Doherty
We Are The Hunters – The D’Urbervilles
Ankles – CHRIS T.T.
Daniel – Bat For Lashes
My Girls – Animal Collective
Voices In My Head – K’naan
Concrete Walls – Fever Ray
Further Complications – Jarvis Cocker
Life on Earth – Tiny Vipers

1. Little Boots – New In Town
2. Daylight – Matt & Kim
3. Out of the Blue – Julian Casablancas
4. Lust For Life – Girls
5. All is Love – Karen O and the Kids
6. Heavy Cross – Gossip
7. Little Secrets – Passion Pit
8. Hearing Damage – Thom Yorke
9. Hell – Tegan & Sara
10. Young Adult Friction – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
11. Islands – The XX
12. Kiss With a Fist – Florence and the Machine
13. Psychic City (Voodoo City) – Yacht
14. Gold Guns Girls – Metric
15. Shame and Fortune – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
16. Around the Bend – The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
17. Fireflies – Owl City
18. Bourgeois Shangri-La – Miss Li
19. Lions – The Features
20. Can’t Stop Partying – Weezer
21. Sunlight – tUnE-YArdS

I’ve been digging back into the past with wisps of drum and bass and old skool trance (303 workouts), mixed up with some new found numbers culled from the wonderful blogosphere. Enjoy…

Tracklisting

Kadebostan – Spirit Soldiers
Sweet Surrender (Roni Size Mix V2) – Sarah McLachlan
Warhead – DJ Krust
Life In Minds – Life On Mars
Kings Of Spain – Agent Purple
When I Grow Up (Bassnectar Remix) – Fever Ray
Sisters, I Don’t Know What This World Is Coming To – Terre Thaemlitz
Psylodub – Transequence
Katouka – Tony Hunt
Reptil – Synesthasia
Vancouver – Felix Cartal
Cicada (Pedro De La Faydro Birth Mix) – Justin Martin
Fucking Boyfriend [Peaches Remix] – The Bird And The Bee
Tira’s boot – DJ Tira
Bot (Original Mix) – Deadmau5
Tom’s Diner (Bingo Players Bootleg) – Suzanne Vega
Wighnomy Bros. – Lampatee (Nick Curly Remix)
IC19 (Deathface Remix) – Buraka Som Sistema
Water From A Vine Leaf – William Orbit

So here’s a bunch of bands I’ve been meaning to upload here but didn’t find to download or buy, like Finnish Regina and Danish Moi Caprice. And loads of Miike Snow.

PLUS a brand new song from the Bear Quartet. Life is so exciting.

Tracks:

Animal – Miike Snow
En tiennyt että osaan tanssia – Regina
Love at last sight – Moi Caprice
Song for noone – Miike Snow
Burial – Miike Snow
Tappaa minut aamulla – Regina
A city winter – Moi Caprice
Olistiko sittenkin halunnut palata – Regina
Millions – The Bear Quartet
Triangle walks (Rex the Dog radio edit) – Fever Ray
Animal (Punks Jump Up remix) – Miike Snow
The crowning – A Camp

Other than that there is The Dø and a track from Karin Dreijer’s solo project Fever Ray. For example. Oh and if you want to hear more of Viola, just go to their website http://www.violamusicclub.com/ as they’ve decided to give away everything they’ve ever done for free.

Tracks:

Leif Holmstrand – Cato
On my shoulder – The Dø
Intiaanidisko – TV-Resistori
Musta ruusu – Eleanoora Roosenholm
Knocked up (Lykke Li Vs Rodeo Remix) – Kings Of Leon
Suudelmitar – Ville Leinonen
Kodinrakennusohjeet – Eleanoora Rosenholm
Serkut rakastaa paremmin – TV-Resistori
Dog – El Perro del Mar
Lovelights – Viola
Pupu tupuna – Risto
Triangle walks – Fever Ray
At last – The Dø
Ada Bell (In A Montage) – Viola

Miss Lucifer – Primal Scream
Voices In My Head – K’naan
Daniel – Bat For Lashes
Ankles – Chris TT
Nyet Spasiba – Handsome Furs
Mad Dogs And Englishmen – Late Of The Pier
It’s Impossible – Daniel Johnston
Country Mile – Camera Obscura
We Are The Hunters – The D’Urbervilles
Stay Alive – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
The Abduction of Margaret – The Decemberists
Farewell to the Fairground – White Lies
Frustration – The Whip
Whachadoin? (feat. Spank Rock, M.I.A) – N.A.S.A.
Black Music Remix – Chris TT
Letter From America – The Proclaimers
Finster Crumley – Golden Arm Trio

Rule #1

Let someone else build your stage. Following the support acts, a crowd of groupies descend and start building the stage. And in the midst of it Dan appears nonchalantly. None of the pretentious grand entrance you’d find from many lesser-known stars.

Rule #2

Now in my books, a soundcheck should sound all discordant and experimental. Dan at once starts playing with what I guess you would call his instrument. All knobs and leads secured with varying shades of pastel tape. A green skull on a pole is constructed behind the large bespectacled artist, looking like the ackward uncle at christmas meal. the uncle that spent his formative years glueing bits of technology together with serendipity and randomness as the only guide. The soundcheck is so melodic that at times the throngs in the beautifully baroque Great American Music Hall feel the show is about to start and hands start pumping in the air. It doesn’t and the Mr Deacon announces that he will take his leave to get ‘in the zone’.

Rule #3

And then it begins. Falsely. Since when do you cut your performance just as it’s begun? But about four bars in Dan isn’t happy. This is rubbish, he declares. Actually, on this point I really couldn’t tell whether this was all part of the script. The second start has more gravitas than the original offering. The band march on to a different beat with some force and we all enter the wonderful world of Dan Deacon.

Rule #4

All band members should share a similar aesthetic. If you’re an indie band, you need assymetrical haircuts and tight jeans. Meanwhile, our man Dan is in shorts and T-Shirt and his surrounding ensemble are fresh faced and energetic enough to appear like a mini youth orchestra who hone their skills during recess.

Rule #5

If you look like (uncle) geek, make geek music. Keep your drum patterns 8-bit and heavily syncopated. Once more, here Mr Deacon falls down. The sound is big, tribal and proggy. More African in feel than some of the micro-beats of his early recordings. Just as the sound spazzes out into a huge cacophonous drone – it all shatters into miniature plinks on a zylophone. The firm hand of method underpins the madness and the band can turn on a penny. But none of this helps the music journos know where to place your genre-bending antics, Dan.

Rule #6

Build a sense of awe by distancing yourself from your audience. After about three songs, Dan eschews yet another standard of the rock/indie event and dives into the midst of his adoring crowd and…. splits them in half. In the middle of the dancefloor he orchestrates a dance-off contest. As if this isn’t enough, before you know it he’s building human tunnels and marching the crowd around the Great American Music Hall. Like some big social experiment in moving people around ornate civic spaces.

I rest my case

What can I say. If you like breaking down barriers and challenging the established way we do things, then give Dan Deacon a whirl. Just be prepared for the unexpected. Welcome to the world of the bastard mutant lovechild of Sigur Ros and and some Little Britain character that happens to hail from Baltimore.

The Drummer Is Fine Part 2 – Sonic Youth
Strange guitar warblings and rhythmic feedback from the psychedelic dandies.

Walk In The Car Park – Plastician
Glacial beats from this dubstep technician. Picking up where Burial left off.

Animals – CocoRosie
There was me thinking this was some new offering I’d stumbled on. She-that-knows put me straight that this is one of the better known numbers from indie’s bonkers femme duo.

The Ox (805) – Madlib
This time it’s bonkers hip hop. The man of many monikers dropped this track as an intro to his new album under the Madlib guise.

Jay Z – Brooklyn go hard
Jay Z and Santogold on the same ticket. Now there’s something you just don’t see that much. Why? Not sure – but there should be more.

Ulysses (Black Apache remix) – Franz Ferdinand
The Glaswegian indie-pop gods get the once-over from Black Apache.I could say it takes a remix for me to listen to Franz these days, but that would be mean.

Who’d've Known (demo) – Lily Allen
She’s back! I hope Doc’s happy. Breezily wandering through life’s most ubiquitous melodrama: the love story.

The Notorious DLR (Notorious B.I.G. vs. David Lee Roth) – DJ STV SLV
Cheeky this one. The mashup is still alive and kicking. This one is for all the Cal-kids out there.

Esau Mwamwaya, Santogold, M.I.A & Radioclit – Get it up
That Santogold has been getting around. Not sure whether all parties concerned where privy to what was going on with this track prior to release. Still, no one should grumble.

Ultimate – Gogol Bordello
The man caused a romp in the (Golden Gate) park at this year’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. Hearing this, the memories come flooding back.

Happy Birthday – The Ting Tings
The Sheffield duo pick up on the old ‘eighties classic. Happy birthday, Jesus.

Up Against The Wall – Peter Bjorn And John
Ah, breezy pop from Northern Europe. Sits so well on a cold December morn.

Come On Santa – The Raveonettes
She-that-knows tells me that the Raveonettes are from now – not from the ’sixties. They just sound that way.

Agent Orange Freestyle – Teki Latex aka Tekitek
Rounding off this (shortish) mix with some fine French hip hop. Sorry, I know nothing about these guys other than that they do bear some resemblance to the seminal NTM.

Listen now

Still, there’s peach tracks from some big hitters including Kings of Leon, Oasis (back on form), The Kills, Cold War Kids and genre-bending Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. What you waiting for? Dive in now!

Revolution (feat. Lyrics Born & the Mamaz) – J. Boogie’s Dubtronic Science
I Want You – Kings of Leon
U.R.A. Fever – The Kills
Bam – Atmosphere
Welcome To The Occupation – Cold War Kids
High Horse Lady – Oasis
Crying – TV On The Radio
You’ll Find A Way (Switch and Sinden Remix) – Santogold
02 Video Tapez (ft. Del the Funky Homosapien) – Radiohead
Sit And Wonder – The Verve
This Must Be Love – Photons
Agaetis Byrjun – Sigur Ros
Golden Gate Jumpers – Cold War Kids
To Be Where There’s Life – Oasis
Salvation – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Things Ain’t Like They Used to Be – The Black Keys
All I See – The Magic Numbers

http://www.popround.com/upload/files/thug_wife/finallysummer_thugwife.mp3