New Gorillaz Doc

“No disrespect to Pink Floyd, but we’ve got tunes…”

I remember the first time I heard Damon Albarn was contributing to a side project called Gorillaz. A few friends and I were massive Blur fans, and we followed the band pretty closely and tried to catch them live whenever possible. Living in Arizona, it was rather difficult. I did see them twice, ultimately – once in 1997 and again in 2003. Awesome both times, but nothing will beat the ‘97 show.

It was in a cool, cool venue called The Electric Ballroom in Tempe. Sadly, it was shut down not too long after that show, as I recall. It actually felt like a theatre/performance space. Everything now just feels like a big room where a band happens to show up. I like a bit of dressing up, to feel like going to a show is more than simply seeing a band in the nearest warehouse. Of course, some of my memories of that place might be colored by the fact that I was so, so excited to see Blur at that time. I did see a few other shows there, but they were mostly forgettable.*

I distinctly remember having a conversation about Gorillaz and with my Blur-obsessed friends and we wondered what it was going to sound like. When ‘Clint Eastwood’ finally became available on Napster (just shows you how long ago this really was), we all thought maybe Damon Albarn had lost his marbles. But the more I listened to it, the more I loved it. It was so different from Blur, and really, from anything else I was hearing at the time (Noel Gallagher made fun of the lyric about ’sunshine in a bag’, but I remember thinking ‘Good god man, you’ve made a career out of stupid lyrics!’). I figured there’d be just the one album, but then Demon Days came out and was even better than the first. I was officially a fan of a cartoon band.

I bought the Phase One: Celebrity Takedown DVD when it came out, but I can’t say it was the most satisfying purchase. It was really just a collection of things I’d already seen, and didn’t offer any insight into the creation of the ‘virtual’ band. It did have some nifty stickers, which I still have! This new DVD, Bananaz, looks like it’s more in line with what I wanted back then.

Film maker Ceri Levy apparently followed the duo around for seven years, documenting all kinds of behind-the-scenes antics and banter. The film will see a global online premiere on April 20th, via independent internet TV platform Babelgum, where it will be exclusively screened for 4 weeks. There will also be exclusive content, games & live footage available. If you’re a Gorillaz fan, it’s a given that you’ll want to check this out.

Gorillaz – Last Living Souls

*Some friends once dragged me there to see Less Than Jake. I don’t know what they’re like on record, but live they were truly awful. All I remember about the performance was a headache and an incredibly overweight man in a stained baby diaper. Traumatic.

Tags: documentary, gorillaz