With just one day before Gorillaz’s new CD “Plastic Beach” hits stores nationwide, I’ve been going back and reminiscing on this band’s wonderfully crafted music (and videos). We all know “Clint Eastwood” (I ain’t happy/I’m feelin’ glad/I’ve got sunshine/in a bag…) and “Feel Good Inc.” (Windmill, Windmill for the land/turn forever hand in hand…). But Gorillaz is not just a band… it is, in my opinion, one of the most creatively genius works in the history of music.
Created by former lead singer of Blur Damon Albarn and “Tank Girl” creator Jamie Hewlett, the band is composed of cartoon characters (2D, Murdoc, Russel, and Noodle), each with back stories and interesting facts. In 2001, their first CD (self-titled “Gorillaz”) rocked the charts as a combination of hip-hop, rap, and electronic, with hits like the aforementioned “Clint Eastwood,” slow, urban track “Tomorrow Comes Today,” and hip-hop glory “Rock The House” (featuring Del The Funky Homosapien, who plays a minor character in the band’s backstory). The second CD, “Demon Days” (2005), was a major success for the band, bringing in major celebrity guests to rap, sing, and even read for the tracks (De La Soul, Bootie Brown, MF Doom, Shaun Ryder, Dennis Hopper, and Danger Mouse, who helped produce the CD). “Feel Good Inc.” hit the charts and quickly rated higher than any of their other hits, soon followed by children-anthem “Dirty Harry,” solemn “El Mañana,” and dance-worthy “DARE.” Now, 5 years later, Gorillaz has collaborated once again with “Plastic Beach.” Unfortunately, the only songs I’ve heard are “Stylo,” which is the first single off the new CD, featuring Mos Def and Bobby Womack, and “Superfast Jellyfish,” featuring De La Soul once more.
The music is really original in that it mixes different genres together to create a new type of sound. From “19-2000,” which uses techno, hip-hop, and reggae to sound like a bubblegum pop song, to “Don’t Get Lost In Heaven” paired with “Demon Days,” which uses a full string orchestra, choir, hip-hop, and reggae to sound epic and gorgeous, the band reinvents the world of urban music.
However, what makes them so interesting is the story behind the band, how they advertise themselves, and their use of advanced technology to create a fully-animated band.
Back in 2006, the “band” put out an autobiography called Rise of the Ogre, which not only chronicled the band’s successful music career but also the band members’ lives and personalities in and out of the band. For example, we find out that 2D has black eyes because Murdoc ran him over in a car, which dented one of his eyes… so, because he thought he looks silly with one black eye, 2D dented the other one. We learn about the truth about Noodle, that she is really a secret Japanese government weapon, triggered by the words “ocean bacon.” We find out that the ghost of Del The Funky Homosapien possessed Russel, and Russel had it exorcised out of his body before working on “Demon Days.” We learn about Murdoc’s obsession with being a Satanist and how he truly is an evil person.
I mean, sure, this may not sound like a lot. But considering that this is all made up to coincide with a few CDs, that’s pretty incredible!
But that’s not all… to create this image of a fully-animated band, high tech equipment have made it possible for people to really feel like the members of Gorillaz are actually real. For the 2006 Grammys, the band performed a mash up of “Feel Good Inc.” and Madonna’s hit for the year “Hung Up” live. But, because of the band’s animated appearances, a holographic projection unit was set up on stage, allowing for the band members to look as if they were standing on stage. Madonna, was also holographically projected for the first part of her act as she moves around the characters to interact with them. This is one of the first, and greatest, technical feats ever for a band to make.
Also, because of their animations, the band RARELY plays live shows (in fact, the only one they have lined up so far for their new CD is Coachella 2010). So, of course, each of their live shows out-does the other. The “Demon Days” tour included panels of changing colors, hiding the live band from the public, while the “guests” were on stage in front, brightly lit. On a large screen in the middle, pictures and video played to help visually attract the audience. Simplistic, but incredibly creative.
Personally my favorite part of the band’s creativity is what they put into their website. To help promote their band and to get their fans psyched about the band itself, they launched an interactive game on their website to explore the confines of their home Kong Studios. With the coming of each CD and hit came an update to the website… and as the lives and appearance of each character changed, the studio reflected it. For example, in the video for “El Mañana,” Noodle supposedly died at the end of the video (it was later revealed that she had not died, but was instead dragged into hell). After the video landed, Noodle’s room in the virtual world was stripped and began to fall apart every month. As the truth came out that she was actually trapped in hell, the basement of the website’s virtual Kong had a transmission of Noodle in a room, exclaiming that she needed help. Soon after the announcement of “Plastic Beach,” Kong was in ruins, with none of the rooms available. Thus, Plastic Beach was born: the newest interactive online game allows you to tour Plastic Beach, with new rooms opening pretty much every month. If you’re interested, go to the website!
So yes, Gorillaz has great music, but it goes beyond that. I mean think of it this way: 2 guys created a FAKE band with FAKE names and FAKE backgrounds… they used incredible technical equipment to make these FAKE characters REAL, and even set up strange situations for said FAKE characters (as in their Plastic Beach website). Gorillaz is no ordinary band. It is a work of creative genius. And, to quote one of my favorite Gorillaz songs, “Yeah, yeah, yeah I’ll pay/When tomorrow/Tomorrow comes today!”
Pitchfork has released an article announcing that Andrew WK and one of my personal favorite hip-hop groups, People Under the Stairs, have collaborated and created a new variation of Danny Elfman’s Simpson’s theme song. It will air in the end credits on January 16th’s all new episode. Will you check it out? I know I will.
Welcome back avid internet users, to the Trailer Park.
It’s been a while since I posted a new article, in fact, almost two weeks. So to correct the mistake I made of missing a week, I’ve decided that instead of just reviewing 3 trailers, I’m going to review 6. That’s right, 6.
But enough of the small talk, let’s get right to the trailers.
How Trailer Park works is simple, I give the embedded Youtube video of the trailer showcased for you all to watch and then at the bottom of the video, I display my opinion and then give it a rating based on our unique top of the line rating system:
Clean – A rating of Clean means this movie looks like a must see and you should definately give it a watch once it comes to theaters.
Decent – A rating of Decent means this movie looks okay, but it’s still a little sketchy and I recommend you wait for the reviews to come out before you pay for your ticket.
Dirty – A rating of Dirty, much like a trailer park itself means this movie looks absolutely horrid or is not interesting at all and I recommend you stay away from it.
Be warned, this is my opinion and my opinion only, do not criticize me if I bash a movie that you think looks promising.
So buckle up your seatbelts, break out the 6-pack and get yourself settled, your now entering the Trailer Park!:
#1 The Wolfman
Response: I know Halloween is coming up and I could’ve saved this one for the week of Halloween but this was too good of a trailer not to show. I mean, wow. Way to start this article with a vaccine of adrenaline. This is a remake of the classic 1930’s horror classic of the same name from Universal Pictures and quite frankly, this is one of those movies that looks like it will be entirely faithful to the material. However, that’s not the only thing that’s likely to sell this picture, oh no. Universal has gone all the way and included an absolutely amazing cast of actors from Anthony Hopkins & Emily Blunt to Hugo Weaving and Benecio Del Toro as the Wolfman itself. Oh and here’s a little fun fact for you, the voice of the Wolfman’s howl will be none other than Gene Simmons of KISS. If that doesn’t want to make you line up already, then maybe your the one that should be barking at the moon.
RATING: CLEAN
#2 Edge of Darkness
Response: That’s right, Mel Gibson is back, this time as a former detective trying to get revenge on the man who shot his daughter. Despite the cliche plot, this movie looks pretty interesting. I’m not familiar with any of the cast of this movie besides Mr. Gibson, so it’s really hard to give an opinion to this movie, the action looks great and this movie definitely raises a lot of questions about the plot. However, like I said previously, it’s really difficult to give an interpretation or opinion to this, it’s not bad, but it’s not something that captivates me to see it, if you are a fan of Mel Gibson and if you’ve been waiting for his return to the acting roots then I say give it a go, if your not one of those people, then just pass it.
RATING: DECENT
#3 The Spy Next Door
Response:Much like Jackie Chan in this movie, I have to face with my toughest assignment yet, trying to figure out what looks good about this movie. This movie looks absolutely terrible in every sense and meaning of the word, I cannot begin to describe how sorry I feel that Jackie Chan, who is known as one of the greatest martial arts actors of all time is being reduced to having to do movies with George Lopez and Billy Ray Cyrus. However, another thing I like to point out is that this movie is a complete rip off of another movie called “The Pacifier” with Vin Diesel, right down to the “Secret Agent” plotline. I’ve never been really fair to movies directed to kids, but even this movie looks like it will make kids squirm in their seats.
RATING: DIRTY
#4 Dear John
Response: Dear John, please stop acting. Yours truly, Derek Donovan. While that may seem harsh to many of you, I have a reason behind this poorly constructed response. Channing Tatum is not a good actor, never has and never will be. All his characters are nothing more than bland and generic with no substance whatsoever. Mr. Tatum is nothing more than just a cardboard pin-up brought to life to encourage young teen girls to pay $8.50. With that out of the way, I have to say that not only is Mr. Tatum more wooden than a load of firewood, but there is absolutely no chemistry or aura around these two main characters at all. I also hate to see that a talented and gifted actor like Richard Jenkins has to waste his time with this hormonal teenage mess.
Rating: DIRTY
#5 The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Response: To clear my conscious fellow internet readers, I have something to get off my chest. Yes, I’ve read the first Twilight book and no I didn’t like it. It was just about one of the most bland, stupid and utterly boring novels I’ve ever read in my life. No more than just hype over the whole “Vampire” scene. However, because I know some of you have been wanting me to do this review, I will answer the call. To make myself clear once more, I’ve also seen the first movie and I have to say… it wasn’t bad. Not good, but not terrible either, although there were a few book to film translation errors, it was still pretty entertaining. By the looks of this movie, I think you have a better chance of putting a rufee in my drink and banging my head with a hammer just to get me to see this. Edward Cullen is possibly one of the most confused and conflicted characters in all of modern literature. No matter how many times he says “This is the last time you will see me” you know that this character changes his mind about Bella so much that he will probably see her again in the next 5 seconds! Talk about being predictable in every sense of the word. You may have swindled me into seeing the first movie Hollywood, but don’t think that you’ll drag me to see this one because your better off making a remake of Predator… Looks like I spoke too soon.
RATING: DIRTY
#6 Shutter Island
Response: Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Shutter Island. From the looks of this film you may think this is another one of those generic Scorsece/Dicaprio collaborations that are more frequent than Edward Cullen’s indecisiveness (Okay, last time I swear). However, this trailer is absolutely mindblowing. Inspired by a book of the same name, this movie looks to be another masterpiece for Mr. Scorsece, with chills and thrills to make your spine pop right out of your back. I’ll be taking a trip to Shutter Island opening night.
RATING: CLEAN
Due to the amount of trailers I reviewed tonight, I decided there will be no RV to showcase this time around, but Halloween is just around the corner and you know that you’ll just want to take another visit to the Trailer Park… If you dare.
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