Hey all, it's the awards season! In my last post, we saw that Gorillaz and Blur didn't win anything at the Grammy Awards this year. So this morning, I was reminded by my dear friends on facebook that The Brit Awards are coming up!
The Brit Awards 2011 will take place at the O2 Arena in London on 15th February. This year Gorillaz were nominated for best British Group.
Best British Group:
Biffy Clyro Gorillaz Mumford & Sons Take That The xx
This is exciting! According to an online friend from the official website, Gorillaz is one of the favourites of this category this year. Predictions have also mentioned that Gorillaz might win!
Gorillaz at the 2006 Brit Awards
Graham knocking it back after Blur win 4 awards at the 1995 Brit Awards
It's another lonely Friday night and I'm in my college dorm. Piles of assignments glare at me from the tops of my shelves. Since I'm in full procrastination mode, and I only have Gorillaz to keep me company, I'm going to present to you my track by track review of Gorillaz's "ipad album" The Fall (Released December 2010). I'll start off by introducing the album and then reviewing the first couple of tunes.
Messy desk, overdue coursework, college dorm
From Montreal to Vancouver via Seattle, Texas and Toronto, over 32 days on their North American Tour this autumn, Gorillaz recorded a musical diary. Recorded on tour, on an iPad, this low-key album (click here to listen to stream for free on the band's website) is the sound of Damon Albarn blowing trees and tweaking apps on his ipad as the American mountains rolls by his tour bus window.
The result is a collection of 15 tracks, some with vocals, some without, some combined performances and some solo.
The music was recorded during spare time while on the road. "I did it because there's a lot of time that you just spend staring at walls essentially. And it was a fantastic way of doing it" says Damon Albarn. "I found working in the day, whether it's in the hotel or in the venue, it was a brilliant way of keeping myself well." Adding that the collection is "..like a diary, I literally wrote everything on the day in each place and there's a strange sort of sound of America and its musical traditions that comes through. It feels like a journey through America."
A physical release is planned for later in 2011. The full track listing is:
Phoner To Arizona
Revolving Doors
HillBilly Man
Detroit
Shy-town
Little Pink Plastic Bags
The Joplin Spider
The Parish of Space Dust
The Snake In Dallas
Amarillo
The Speak It Mountains
Aspen Forest
Bobby In Phoenix
California And The Slipping Of The Sun
Seattle Yodel
Lets go through what you get with this album, shall we? I will review the first 3 tracks.
Oh, and I've included pictures of how I picture the song when I listen to it. Maybe it'll help you visualize and set the mood...
1 - Phoner to Arizona
Slightly techno. Reminds me of Stylo, especially the 80s bass beat that runs all the way through the song. No vocals, quite repetitive. It seems like a perfect B-side to any Plastic Beach song, it's pretty much Damon's style. Fades away at the end. Nothing special or spectacular, just a plain old tune that could have been polished.
***
When I listen to Phoner to Arizona, I'm imagining a night out. It's late and everyone's leaving the party, bar, club. You're walking home alone in the cold dark street. Yellow lights from the lamp-post streams down and casts a shadow.
Feel the mood...
2 - Revolving Doors
One of my favourite tracks on The Fall. Damon sings in his drowning croon and repeats "Revolving Doors" over and over again. The song describes him sitting in an American diner and watching the "foggy days" outside his window. He reflects on his life and just sings. The tune is a repeating little tune, quite catchy. Reminds me of Damon's Opera (Monkey Journey to the West) and also the song Hong Kong on Gorillaz's b-sides album D-Sides.
***
I'm just thinking revolving doors, revolving around and around. Spinning. It's a blur of people in and out. Beatles music on cue.
3- Hillbilly Man
The song begins with Damon singing about free lanes with a gentle guitar sound in the background. He's talking about driving away and the song's really mellow. Then halfway around 1:25, beats come in. The whole song changes mood. I'm not sure whether it's on purpose or not, but Damon's voice seems to be getting raspier. Rasp is then followed by the chorus, which chants Hillibilly repeatedly. Don't really like the rasp. Didn't Damon quit smoking?
***
I didn't know what "Hillibilly" was so I did a Google search. Can't stop laughing at the results:
Hillibilly - "Unsophisticated person" - Google Dictionary
That's the end of tonight's The Fall review. I'll continue on next time, please subscribe to the blog or bookmark it! You can always follow the RSS Feed on the sidebar on the right.
What do you think of The Fall and the songs above? Disagree ?
The on-again, off-again rumors can officially be put to a rest: Gorillaz are not breaking up, a publicist for the group says.
The rumors of a Gorillaz split go back to last year when the band was on tour. At that point, Damon Albarn told the Toronto Sun that the group may call it quits at the end of their tour.
That rumor was “confirmed” last week in an article in People Magazine that said the group had “sensationally split.” Hold your horses, a band representative said. That’s not the case at all. When asked to confirm or deny the rumors of a breakup, the band’s rep said:
So, breathe easy everybody!
During a performance in New Zealand back in December, vocalist Damon Albarn gave a lengthy speech about how the show might end up being the band's last ever live performance.
Well, the relationship between band members Jamie Hewlett and Damon is still on the rocks. Hewlett is said to be pissed at Damon over "how much time Albarn was giving to his many other projects."
On the flipside, Albarn has been "less than impressed with Jamie's party lifestyle" lately.
And the two were the best of friends!
Jamie Hewlett's son Denholm has spoken up about the shaky friendship on Gorillaz-Unofficial. Denholm posted, "I just spoke to my dad... he said its rubbish, they have kinda fallen out... they're just taking time apart from each other to work on other projects. gorillaz are not gunna split up, its fine."
I sure hope Denholm's not messing around. However, if it all turns out to be true and Jamie and Damon are really ready to call it quits, there better be some pretty damn good Blur projects in the works.
Look what I found...
Either way, it's looking good for us fans. Gorillaz aren't splitting up (yet) and Blur seems to be tethering along in their studio.
Lets see what happens. Subscribe for more news and updates!
Blur bassist Alex James has refused to talk about rumours that the band are recording new material.
Last month, Blur's drummer Dave Rowntree told Gigwise the band would “definitely” do something together again in 2011.
The band were planning to reunite and gather in the studio together again at the end of January and into February.
But when asked about the speculation, James told BBC Newsbeat: "Musician makes record, that's not news, but musician makes cheese and puts on festival that's news.
"Nothing to report from Blur, we're mates and we always will be. We'll always get together now and again."
James added that he was currently concentrating on his forthcoming musical festival, Harvest, which will take place at his home in Oxfordshire in September.
"Would Blur play? You should ask them. One day. Who knows? Could be good," he said.
Just a little update on what's going on in the Blur world... Alex's keeping it positive and Dave and Graham have tweeted and facebook'd about this. All up to Damon now!
Read the original article: Gigwise
Gorillaz are up for 3 awards at this year's NME Awards.
Damon doing Gorillaz
Stylo is up for best track, against Cee Lo Green - "Fuck You" -Foals - "Spanish Sahara" -Janelle Monae (feat. Big Boi) - "Tightrope" -Mark Ronson & the Business Intl - "Bang Bang Bang"
Stylo is also up for best video, up against -Arcade Fire - "We Used to Wait" -Brandon Flowers - "Crossfire" -Chase & Status - "Let You Go" -My Chemical Romance - "Na Na Na"
Plastic Beach is up for Best Album Artwork, up against -Foals - "Total Life Forever" -Klaxons - "Surfing the Void" -MGMT - "Congratulations" -My Chemical Romance - "Danger Days"
You can check out all the categories, and vote, here.
I was just browsing through the blur boards this morning and I saw this post by Cold War Kid:
This leads me on to think about the possible new Blur material, EP or even album.
Now Damon has always been rather... indecisive. He'd say something like he'd never want to do Blur again, and then next week we get something in the news about a surprise single release (Fools Day anyone?).
Dave - he's as the fans call him, the Reliable one. Honest, down to earth, political red-head. The drummer who famously smashed Song 2. Dave has been sort of the spokesman of the bad these few years. Graham's busy with his elusive life a a guitarist bachelor, Damon's apeing with Gorillaz and Alex's busy making cheese and appearing on random talk shows.
Dave was quoted says 'nothing concrete' is confirmed and admitted any plans for any new material from the four-piece are still up in the air. "We’re in touch," he said. "But we've got nothing concrete and nothing formalised about doing anything." Check the article out here.
Anyways, two things I want to say.
Firstly, I do think that the band are getting along well and have reconciled their differences before. Fools Day, the single out by Blur as a charity record, sounds like something straight out of Parklife or Modern Life is Rubbish. The reunion gig last year was also great, great for the fans and the band. If they do have something coming up to spring upon us, I wouldn't be too surprised!
Lastly, Graham Coxon has facebook? I would not have thought he would make it so public and comment on Dave's status. Hmm... I question the actuality of the facebook page itself.
Thanks for reading and what do you guys think of Dave and his facebook saga?
Well, news for all you Blur lovers out there. Good news. The band are planning recording sessions in 2011, and if happy with the results, they will release a new album sometime this year.
According to a reliable source, the lads will be getting in the studio next year. There's no concrete plans regarding what they will do with the material, but if they're all agreed it could become the first full Blur album to feature all four members in over a decade.
The band played some huge outdoor shows in the summer of 2009 and briefly reunited again in January this year. They also recorded limited edition single Fool's Day, which was released in April. You can check it outhere.
The source added: "When they went into the studio earlier this year everyone was really pleased to discover that the old magic was still there. They would have liked to have done more, but Damon could not take part due to his commitments with GORILLAZ."
"Now that he's finished touring with the band he has more time on his hands."
Looks like we might get Blur back in 2011! What do you guys think - for better or for worse? Do you guys like Fool's Day?
