Posts Tagged ‘gorillaz’

It’s been a full decade since the world’s most famous virtual band burst onto the scene at the dawn of the century, born from two like-minded experimentalists and a set of crafty oil pastels.

But few could have predicted the heights to which Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s project would soar – somehow managing to satisfy the Blur star’s lust for venturing into the unknown with a sustained sky-rocketing level of commercial success. It’s not lost on Albarn that Gorillaz, for all intents and purposes, have far outstripped Blur commercially and arguably creatively.

Damon Albarn and rap legends De La Soul were the surprise guests at a Gorillaz Sound System gig yesterday (December 1st).

Gorillaz, the art/music fusion project originally devised by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett in 1998, will celebrate 10 years since the release of their self-tiled debut album with a new singles collection.

Entitled ‘The Singles Collection: 2001-2011‘, the album will contain 15 tracks including singles, videos and remixes, and is to be released through standard CD, CD and DVD and 140 gram vinyl formats, while a special edition 7” box set will also be made available.

Sir Paul McCartney has revealed he came close to working with Damon Albarn‘s Gorillaz during their work on ‘Plastic Beach‘, with one UK tabloid claiming he could finally come through with the collaboration in the future.

‘Chuckles and Mr. Squeezy‘ is the bizarrely titled fifth studio album from California based alternative rockers Dredg. With a turn around of little under two years since the band’s last offering, ‘Chuckles and Mr. Squeezy’ sees the shortest time span between studio album releases since the group’s inception in 1993.

Dredg cite the reason for this shorter than normal writing period as wanting to create as interesting music as possible without necessarily juggling with time consuming, sophisticated song structures. In essence, this album is simply meant to be a bit more…fun. And fun it is, with obvious comparisons in terms of instant accessibility to what is arguably the most accessible record in the Dredg back catalogue, ‘Catch Without Arms‘.

Foo Fighters are set to land their first US number one album next week, with Nielsen SoundScan confirming sales of 235,000 for seventh release ‘Wasting Light‘ has pushed the record to the top spot, in the process selling more than twice the amount of that sold by the record in second place.

Contributions from heavyweight rock acts such as Radiohead and Foo Fighters contributed to this year’s Record Store Day enjoying its highest level of sales since being initiated in 2007.

U2 frontman Bono is aiming for a ‘futuristic’ new album, according to producer RedOne.

Gorillaz are to release their so-called ‘iPad album’ ‘The Fall‘ on the more traditional CD and vinyl formats in April.

Damon Albarn‘s hugely successful project Gorillaz could be over if weekend reports in the UK’s People newspaper are to be believed.