Gorillaz

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Gorillaz
Logo of the Gorillaz
Logo of the Gorillaz
General information
Genre (s) Alternative hip-hop , crossover , indie rock , dub
founding 1998
Website www.gorillaz.com
Current occupation
Stuart "2D" pot
Noodle
Murdoc Niccals (1998 to June 29, 2018, September 2018 to date)
Russel Hobbs
former members
Ace (June 29, 2018 to September 2018)
Logo variant from the album Gorillaz

Gorillaz is a virtual British band made up of the four cartoon characters 2D ( lead vocals and keyboard ), Murdoc Niccals ( electric bass ), Noodle ( lead guitar and backing vocals ) and Russel Hobbs ( drums and percussion ). It was in 1998 by Damon Albarn , the lead singer of the British group Blur , and Jamie Hewlett , the artist and co-author of the comic Tank Girl , created.

The band is not represented by a circle of real people, but rather Albarn and Hewlett work with a changing group of musicians and producers , so that there is no real alter ego for the individual band members . The comic characters are provided with character traits and detailed biographies, even though, in contrast to many other " fictional " music groups (such as Alvin and the Chipmunks or The Archies ), they were not originally the subject of a comic, a TV cartoon series or the like.

The debut album Gorillaz , released in spring 2001, sold over seven million copies and brought the band an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the “most successful virtual band”. With the second album, Demon Days , released in mid-2005 , the Gorillaz reached the top position in the British charts , second in Germany and sixth in the USA. It sold more than six million copies worldwide by 2006 and won a Grammy Award . In spring 2010 the band presented their third studio album, Plastic Beach . At the end of 2010 the fourth studio album followed with The Fall . After a five-year career break, the fifth album Humanz was released in April 2017 and the sixth album The Now Now in June 2018 .

history

Emergence

Damon Albarn , 2007

Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett came up with the idea of ​​creating a virtual pop band while watching music TV in their London shared apartment in 1998 . They were both annoyed that the artists on MTV had become interchangeable. Hewlett later described the point in time in an interview:

“… If you watch MTV for too long, it's a bit like hell - there's nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a cartoon band, something that would be a comment on that. "

“... if you watch MTV for too long, it's a little like hell - there is nothing substantial there. So we got this idea with the cartoon band, which would be a commentary on it. "

- Jamie Hewlett

The group was supposed to use all the clichés that were common at the time. They put it together from four stereotypes that Hewlett put on paper as cartoon characters: a punk as band leader (2D), an old rocker on bass (Murdoc), a funky Asian girl on guitar (Noodle) and a good-natured giant on drums (Russel) . Albarn and Hewlett recognize additional potential in the spun band: They can change genre at will and work with a wide variety of guest musicians. Detailed biographies were worked out for the band members (see line- up and fictional band history ) and presented on the band's website before the first music was released.

The first song the Gorillaz recorded was Ghost Train . It was later released as the b-side of the single Rock the House and on the compilation G-Sides . The first musicians behind the Gorillaz were Albarn, Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Dan the Automator ; the three had previously worked together for Deltron 3030 on the song Time Keeps on Slipping .

Phase one: Celebrity takedown

The Gorillaz's first release was the 2000 EP Tomorrow Comes Today . The first single , Clint Eastwood , hit stores on March 5, 2001. The first album that bears the band's name followed that same month . In addition to Clint Eastwood , which was used in the Opel Zafira commercial in the same year , the singles 19-2000 , Tomorrow Comes Today and Rock the House were extracted from this. The debut album features Miho Hatori , Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Tina Weymouth and Ibrahim Ferrer . It quickly brought commercial success to the Gorillaz. In the USA it achieved platinum status with more than one million records sold, and over seven million copies were sold worldwide. The Gorillaz were then entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the “most successful virtual band”. At the end of 2001 the song 911 was released , a collaboration with the rap formation D12 (without Eminem ) and the singer Terry Hall about the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 . The B-side sampler G-Sides was released on December 12, 2001, initially in Japan and in early 2002 internationally.

On February 20, 2002, the Gorillaz performed at the BRIT Awards ceremony . They were shown as three-dimensional animations on four large screens and accompanied on stage by the rapper Phi Life Cypher . The band was nominated for six of the awards, including Best British Group , Best British Album, and Best British Newcomer , but left the event empty-handed.

In June 2002 the remix album Laika Come Home was released with reworking of the Gorillaz works by the Spacemonkeyz . The subsequent single Lil 'Dub Chefin' contained a Spacemonkeyz track entitled Spacemonkeyz Theme . In November of that year the DVD Phase One: Celebrity Take Down came on the market, a compilation of materials in connection with the first album, for example the storyboards and animatics for the music videos of the five previous singles.

Phase two: Slowboat to Hades

De La Soul performed Feel Good Inc. with the Gorillaz at a concert in Manchester in November 2005.

At the end of 2004 the Gorillaz announced a new album on their website and showed the video for the song Rock It online in advance . A talent competition called Search for a Star promised the winner a collaboration with the Gorillaz. Under the name Reject False Icons one was viral marketing project launched which criticized the iconisation in pop culture. Feel Good Inc. was released as the first single from the new album , in Japan as an EP and as a single CD in Europe, America and Australia. In Britain, the homeland of Gorillaz, the single peaked at # 2 on the singles chart, in Germany it reached number 8, 14 in the United States Square was for the Grammy Award in three categories, including 2,006 single of the year , nominated and won the award in the category Best Collaboration with Singing - Pop .

The album Demon Days , produced by DJ Danger Mouse , was released in May 2005. Musical support comes from De La Soul , Neneh Cherry , Martina Topley-Bird , Roots Manuva , MF DOOM , Ike Turner , Bootie Brown from The Pharcyde , Shaun Ryder and Dennis Hopper as well as the London Community Gospel Choir and the Children's Choir of San Fernandez . In Great Britain the album was the best-selling album in the first week after its release, in Germany it climbed to number 2 and in the USA to number 8. By 2006 it had sold more than six million copies worldwide. Other singles were Dare , Dirty Harry and Kids with Guns / El Mañana , all of which reached chart positions in Germany and Great Britain.

On November 3, 2005, the Gorillaz performed live at the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards . Using the Musion Eyeliner System , three-dimensional computer-generated holograms of the band members were projected onto the stage. It was the first time ever that holograms appeared on stage. The Gorillaz also opened the show for the presentation of the Grammy Awards 2006 on February 8, 2006 as holograms . Together with De La Soul and Madonna they played a medley from Feel Good Inc. and Madonna's hit Hung up . The holograms and the flesh and blood artists stood together on one stage. A hologram live tour of the Gorillaz was planned for 2007 to 2008. However, the project was abandoned due to technical difficulties and high costs.

In October 2006 the DVD Phase Two: Slowboat to Hades and shortly thereafter the official biography Rise of the Ogre were released. Slowboat to Hades , following the example of the previous DVD Celebrity Takedown , compiles materials for the Demon Days album and the singles taken from it, but also contains recordings of performances at the MTV Europe Music Awards and the Grammys. Rise of the Ogre presents the résumés of the four band members 2D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russell on around 300 richly illustrated book pages. In February 2008 the documentary film Bananaz was shown for the first time at the Berlinale . It illuminates both the fictional characters and the real people behind them.

Phase three: Escape to Plastic Beach

Gorillaz 2010 stage show

For a long time, Damon and Hewlett worked on a new Gorillaz project under the working title Carousel , without defining what shape it should take. Narrative film and stage forms were envisaged, which ultimately resulted in Plastic Beach , the third studio album by the Gorillaz. It was released in March 2010, just under five years after Demon Days ; the single Stylo was released in January 2010 . With Snoop Dogg , Lou Reed , De La Soul , Bobby Womack , Mark E. Smith from The Fall , Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals and Mick Jones and Paul Simonon from The Clash , a number of well-known artists are represented on the album . Plastic Beach reached number 2 in the British and US and number 3 in the German album charts (as of April 2010). On October 5th, 2010 the band premiered their latest song Doncamatic online , which was released on November 22nd in the UK and shortly afterwards in Germany.

The fourth album, The Fall , was recorded over a period of 32 days during the 2010 Gorillaz North American Tour and was released on December 25, 2010. The Fall titles are dedicated to the cities on the tour in which they were recorded. The recordings are not live recordings, but rather titles that (as the picture on the cover shows) were mostly recorded in hotel rooms. At first it was available to members of the official Sub Division fan club as a free download; others could listen to it online, also without payment. On April 15, 2011 it was released as the band's regular album in stores. For the first time, a Gorillaz album failed to make it into the top 10 of the British charts, which, according to Damon Albarn, is no wonder, since The Fall was offered as a free download for four months. According to Albarn, the idea was completely different. In the summer of 2011, for example, an iPad app - based on the KORG iElectribe - will be launched with loops and samples from the fourth album, so that every user can create their own version of the songs. According to Albarn, the project is under the direction of Gorillaz sound engineer Stephen Sedgwick and the Korg company.

Lineup and fictional band history

The following is mainly taken from the biography Rise of the Ogre and contains only fictional information:

  • Murdoc Faust Niccals (born June 6, 1966 in Stoke-on-Trent ) is the bass player and founder of the band. Early in his childhood he was fascinated by Satanism and its representatives Aleister Crowley and Anton LaVey . His greatest musical influences were Black Sabbath and The Clash . After several unsuccessful attempts to form a band, one day he drove 2D into a robbery on the organ shop where he worked, putting him in a catatonic state. Sentenced to care for the dependent 2D, Murdoc caused another car accident a short time later that brought 2D's consciousness back. With the confidence to start a successful band, Murdoc acquired a lossy with a gruesome past, building on a hilltop in over the Internet Essex , in which he Kong Studios instituted, Gorillaz 'recording studio.
  • Stuart "2D" Pot (born May 23, 1978 in Crawley ) is the singer of the band. He's a big fan of zombie films like Zombie and counts The Jam , The Clash, Wire and the Buzzcocks among his greatest musical influences. Since a head injury in his childhood, only blue hair has grown on his head. In both of Murdoc's car accidents, one eye was turned inward, making them appear black. For this Murdoc gave him the nickname "2D", which stands for two dents (Eng. "Two dents").
  • Russel Hobbs (born June 3, 1975 in Brooklyn , New York ) is the drummer of the band. During a drive-by shoot , Russel absorbed the souls of all of his shot friends, which made his eyes completely white. After four years in a coma, his parents sent him to London for his protection , where he began to work in a record shop. One day Russell, who was known for his extensive musical knowledge, was ambushed by Murdoc and kidnapped into Kong Studios. Since Russell liked the music, he stayed there. The ghost of his best friend Del drifts out of Russell's body every now and then and provided rap for Clint Eastwood and Rock the House , among others .
  • Noodle (born October 31, 1990 in Osaka , Japan ) is the guitarist of the band. It appeared one day in a FedEx box outside the gates of Kong Studios and was named after the first word she said when she left the box. She replaced Paula Cracker, 2D's girlfriend at the time, who was supposed to be the guitarist and who was thrown out of the band after an affair with Murdoc. As Noodle later found out on a trip to Osaka, she originally came from a children's military program. After it was banned, her memory was erased and she was sent to England.

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placementsTemplate: chart table / maintenance / without sources
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
2001 Gorillaz DE3
gold
gold

(27 weeks)DE 		AT3
gold
gold

(36 weeks)AT 		CH6th
platinum
platinum

(38 weeks)CH 		UK3
Triple platinum
× 3
Triple platinum

(82 weeks)UK 		US14th
platinum
platinum

(43 weeks)US
First published: March 26, 2001
Sales: + 3,240,000
2005 Demon Days DE2
platinum
platinum

(45 weeks)DE 		AT3
platinum
platinum

(43 weeks)AT 		CH1
gold
gold

(34 weeks)CH 		UK1
Six-fold platinum
× 6
Six-fold platinum

(78 weeks)UK 		US6th
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(72 weeks)US
First published: May 11, 2005
Sales: + 4,895,000
2010 Plastic Beach DE3 (12 weeks)
DE 		AT1 (15 weeks)
AT 		CH2 (22 weeks)
CH 		UK2
platinum
platinum

(31 weeks)UK 		US2 (33 weeks)
US
First published: March 3rd, 2010
Sales: + 300,000
The Fall DE43 (1 week)
DE 		AT33 (2 weeks)
AT 		CH13 (7 weeks)
CH 		UK12 (3 weeks)
UK 		US24 (3 weeks)
US
First published: December 25, 2010
2017 Humility DE3 (8 weeks)
DE 		AT1 (6 weeks)
AT 		CH1 (10 weeks)
CH 		UK2
gold
gold

(11 weeks)UK 		US2 (13 weeks)
US
First published: April 28, 2017
Sales: + 100,000
2018 The Now Now DE10 (5 weeks)
DE 		AT8 (5 weeks)
AT 		CH3 (7 weeks)
CH 		UK5 (5 weeks)
UK 		US4 (7 weeks)
US
First published: June 29, 2018

Filmography

TV appearances

Movie

  • 2009: Bananaz (film by Ceri Levy)
  • 2019: Gorillaz: Reject False Icons (documentary by Denholm Hewlett)

Awards

The Gorillaz have received various awards for their work, including a Grammy in 2006 , in which the song Feel Good Inc. was awarded the Grammy for best vocal pop collaboration . The Gorillaz were also nominated in four other categories that year. There were also two nominations in 2011 , but no prize was won.

At the GQ Awards of the magazine of the same name , the Gorillaz were nominated for Band of the Year 2010 and were able to win this award.

At the MTV Video Music Awards 2005 , the band won with the video for Feel Good Inc. in the categories Best Special Effects and Best Experiment . There were three more nominations in 2001 and one more in 2010. The European branch, the MTV Europe Music Awards , has won three awards out of 14 nominations. Two awards were won in 2001 ( Best Dances for the Band and Best Song for Clint Eastwood ) and one in 2005 ( Best Group ).

The NME Awards previously won a prize when the 2006 Innovation Prize was won. Four times (once in 2006 and three times in 2011) the band went empty-handed.

Three out of six nominations at the Q Awards resulted in awards. In 2001 the band won the Best Video Award with Clint Eastwood and Dan Nakamura was nominated for Best Producer . In 2005 the prizes were won in both nominated categories, both in the category Best Video (with Feel Good Inc. ), as well as Gorillaz and Danger Mouse as best producers. In 2010 there were two more nominations, but neither in the category Best Album (for Plastic Beach ) nor in the category Best Video (for Stylo ) could be won.

The band had less luck at the BRIT Awards . With nine nominations, not a single award could be won. In 2002 the band was nominated six times, in 2006 twice and in 2011 once. It was only in the tenth attempt in 2018 that they won the award for best British band, the following year they were left empty-handed in the same category.

literature

  • 2006: Rise of the Ogre (autobiography)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gorillaz officially announce their new album - via the Instagram account of Jamie Hewlett's wife. In: Musikexpress .de. Accessed May 31, 2018 .
  2. ^ Neil Gaiman: Keeping It (Un) real . In: Wired . No. July 13 , 2005 (English, online from Wired's website [accessed April 11, 2010] Interview with Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett ).
  3. ↑ Sven Gantzkow: Pop: The comeback of the comic owls. In: Internet pages of the Westdeutsche Zeitung . March 3, 2010, accessed April 12, 2010 .
  4. ↑ Gorillaz at laut.de
  5. ↑ Jim Macnie: Gorillaz: Who Can It Be Now? In: Internet pages of VH1 . June 9, 2005, accessed April 11, 2010 (Interview with Damon Albarn and DJ Danger Mouse ).
  6. ↑ Steve Huey: Delton 3030 Review. In: Allmusic website . Retrieved April 12, 2010 (English).
  7. ↑ Commercial song list. Selection O. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 29, 2010 ; Retrieved September 20, 2010 .
  8. ↑ Heather Phares: Gorillaz Biography. In: Allmusic website . Retrieved April 11, 2010 .
  9. ↑ James Cooper: Gorillaz: D-Sides. (No longer available online.) November 19, 2007, archived from the original on January 17, 2010 ; accessed on April 11, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.inthenews.co.uk
  10. ↑ Sexy winners, poor monkeys. In: Spiegel Online . February 21, 2002, accessed April 16, 2010 .
  11. ^ The BRITs 2002. In: Internet pages of the BRIT Awards . Retrieved April 11, 2010 .
  12. ↑ Rob Mitchum: Gorillaz Phase One: Celebrity Take Down. In: Pitchfork . February 4, 2003, accessed April 11, 2010 .
  13. ^ Reject False Icons
  14. ↑ The Night of the Superstars. In: Spiegel Online . Retrieved April 16, 2010 .
  15. ↑ a b Gorillaz Live at the MTV Awards. Dimensional Studios, accessed April 16, 2010 .
  16. ↑ Gil Kaufman: Madonna's Oddest Collab Yet: Singer To Perform At Grammys With Gorillaz. In: MTV .com. January 1, 2006, accessed April 16, 2006 .
  17. ↑ Rise Of The Ogre - many new pic scans, and review. October 25, 2006, accessed April 17, 2010 .
  18. ↑ Bananaz. In: Internet pages of the Berlinale . Retrieved April 17, 2010 .
  19. ^ Mark Kermode: The year of the monkey . In: The Observer . July 20, 2008, Observer Review Section , p. 4 ( article online [accessed April 16, 2010] interview with Jamie Hewlett ).
  20. ↑ Amy Phillips: Gorillaz Reveal Full Album Details. In: Pitchfork . January 20, 2010, accessed April 17, 2010 .
  21. ^ Gorillaz - Plastic Beach. In: acharts.us. Retrieved April 18, 2010 .
  22. ↑ Gorillaz's official Twitter account. Retrieved October 5, 2010 .
  23. ↑ Official website for the fourth Gorillaz album. Retrieved December 25, 2010 .
  24. ↑ Gorillaz news roundup: Gruff Rhys, Snoop Dogg, Spotify, Fall unboxing, Kate Bush, Loud magazine. Retrieved May 25, 2011 .
  25. ↑ Grammy Awards 2006: Winner in the Pop Sector. grammy.com (English) accessed on September 14, 2012
  26. ↑ a b c Timeline at rockonthenet.com (English) accessed on September 14, 2012
  27. ↑ Volume: Gorillaz.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. gq-magazine.co.uk, September 7, 2010 (English) Retrieved September 14, 2012@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.gq-magazine.co.uk  
  28. ↑ Winners and nominees of the MTV Video Music Awards 2005. mtv.com (English) accessed on September 14, 2012
  29. ↑ Winners and nominees of the MTV Video Music Awards 2001. mtv.com (English) accessed on September 14, 2012
  30. ↑ Winners and nominees of the MTV Video Music Awards 2010. mtv.com (English) accessed on September 14, 2012
  31. ↑ Arctic Monkeys hottest act at NME. bbc.co.uk, February 24, 2006 (English) Retrieved September 14, 2012
  32. ↑ Shockwaves NME Awards 2011 - all the winners. nme.com, February 23, 2011 (English). Retrieved September 14, 2012
  33. ↑ John Lydon, Kate Bush: The Q Awards 2001. fodderstompf.com (English). Retrieved September 14, 2012
  34. ^ Winners Q awards 2005. telegraph.co.uk, October 11, 2005 (English) accessed on September 14, 2012
  35. ^ Q Awards with Russian Standard Vodka: The Nominees. ( Memento of the original from September 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. qthemusic.com (English). Accessed September 14, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / news.qthemusic.com
  36. ^ Brit Awards 2002: The nominations. bbc.co.uk, February 14, 2002 (English) Retrieved September 14, 2012
  37. ^ Brit Awards 2006: The winners. bbc.co.uk, February 15, 2006 (English)
  38. ^ Brit Awards 2011: Winners. From: bbc.co.uk, February 15, 2011 (English) Retrieved September 14, 2012