Gorillaz Plastic Beach mix

This mix is making me have the patience of a five year old. It all sounds so pretty, and very Damon. Think slightly sinister orchestration, beautiful vocal melodies, oh and brilliance.

Not long now...
My God, is Coachella going to be epic or what?

Gorillaz Plastic Beach Mix.

Gorillaz- Superfast Jellyfish

Listen to another track from Plastic Beach (Out March 8/9th). Super Fast Jellyfish features Gruff Rhys and De La Soul. It premiered today on Radio One, and the last minute is what makes it special. what do we think?

Listen to Superfast Jellyfish

Damon Albarn's NME Awards backstage interview

No laurel resting for Mr. Albarn. He talks UK Gorillaz shows, and why they won't be at Glasto this year.


LINK

Blur win "best live event" at NME Shockwaves awards

Damon picked up Blur's award at this year's installment of the oldest recorded awards show in history; the NME Awards. It's a show that dates back to the Jacobean era. King James I presided over the initial ceremony, picking such venerable winners as Ben Jonson for best DVD (for Volpone), and Guy Fawkes for Villain Of The Year. Guy Fawkes also won Best Blog, and Best Live Event for his emotionally charged visit to the gallows.

What other awards show could boast such a lineage? Such a sense of importance, steeped in deep historical tradition? Not the Oscars, and certainly not the BRIT's. Only this show, with such a pedigree, could present the award for best and worst dressed to Lady Gaga. Not to mention the Hottest Woman trophy, presented to Miss Karen of O. In the first Shockwaves NME awards, the same prize went to Frances, Countess of Somerset.

Well done noble winners of 2010. Take pride in your majestic statues, digitus impudicus rendered from a drawing done by James himself circa 1586 on the wall of an outhouse.

"Murdoc's" Plastic Beach track-by-track commentary: 2-D breaks the cardinal rule of music snobbery, and Damon slips up.

Murdoc gave the NME the skinny on Plastic Beach in a track-by-track recap. In it we find out that 2-D has questionable TV viewing habits:

"Empire Ants' (feat. Little Dragon)
A moment’s peace amongst the rush. I sampled a lot of this from the theme music to Tomorrow’s World, and the vocalist is Yukimi Nagano from Little Dragon, an electronic band from Sweden.
It was actually 2D who got me into Little Dragon. He played me this lovely song of theirs called 'Twice', which he first heard on the TV show Grey's Anatomy."

Ugh. The first rule of music snobbery is that when you discover a cool band via a very uncool means (Grey's Anatomy, a Volkswagen commercial, Gossip Girl) you NEVER disclose the source! Just say you've "been into them for a while", or "they just popped up on my radar". Goddamn 2-D.
Tomorrow's World, however, is the shit. A perfectly acceptable, nay awesome, sample.


In the description for the track Plastic Beach Damon slips up, revealing either:
A) Damon is Murdoc
B) Murdoc is Damon
C) Damon's not that great at keeping up the Gorillaz facade.

Murdoc apparently masterminded The Good The Bad And The Queen. Oh did you Murdoc? DID YOU?

"`Plastic Beach' (featuring Mick Jones and Paul Simonon)
It’s a special moment for fans of Gorillaz and the Clash. How did this come about? Well, I had commandeered Paul Simonon from the Good, The Bad And The Queen. And it made sense."

Alright, so I'm being pedantic. Honestly the description of these tracks is making me excited beyond belief for the album's release.

For a more impartial track-by-track description read Drowned In Sounds brilliantly in-depth recap.

EDIT: I read this line: "I had commandeered Paul Simonon from the Good, The Bad And The Queen. And it made sense" as "I had commandeered Paul Simonon FOR the Good, The Bad And The Queen. And it made sense"

I take it back, illusion intact. Sorry Damon (although this is obviously you writing these comments). I thought Murdoc was saying he got Paul for The Good The Bad And The Queen, but he got him FROM them. Oops
Whatevs, Grey's Anatomy still sucks, you can't get out of that one.

Wild Beasts at Schubas, 2/18/10

Amazing.
What voices...What elan! What zeal!
They've got gusto, and harmonies, and mint cakes! (Maybe).
Really, what a great show. Here's my video of All The Kings Men.

Love. Them.

Wild Beasts- We Still Got The Taste Dancin' On Our Tongues

Look at that. My immersion in Wild Beasts mania is at fever pitch and it's coinciding with them playing at Schubas tonight... Timing win.

Their new single, We Still Got The Taste Dancin' On Our Tongues, from Two Dancers is out in March. I know I've made this comparison before, but I really think if Lord Byron made a pop album it would be this.

Mos Def, MF Doom, Congress Theater, 2/13/10

So, not the greatest night. Actually quite a huge disappointment. Got there at 8 (show started at 7), will call line was four blocks long. Almost two hours later we finally get inside (it was 18º outside mind you). Then, we have to listen to Mike Relm remix "Charlie Bit Me" for what seemed like a lifetime.
People are getting antsy. Are Mos and DOOM even showing up? It's midnight...we're tired, things have been thrown, boos have been, well booed, one guy had an anger ridden episode and found himself wrestled by security.
Finally at 12:15 Mos comes out in a DOOM mask and pretends for a wee bit to be the DOOMster himself, then off comes the mask...relief, it's Mos.
It's quite obvious Mos doesn't want to be there, while doing his best to look and sound "into it" it just isn't enough to make up for the 5 hour wait. Mos does his thing though, and God bless him, he showed up...for 45 minutes.
Then out comes "DOOM" (the quotation marks are appropriate, you'll see). So yeah, "DOOM" pops out, and within about five minutes it becomes apparent to almost everyone that there's a very good chance this isn't MF DOOM. It's been done before, and will be done again, but yes, in all likelihood DOOM sent out an impostor.
We were duped by DOOM.
Now I can't be 100% positive it wasn't him, you know the mask and all. Maybe I was projecting my tiredness and irritation to come to the worst possible conclusion. But these are the facts: First of all, he sounded very quiet. Much quieter than his hype man, secondly the volume of his voice was eerily uniform. Now, if it really was DOOM listlessly wandering around the stage moving his arms out of time, then I am just going to pretend it was an impostor anyway. Because, really, that was weak.
I don't want to say it was a waste of money because I love Mos Def and MF DOOM, but you know what? It was definitely a waste of time.

A tiny clip of the the new Gorillaz video for Stylo

Saturday Come Slow, Feb. 11th 2010

[thanks to alistairburns for the video]

Dan Black and Kid Cudi: Symphonies

A pretty video! Dan's a year late on his whole "being someone you've heard of" thing. Last year at this time the Guardian had him as a rising star, and I was blogging about his wonderful silliness. Better late than never...
The bit when Dan and Cudi get all harmonic is pure magic, but I still preferred this as HYPNTZ. When life gives you lemons...you make Lemonade, and when Biggie's estate won't let you use his lyrics, you get Kid Cudi and make a new song.

Official Plastic Beach Orchestral Trailer: How much is it to buy a condo? Is it a timeshare?

There are many reasons to love Gorillaz, one of the main ones (in my opinion) is that they're absolutely bonkers. Check out the orchestral trailer for Plastic Beach. Yeah, what?

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach Orchestral Trailer

Gorillaz | MySpace Music Videos