New Genious (Brother)

New Genious (Brother)

"In the Sixties, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird, people take Prozac to make it normal."
- Damon Albarn

"New Genious (Brother)" (or "New Genius (Brother)", depending on how much of a stickler you are on proper grammar) is one of the odder tracks on Gorillaz debut record. The song revolves around a drum and vocal sample from a Bo Diddley cover of Odetta's "Hit Or Miss" and a chilling backing vocal provided by Miho Hatori. Jason Cox doubles the rhythmic drum sample with his own drumming providing a complex and swinging combination. Junior Dan is also on this track, adding in smooth dubby bass lines to go on top of the song's percussion heavy trip hop groove. Damon mainly focuses on his vocals here, only occasionally interjecting with a couple of melodica solos and a very convincing "string" synthesizer (could have fooled me, I thought it was a string quartet).

Despite Damon's present force as a vocalist with his wispy falsetto, it is hard to tell what he is actually saying. He talks about living in his own world, people passing right through him and even killing a man ("In a pressure today, I blew a bad man away today. Had a gun, had to be done, blew a man away"). The hook (shown in the title picture) talks about not trusting strangers, so perhaps this song is from the perspective of a psychologically tormented man who realizes his negative affect on society. The song is a haunting track that wouldn't seem out of place on "Mezzanine", Massive Attack's darkest record, so I wouldn't be surprised if the beat Dan The Automator, Kid Koala, Jason Cox and Junior Dan made just gave Damon the idea to write a really dark lyric. The album version of the track fades out while Damon scats over Miho's vocals and the song's looped groove, however the song does have a formal ending. In the Gorillaz mockumentary "Charts Of Darkness", "New Genious" plays over the end credits. This version ends with the all the samples suddenly stopping, leaving Jason Cox to finish the song off while 2D (played by Nelson De Freitas) grunts and moans over it.

"New Genious (Brother)" was the only song from Gorillaz debut record that wasn't played live on the band's first tour. This could be because the song required two drummers and a percussion section to be played live, which would have been hard for live drummer and Gorillaz writer, Cass Browne, to recreate alone (however they could have used the drum sample on stage as they had Darren Galea on turntables touring with them, the true reason why they never played this track remains unfortunately unknown). This song along with many others from Gorillaz early catalog will probably never see the light of day again, as Damon can no longer sing falsetto as well as he could when he was younger. "New Genious" is one of Gorillaz most menacing tracks and one of their more straight forward takes on the trip hop style and should remain a vital and essential part of the Gorillaz catalog, despite it's lack of presence at the band's live shows.

5/4

5/4
5/4 (Gorillaz Live Tour 2001)
5/4 (Demon Detour)
5/4 (Humanz Live, with Jehnny Beth)

"It's not easy for us to talk about girls. We're not very articulate on the subject..."
- Damon Albarn

"5/4" is the sound of pure chaos. The song begins with a guitar playing a repetitive riff (in 5/4 timing, hence the title) in the left channel, then soon after a louder guitar occupies the right channel. Both guitars are playing two completely different riffs with different timing. By all means this should sound off, but yet it works. Soon Damon's vocals enter along with a pounding combination of Jason Cox's extreme drumming and a drum machine programmed by Dan The Automator. The mixture of synthetic and real percussion gives this noisy punk rock tune an industrial edge similar to that of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" (which itself bears a resemblance to Iggy Pop's proto-industrial landscape "Nightclubbing"). In the background of it all, is a quiet bass guitar being fed through a wah pedal (which like the guitars is played by Damon) playing another completely different riff. However as Damon gets louder, so does the bass guitar which becomes distorted and consumes the track making all the other instruments (except for the pounding drums) seemingly disappear. When the chorus kicks in, all the instruments unify only for a moment to drone a chord while Damon goes all out on the synthesizers. The formula then repeats as another verse comes into frame, this time the synthesizers join in as well with yet another different riff to be played on top of the three others. While all this is happening, Miho Hatori provides ear catching backing vocals and Kid Koala scratches up the joint on his turntables.

Damon's lyrics for "5/4" (as well as many of his other lyrics for Gorillaz songs) are hard to decipher. He seems to be talking about some kind of "magic". This "magic" is made for him, it makes him happy but yet it also makes him angry and violent. Damon also says that we spend all our money on this "magic" and then adds in that "people seem to walk through you." The only clear part one can make out is the chorus which begins with Damon saying "she made me kill myself, come on." This statement is then proceeded by Damon and Miho screaming and repeating this one line: "she turned my dad on." Now what is this "magic" that Damon can't seem to get enough of? Do the lyrics even mean anything? When playing the song live Damon Albarn would change the lyrics to instead focus in on the suicidal edge of his writing, which must mean this song is personal for him. "5/4" represents Damon Albarn's darkest feelings at the time. He was not only still going through heroin withdrawal, but his relationship with fellow Britpop star Justine Frischman had just ended in a rather messy way. "5/4" is an angry punk rock song about his recent experiences with love and addiction. The song ends with Damon repeating his past utterances of suicide over a menacing bass and drum groove, building up little by little to the screaming and droning hook. The song leaves us suddenly with a lone cymbal crash, his magic is gone.

This song was supposed to be Gorillaz second single, but was moved to be the third after "Tomorrow Comes Today" was reluctantly moved to be their debut single. Then it was pushed back to be the fourth single and was replaced by the more radio-friendly "19/2000" (a song we will get to later). When it came time for its release, the label again rejected it not only for the song's angry and anti-commercial sound, but for Jamie's proposed video. Jamie Hewlett's video involved the cartoon band playing the song live while a group of sexualized dancers performed with the group. The dancer's moves attracted the cartoon foursome's wild man bass player Murdoc Niccals and gave him the urge to not only take center stage and show off, but to take off all of his clothes thus revealing an uncensored cartoon penis. The song obviously meant a lot to both Damon and Jamie as they kept trying to release it as a standalone release (albiet to no outcome). While it probably wouldn't have done well as a commercial single, the song is a fan favorite and was a staple of the group's first couple of tours. "5/4" made it's live return on the Humanz tour in 2017 with singer of punk band Savages and Gorillaz collaborator, Jehnny Beth, taking the lead vocals. "5/4" is one of Gorillaz first masterpieces and is one that will hopefully be remembered, instead of being unfortunately forgotten like many others from the band's early material.

Re-Hash

Re-Hash
Re-Hash (Gorillaz Live Tour 2001)
Re-Hash (Demon Detour)

"Music is something that should speak for itself..."
- Damon Albarn

After the surprise success of "Clint Eastwood", the mainstream awaited the band's debut record expecting the album to have a similar vibe. What they got was an album which not only experimented in dubby reggae and trip hop, but punk rock, no wave, ska, dance, psychedelica and even Cuban music. An album where almost none of it's 15 tracks sounded the same. While this caused their new found pop audience to leave the album feeling disinterested, there were a lot of people who got the band's intention.

"Re-Hash" is an odd song choice to open the album with. Out of all the tracks on the record, "Re-Hash" has the least correlation to the other moods conveyed throughout the album. However, the song set the stage for what Gorillaz original intentions were. "Re-Hash" is a song that makes fun of the idea of the "album track" has a whole. For most pop artists in the 21st century, the album means nothing and the singles are the key to success. Meaning that the non-single tracks on the album (otherwise known as about 3/4 of the actual record), is nothing more than filler to pan out the album's running time. While "Re-Hash" has a very bright production with Dan The Automator's sound effects of kids cheering, Kid Koala's turntable scratches, and its bouncing bass and drum groove provided by Junior Dan and Jason Cox, it doesn't ever seem to go anywhere. The singers, 2D (Damon Albarn) and Noodle (Miho Hatori), sing the same verse and chorus throughout the song, only taking a break to do the cliche oohs and las most every pop song has. Damon and Miho sound disinterested in their lead vocals, and even the center of the track, Damon's acoustic guitar, sounds rushed and out of tune. Not only is this song parodying the idea of the average pop artist's album only track, but the song is also a satire of the experimental track on every "serious" artist's album with Damon's psychedelic sitar riff and his army of spacey synthesizers.

Live the song took a less ironic route, it was used to pump up the crowd and was often placed right before a single in setlists. The guitars (now being played in tune) along with Damon's "front man" gesturing brought out the idea that the track was a parody of his old band Blur's more cheesy moments in the Britpop spotlight. "Re-Hash" is the track that most fits in with Jamie's original idea, to do "manufactured pop" the right way. While I don't think any Gorillaz fan will say this is their favorite track, it certainly holds a place in our hearts with its catchy melodies and ironically bright groove.

Dracula

Dracula
Dracula (Gorillaz Live Tour 2001)
Dracula (Demon Detour)

"I just slip away and I'm gone"
- Damon Albarn, "Beetlebum"

"Dracula," is a record of Damon Albarn and the Gorillaz crew fully giving into the sound of dubby reggae. Damon Albarn's sly guitar work duets with his melodica and his multiple layers of synthesizers to provide the basis and atmosphere of the song. Junior Dan's all consuming bass riff and Jason Cox's earth shattering drum work are what pace the song and keep its mysterious groove running. However, what seals the deal on this song is the production. Outside producer Curtis Lynch, Jr. goes all out on the dub groove taking instruments in and out of the mix as he pleases, soaking instruments in echo, reverb, phasers and other various processors. He also occasionally drops in samples of "Looney Tunes" villain Count Bloodcount, tying in with the song's vampiric title. (EDIT: another sample that is used is the score from "Get Carter").

Damon's vocals are often followed or proceeded by a section of saxophones played by Mike Smith, Damon Albarn's right hand man and his go to arranger and touring keyboardist. His vocals are minimal, repeating a simple chant: "Percentage of us tow the line, the rest of us is out of reach. Everybody party time. Some of us will never sleep again." It is hard to tell what Damon Albarn is talking about in these lyrics. He could be making fun of "clubbing" culture and comparing it to that of a vampire, or he could be comparing his cravings for heroin to Dracula's lust for blood as he was still going through withdrawal during this period. However the most likely option, is that the lyrics don't have any particular meaning. In dubby reggae, the focus of the song is the instrumental and the mood it brings, any lyrics are often brief and repeated, only there to fill empty space in the song's groove.

When played live the song's groove got even tighter and was often extended to make room for every instrument. The guitars got noisier bringing the song's dub direction into a more gothic and post-punk territory. The song's slight shift gave way for some to recognize another band who was a huge influence on Gorillaz sound and this song in particular, the goth punks Bauhaus (who often explored into dubby territories and wrote the first gothic dub song about a vampire, "Bela Lugosi's Dead.") The song was a constant for the band's first couple tours, and is one of only a few b-sides that have been taken to the stage. Often played near the end of a set, it became a centerpiece of their shows as well as their finest outing in the field of dubby reggae.

Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood (Original Demo)
Clint Eastwood (Full Length Version)
Clint Eastwood (Music Video Version)
Clint Eastwood (Gorillaz Live Tour 2001)
Clint Eastwood (Live with Holograms, 2002)
Clint Eastwood (Demon Detour)
Clint Eastwood (Del The Funky Homosapien live cover, 2006)
Clint Eastwood (Escape To Plastic Beach Tour)
Clint Eastwood (Snoop Dogg live cover with Damon Albarn)
Clint Eastwood (Damon Albarn live with Del The Funky Homosapien, Dan The Automator, Snoop Dogg and backing band The Heavy Seas)
Clint Eastwood (Deltron 3030 live, 2014)
Clint Eastwood (Africa Express live, 2015)
Clint Eastwood (Humanz Live, with Del The Funky Homosapien)

"It's all in your head"
- Del The Funky Homosapien

In 2001, a song that combined dubby reggae with hip hop and old timey western soundtrack music became a hit in America. America has a history for latching on to cowboy influenced songs by odd bands and turning those songs into fluke hits (such is the case with Wall of Voodoo and DEVO.) However, Gorillaz "Clint Eastwood" proved to be a song that shifted the way music was going in not only the underground world but the mainstream world as well.

Child Like In Nature

The original 4 track demo seems rather off when listening to it now. For starters, the chorus we all know and love is not present. Instead in its place we get more of Damon's melodica as well as some synth solos. Another thing that's missing is the famous instrumental. The reggae type chords on Damon's omnichord are there as well as his guitar playing (mixed very low underneath all the synths.) But there is no bass line, and instead of a drum kit we are stuck with a very cheap sounding drum machine. 

Despite all the original demo is lacking, there are many elements which would be retained for the final product. The verses done by Bristol based rap group Phi Life Cypher are based around the concept of the rappers being the spirits possessing the group's drummer Russel Hobbs. Jamie Hewlett's idea of having a rapper be a permanent member of the band is there but it isn't fully developed yet. Phi Life Cypher's raps mainly focus on cartoon puns instead of any sort of connection to the spirits they are supposed to be. Both Dan The Automator and Damon Albarn felt the track was lacking something and started spitballing new ideas.

Finally

"Clint Eastwood" is the song where Gorillaz became a band and not just Damon mucking about in a studio with a group of producers. Cass Browne, drummer of British punk band The Senseless Things and a member of the Gorillaz writing staff, was hired to play drums on the album to fill out any spaces that couldn't be filled by just a drum machine or a sampled drum loop. Another new recruit was bassist Junior Dan. Junior Dan was one of the original Jamaican Studio One musicians who played bass with Bob Marley, Lee Perry, King Tubby and Agustus Pablo. His dubby and heavy bass sounds provided a more authentic reggae element to the tracks which Damon was looking for.

Finally, Dan The Automator suggested that he send some of the tracks over to rapper Del The Funky Homosapien to see what he would do with them. Dan The Automator and Kid Koala were working on an album with Del ("Deltron 3030") and Damon at the same time giving both albums a similar feel and vibe. But thats a story for a later entry, all that was left to do for "Clint Eastwood" was write a hook for the song and then it would be ready to go.

In A Bag

The video begins with just Damon's melodica alone on top of muted background noise. To me this is the songs proper intro as most live versions of the song begin with this intro before going into "the real deal." For most people however, the song begins with the loud and sudden sound of Jason Cox smashing his cymbals (that's one way to start things off with a bang.) Damon's omnichord, guitar and drum machine from the demo mix very well with the smooth dubby bass lines of Junior Dan and the drumming of Jason Cox. During the rap verses, instrumentation flies in and out of the mix, including a "string" synthesizer and a western saloon type piano solo. This mix of dub and trip hop instrumentation sounds very similar to "Blue Lines" era Massive Attack, one of the groups Damon was constantly listening to at the time and a group that casts a big shadow over the sound of the cartoon band's first record. 

Soon enough, Damon starts to sing. Damon's main hook is about a depressed stoner who has his drugs or "sunshine" in a bag. Right now Damon (or 2D) feels useless, but soon enough in the near "future,"  the drugs he has taken will go into effect or "come on" and he will feel better. As Damon croons the chorus, Del groans and moans until Cass smashes his cymbals again cueing Del to come in with his verse. Del's flow is perfect and his rhymes fit in perfectly with Jamie's storyline. Del talks about how he is Russel's spiritual guide and makes puns about not only the characters, but Clint Eastwood himself name checking his TV show "Gunsmoke." In the end, Del's verses and Damon's hooks are connected because they both describe what controls and motivates their respective characters. Del The Ghost Rapper provides inspiration and "rhythm" to drummer Russel and Damon talks about drugs which is what not only keeps 2D from being depressed and suicidal, but is what motivates 2D to keep writing and playing instead of just giving up.

Now this trip inside two of the character's minds is all well and good, but why is it called "Clint Eastwood?" Is it because Del name checks his TV show one time and they added the title in later? The title comes from Jamie Hewlett who thought that Damon Albarn's melodica playing sounded a lot like Ennio Morricone's work for the film "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," a film which Clint Eastwood starred in. The song ends with the band jamming on the riff while co-producer Kid Koala scratches on top of the beat with his turntable, in addition to all of this is Damon delivering his best melodica solo. The song ends with Damon going back to the melodica's main riff a couple times, once with the whole band and once more with just the drum machine from the original demo. For whatever reason, the album version fades out before the ending happens leaving us alone with the tight band jamming on the riff and slowly disappearing from our ears. Thus the song ends, Del goes back into Russel's head and daylight returns to the graveyard Gorillaz played the track in.

The Future

While this song became a hit in America by it's own right in Gorillaz home country, the UK, the song leads a double life. In England, the song was accompanied by a dated dance remix by pop DJ Ed Case and dancehall singer Sweetie Irie. This version became a hit in the clubs, and was shortly forgotten (at least internationally) once the year had past. Gorillaz have played this song on every tour and have done it with almost every rapper the group has ever toured with (I have not linked all of these performances because then half of this entry would be filled with links.) Live the song takes on a more "rock" atmosphere with the guitars placed up front, making it sound more like The Clash than Massive Attack (fittingly, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash toured with the band on the Escape To Plastic Beach Tour.) The whole band gets a chance to improvise and show off their skills on this track, whether it be the string section or Cass Browne who unleashes a monstorous drum outro at the end. It is usually either a set closer or encore piece.

The track has become not only a signature song for the group, but it has become a canvas for rappers and rockers alike to paint their own colors on (and sometimes Damon would even invite fans on to the stage to rap verses on the band's signature jam). Artists like Snoop Dogg and Deltron 3030 cover it, Damon tries to sneak it in almost every group he plays with and rappers like Drake sample the beat to make their own song out of it and bands like Twenty One Pilots take inspiration (or steal, depending on who you ask) from it's seamless rap rock fusion to make hit singles. "Clint Eastwood" is one of Gorillaz many masterpieces and deserves a place in music history.

12D3

12D3

"The palace we built has become a prison"
- 2D

The "Tomorrow Comes Today" EP, which was released about a year before their debut album, had 4 songs on it. The single itself, two tracks which made it on to the album (and will be covered later), and "12D3." The song name checks and is about the lead singer of the fictional group, Stuart "2D" Pot (the tall one with blue hair in the above picture.) 2D is often potrayed as a dim witted and cowardly character whose only talent is playing keyboards and writing lyrics. However 2D is far more than that. 2D is the character that is closest to the man behind the music, Damon Albarn. Both are sentimentalists raised on artsy post-punk and new wave music who have suffered heart breaks and have long standing addictions to drugs (for 2D it is pain killers, for Damon it is marijuana and for a while heroin.) The song can be seen as a test run for Damon to get into the character of 2D on the Gorillaz albums. When recording with Gorillaz, Damon Albarn often manipulates his voice to sound like it is coming out of 2D (whether through effects or through his own talent.)

It begins with the skips and pops of a record being put on the turntable and a simple acoustic guitar part that sounds like a combination of a Rolling Stones riff and Beck's "Loser." Both of these artists use acoustic guitar riffs that take inspiration from old blues musicians like Lightinin´ Hopkins and Son House, keeping in with the old school vibe Damon brings on this song. Soon quiet ambient synthesizers and a minimal percussion part enters, giving the song a subtle and depressing atmosphere. Damon's vocals are simple and repeated: "I'm 2D. Won't you buy me? Piano chord. Dictionary." Soon a simple electric guitar part enters along with a synthesizer that harmonizes with the main riff of the song. Then comes a jaunty piano riff which is similar to the piano parts played by Nicky Hopkin on The Rolling Stones' softer pieces. The song is similar to it's A-side "Tomorrow Comes Today" in that both are quiet and subtle pieces. However "Tomorrow" achieves this atmosphere through high tech equipment and samples, "12D3" achieves it by using acoustic instruments and lo fi production. "12D3" is also similar to "Tomorrow" in that both end with multiple layers of Damon's voices singing on top of one another. As the song´s brief finale the instrumentation suddenly stops, leaving us alone with Damon's vocals for only a brief second. A subtle ending for a subtle song.

"12D3" was never played live, however it's catchy melody must have been in Damon's head as he later reused the song's chord progression in a very different way on "Put It Back Together," his guest spot on Fatboy Slim's album "Palookaville." The song was later used in the Gorillaz documentary "Bananaz" where it was accompanied by still images of Jamie´s characters, leading one to wonder whether Damon considered playing the track live and if this would have been the visual that accompanied it. A fan favorite and forgotten gem, "12D3" is an important step in the Gorillaz journey. Now all they needed was a big hit...

Tomorrow Comes Today

I Got Law (Original Demo by Blur)
Tomorrow Comes Today
Tomorrow Comes Today (Gorillaz Live 2001 Tour)
Tomorrow Comes Today (Demon Detour)
Tomorrow Comes Today (Escape To Plastic Beach Tour)
Tomorrow Comes Today (Damon Albarn live with backing band The Heavy Seas)
Tomorrow Comes Today (Humanz Live)


"Britpop taught me how difficult it is to be experimental in this country."
- Damon Albarn

In 1993, Damon Albarn took his band Blur from being one hit wonders to a band that single handedly started a new musical movement. Britpop was a movement that took bits and pieces from Britain's most essential groups like The Kinks and The Jam and combined them all into one neatly and tightly produced package. At the front of this movement was Blur with their trilogy of albums "Modern Life Is Rubbish", "Parklife" and "The Great Escape." However the life of a pop star was uncomfortable for the group, causing them to feel creatively drained. So in 1996, guitarist Graham Coxon came back from America fascinated with the indie rock scenes there of lo fi, noise rock and grunge and declared that he wanted to make music that "scared people again." From that message of distress to his fellow band mates came the self titled album "Blur" which spawned some of their biggest hits "Beetlebum" and "Song 2" (the latter better known as the woo hoo song.) The album was the most underground and punk rock thing Blur ever did and yet it became one of their best-selling albums. Three years later Blur bested themselves again with their masterpiece "13", it's best songs combined Damon's cries of pain and anguish with no wave keyboards and Graham's noisy guitar work. It is one of the most brilliant and personal things Damon Albarn has ever done.

I Got Law

While making "13", Damon Albarn was becoming not only disillusioned with the band Blur but rock music in general. He found himself listening to trip hop, dubby reggae and hip hop more than

rock, and the rock he was listening was the more experimental or punk stuff like Public Image Ltd., The Swell Maps, Magazine, The Human League, Pixies, Suicide and The Clash to name a few. During the album's recording, he wrote a song called "I Got Law" which he wanted to do with the group. It was a very hyper song reliant on synthesizers and drum machines. The rest of the group didn't like it, so Damon tucked it away for later usage. Less than two years later, the song would evolve into the something completely different.

Today

In 1998, Damon and Jamie hatched the idea for Gorillaz. The idea was still very rough around the edges, the band´s working tite was Gorilla. Jamie originally had a different guitarist character named Paula Cracker and a "gorilla in the band who plays bongos." The characters became what they are now when Damon said that Jamie was always drawing 17 year old girls as his characters, so Jamie instead made the guitarist a ten year old Japanese girl named Noodle. The "z" at the end of Gorillaz was added because it was "more hip hop." 

Damon Albarn in his trademark 13 Studios along with his crew of engineers and programmers Jason Cox and Tom Girling started coming up with a couple songs for the group. These songs were the b side "Ghost Train" and album track "Punk" (we will get to those two songs in a later entry.) While these songs were a step in the right direction, Damon Albarn wanted a less guitar heavy rock sound for the album. So he enlisted a team of Los Angeles DJs whom he admired to help him and his crew produce the record. The producers were Dan The Automator and Kid Koala who helped create what became the sound of the first Gorillaz album.

Along with recording in Damon´s 13 Studios, they also recorded in Geejam Studios in Jamaica. There they soaked up a more dubby reggae sound which became an important factor in the first record as well as this song in question. Dan The Automator took Damon´s rejected Blur demo "I Got Law" and based the song around a well used drum sample of Allen Tousiant´s "Get Out of My Life, Woman." This slowed the song down and made it less hyper, a perfect groove for a dub influenced trip hop song.

The first thing that´s noticeable about this song if you are a fan of Damon Albarn's previous music, is the lack of a six string electric guitar, a prominent force in all of his songs up to this moment. Instead the song is based around a distorted bass guitar hook and a few minimal interjections from a piano and synthesizer which sounds like a string quartet, all of which are played by Damon. However the main focus of this song is Damon´s vocals and Agustus Pablo influenced melodica solos. The song is about a person who is hooked on technology a common theme in Damon's music, ("the camera won´t let me go...stereo I want it on" in 2001 this was all we had for the most part technologically, now we have way more things to be addicted to.) The song addresses isolation from the world, whether its someone in denial ("don´t think I´m not all in this world") or someone who isolates themselves by choice ("don´t think I´ll be here too long"), but in fact these people are one and the same. This is what technology does to us, why stay outside when you can have fun inside with all of your stuff? But yet this is a normal thing to do so it doesn't make the person an anti-social, or does it.

This doesn´t matter though, because he will pay when tomorrow comes today, however tomorrow is today, the future is now and it will also be the past in due time. After laying down the song´s hook the second time. A layer of Damon Albarn voices scat and sing over a chilled out melodica solo on top of an even more mellow groove. Eventually the song quiets down, the drum sample is processed to sound muffled, Damon´s melodica plays it´s last couple of notes, and Damon´s army of vocals is stripped down to just one falsetto sung hook which eventually becomes muffled by Dan The Automator's production. The song ends smoothly and all that is left in the last few seconds, is Damon unplugging his loud distorted bass guitar from the amplifier.

Tomorrow

In 2000, Damon Albarn had finished recording the album and plans for its release were made for March 26, 2001. Damon and Jamie originally wanted "Clint Eastwood" to be the first single as it was the most commercial song on the album. However the label wanted a single within two weeks of the album being finished, which wasn´t enough time to animate a full length video. So instead they released an EP of "Tomorrow Comes Today", their proposed third single, and released an accompanying low budget video to go along with it. Since they didn´t have enough time to animate a big video, the video consists mainly of still images of English cities with drawings of the characters inside of them. The only true animation in the video is 2D´s mouth moving in sync with the song. While not the debut they wanted for the project, the mellow video fits with the song´s aesthetic and atmosphere.

They later re-released it as their third single like they originally planned and the song became a live staple for the band. Gorillaz have played this song at a majority of their concerts and it has become a staple for every one of their tours. Live the song takes a louder dynamic with the drums being played by the drummer instead of being sampled like on the original. This gives the guitarists, on their respective outings, the ability to go all out with sonic and spacey textures over the song´s very minimal and bass heavy groove. Damon often improvises more on his melodica solos during it sometimes extending the song by about a minute so the groove can be heard in its full glory. He even  brought the song on to his solo tour in 2014, showing how well it is looked upon by the Gorillaz fanbase.

Introduction

You are now entering the harmonic realm

In 1990, shy guitarist and noise enthusiast Graham Coxon asked comic book artist Jamie Hewlett of "Tank Girl" fame to interview his latest band Blur. It was during that interview that Jamie Hewlett met the band's lead singer and keyboardist Damon Albarn, whom being his usual arrogant self during interviews, left a bad impression on the cartoonist. It was unlikely that the two thought that eight years later they would be sharing a flat together, yet alone starting a musical project. But after a night of watching horrible MTV programming, the two decided to form a cartoon band as a satire of the manufactured pop that haunted the pop charts and still lurks over mainstream culture today.

Gorillaz however are not just a side project of an indie rocker and a cartoonist. Gorillaz are the brain child of two underrated artists from separate fields combining their talents together to make a group that both deconstructs genre and plays with the idea of the pop star image. The characters (singer/keyboardist 2D, bassist Murdoc Niccals, drummer Russel Hobbs and guitarist Noodle) are more recognizable than the people who created it. Through Jamie's brilliant visual imagery and Damon's use of both catchy and avant-garde melodies, it not only broke America (something neither of them managed to do on their own) but also got young kids into music not normally showcased on pop radio like dubby reggae, punk rock, trip hop and even chinese opera. However because of Gorillaz mainstream success and the fact that its a band of cartoons, many people have been led to write it off as nothing more than a joke or a kids band (even Damon Albarn's bandmate Alex James, bassist of Blur, took a swipe at the group.) The goal of this blog is to showcase Gorillaz as an important band in the history of music, one whose ability to combine genres and make them their own is on par with the likes of David Bowie, Prince and Beck, as well as look into songs in the Gorillaz canon that are often overlooked in favor of their singles.