Gorillaz on Plastic Beach

by Michael Laffitte and Misty Estelle

An English animated Trip-Hop band, Gorillaz, is known for the rock culture of the last decade. Because of the huge success over the first album, Gorillaz, and a huge jump toward success after the release of the first single, “Clint Eastwood”, the creators Damon Albarn (associated with Blur) and Jamie Hewlett (co-creator of Tank Girl), revolutionized not only the style itself, but the discovery of a huge blend of Hip-Hop, Rock, and Techno. The band itself became a unity of what we have witness. The Lead singer of the group, 2-D, is the vocal singer. Murdoc Niccals, the self-proclaimed leader of the group, is the bass guitarist. Russel Hobbs, the drummer and percussionist from Brooklyn. Last you have Noodle, a guitarist from Osaka, Japan. All have interesting, and often dark, backstories. The website, www.gorillaz.com, has changed many times over the years. This included, up until recently, an interactive version of Kong Studios which has shed some light onto the lives of the members of Gorillaz over the years. There has been many twists to the backstories, such as when I discovered that there bad been a different guitarist before Noodle. Paula Cracker, 2-D’s former girlfriend, who ended up as an overly-medicated psycho who has a huge grudge against Noodle for replacing her. Also they earn the spot at the Guinness World Book of Records as the most Successful Animated Band. With the immense amount of the Gorillaz fanbase, the group itself established here on in.

After the Extended play for Gorillaz’ earlier songs such as, “Tomorrow becomes Today”, “Latin Simone”, and “Rock the House”, became the singles later in the debut Album, “Gorillaz”. That’s when the mainstream got caught up in the whole Gorillaz craze. In 2001, the album became a huge success. The video, “Clint Eastwood”, had been played on MTV, Toonami, and any other mainstream. Through the album the mockumentaries are freaking hilarious to the core. For instance, “Charts of Darkness”, is when the story follows a Channel 4 News Reporter, Krishan Guru-Murthy, attempting to track down the creators of the band after they been committed in the mental hospital. Because of the awesome storyline, the dialogue, and everything they have crammed into the CD, they released a DVD, called “Phase One: Celebrity Takedown”. This was the whole new experience, of what we had in store for the last decade. Not other bands, such as Alvin and the Chipmunks, can compare to this. This genre of Hip-Hop, Rock, and Techno, catches the interest of myself and every other Gorillaz fan not only through the music itself, but also with storylines revealed through the music videos, short cartoons called “Gorillaz Bites”, magazine articles, the website, and their autobiography, “Rise of the Ogre”. The release of the second Album, “Demon Days” in 2005 included the hit single, “Feel Good Inc.” The whole album was a huge success which included several stunning music videos and the release of another DVD collection, “Phase Two: Slow Boat to Hades.” The plot involving the four band members also progressed, more details revealed in the autobiography and through the facebook of Murdoc Niccals. The plot reveals that the video, El Manana (Spanish for “The Tomorrow”) was filmed. According to the plot, Noodle was supposed to have parachuted off of the floating island during the filming of the music video. However, news was revealed later on that she had gone missing afterwards and nobody has seen her since. Since then, we have learned a few new bits of information involving the band that lead into Gorillaz’ third yet-to-be-released album, Plastic Beach.

Apparently there was no sign of Noodle at the video site, so Murdoc collected some of Noodle’s DNA from the wreckage. Murdoc had thought that maybe she was in Hell, due to a bit of backstory involving a deal he had made. Instead of taking himself or Russel, Noodle was supposedly taken instead. Using his Satanistic powers, Murdoc attempted to rescue Noodle from Hell but he did not find her there and had to come back. Instead, he had an android replica of Noodle build using her DNA. During this time Murdoc burned down Kong for insurance money, and took off to the Pacific Ocean to create a new album. So far 2D, android Noodle and Murdoc are on Plastic Beach. No news yet on what happened to the real Noodle, and 'Russel is missing in action. As usual, many things are still a mystery and besides more unique music, we can only guess as to what this animated band has in store.

Plastic Beach is coming out in March 9th 2010. I will be looking forward to it. The single they released from www.gorillaz.com, called “Stylo”. I will be looking forward to I,t despite wondering if the band itself will ever be the same without our favorite guitarist and dummer? With the real Noodle and Russel still missing, will they come back alive, or leave it as a mystery? Either way, I am willing to check out the 3rd album, and the 3rd phase of this intriguing project.