Spitting Out The Demons

Spitting Out The Demons
Spitting Out The Demons (Damon Albarn live with backing band The Heavy Seas, 2014)

"Sex and drugs rust myself, it feels holy, it feels holy."
- Damon Albarn, "O Green World"

"Spitting Out The Demons", one of three b-sides to Gorillaz smash single, "Feel Good Inc.", is a brilliant tune which fits right in with the themes explored on the "Demon Days" album. It starts with a piano, dutifully played, leading us on, building to something, and it certainly does. The bass and drums enter laying down a smooth and funky groove with traces of laid-back ska that a band like the Red Hot Chili Peppers exemplify. You can hear echoes of the piano that once was in the background, but the forefront of this song is the groove played by Jason Cox's distorted bass guitar and James Dring's smooth drumming. The song's loose feel gives me the feeling that the song was improvised live in the studio with Damon joining them on a guitar (played upstroke of course) and then adding synthesizers and echoes later on in production. The instrumental lead-in takes up almost half of the song, but soon enough an army of Damon vocals kick in.

The way Damon delivers his chant makes it seem as if it was improvised on the spot as well, due to it's repetitive nature and the free flowing mumble and random ad libs found all around this track. However, I think the lyrics were written beforehand as the chant in question relates to the storyline used on "Demon Days". The words Damon says are, "spitting out the demons, popping out of holes. spitting out the demons, popping into good times. spitting out the demons, falling out of airplanes. spitting out the demons, the devil he won't help me." I think Damon as 2D seems to be trying to become "good" again. Throughout the record, 2D tries to talk to god in the dark times the world was in. He wanted answers, but he also wanted to change who he was. He wanted to change his "sex and drugs and rock n roll" lifestyle and become someone who was "pure" and "holy" in god's eyes. He was "spitting out" his "demons", relinquishing the things that once controlled him in the sinful life he lead. He repeats the one line, "the devil he won't help me" at the end as if he's telling himself that all the things he once loved like drugs and sex, were products of the devil and not worth doing anymore. In other words, this track is 2D's late and informal baptism. However, as we all know, this change of heart for 2D didn't last long.

This song probably didn't make the final cut due to it's long intro, Damon's vocals don't come in until about three minutes into the five minute cut, and then his lyrics aren't anything more then a simple chant said over and over again. This song is unique however in that it is not only one of a few b-sides to ever be played live, but it was played live for the first time by Damon Albarn during his 2014 "Everyday Robots Tour" and not by the Gorillaz themselves. Damon Albarn's band for the tour, The Heavy Seas, make the groove tighter, speeding up the instrumental so that Damon's vocal line comes in faster and making the bass and drum beat even more prominent and boisterous then it was before. Damon's vocals are chanted along with them by he choir of backing vocalists, giving the idea that the choir is egging on 2D's rebirth as a good Christian in classic gospel fashion. This song kicks ass live and was apparently sound checked on the band's long marathon of shows known as the "Humanz Tour", but as of now has yet to be played (I'm sure the band will play it soon enough though). "Spitting Out The Demons" expands upon the themes of religion played throughout the "Demon Days" album and is a great addition to the Gorillaz canon which we all rock out to for years to come.