and becoming superstarsThe idea of a virtual band — a cartoon band, if you will — still seems a little silly. Even in 2010, with all of our technological wizardry and experiential crossover, it’s strange that anybody would take pride in being known as an act whose image has been sealed in animated music videos that feature no real human images.
Unless that person is Damon Albarn.
Albarn is the British singer-songwriter who made his name with Brit-pop phenoms Blur and became a superstar with hip-hop hybrid Gorillaz, the latter of which is the animated rock group that headlines the Wells Fargo Theatre on Sunday. While Gorillaz hasn’t played too many live shows, this is the band’s first-ever large-scale tour — and it has Albarn and collaborator Jamie Hewlett more serious than ever about their initial inky intentions.
“We’re very much committed to the culture of cartoons,” Albarn said last week from his Chicago hotel room overlooking Lake Michigan. “We’re doing what we’ve always wanted to now. What we’re doing now is a good picture of the eclectic and energetic thing that we always envisioned Gorillaz was.”
Gorillaz is one of the most fascinating bands from the past decade of pop music. It has scored Top 10 singles with “Clint Eastwood” and “Feel Good Inc.,” and done it by skipping effortlessly from hip-hop to funk to pop to rock. Its first two records are both million-sellers, and the third, “Plastic Beach,” plays off the same narrative, only with different players — including Mos Def, Lou Reed, and the Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simonon.
And Gorillaz has done all that as a virtual band — the most successful virtual band in the world, according to Guinness World Records.
Because of the band’s cartoon personas, its live shows have been extremely rare — until this year, when it scabbed together an impressive show for a headlining date at the Coachella Music Festival. The current tour, Albarn said, is bigger, better and brighter than the Coachella showcase.
“The stage proportions are like, maybe, a fifth of the size of the cartoons, so they look like skyscrapers,” he said. “It’s bigger than (Coachella) and it has a lot more of a cartoon narrative going through it. At that point, we hadn’t finished all our visuals, so there were bits that hadn’t been rendered and animated.”
Not much has changed with Albarn’s relationship with Hewlett, who is the band’s visual creative director and handles all the animation — including the group’s futuristic, hyper-stylized music videos.
“This last record is more thematic than our previous work, and there’s also a stronger narrative on this one,” Albarn said, “But the process is reassuringly similar: I make the music, and he does all the other stuff.”
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com;
Gorillaz.
Pop. Wells Fargo Theatre, 700 14th St. (inside the Colorado Convention Center), with N.E.R.D. Today 7:30 p.m. $66-$109
Were they rockin’? Or were they just drawn that way?
To be honest, Gorillaz doesn’t face much competition in the whole virtual-band category. The band is artistically intact and commercially viable, and it blows all other cartoon acts off the screen.
But here are five other cartoon groups worthy of your valuable YouTube time — in order of their rock ‘n’ roll lifestyles.
1. The Chipmunks, 1958: It’s OK if all you remember from this group of singing rodents is “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late).” The song is now considered a holiday standard, a staple on December radio and children’s choir concerts. But have you heard any of the cartoon group’s other CDs — “Chipmunk Punk” (with covers of Blondie and the Cars), anyone?
2. The Archies, circa 1968: Yes, “Sugar, Sugar” is a lovable, candy- coated pop gem from 1969: “You are my candy girl, and you got me wanting you.” It’s simple to love the hushed verses and the ubiquitous choruses — regardless of the virtual band’s lack of a second single.
3. Josie and the Pussycats, circa 1970: Britney Spears was hardly our first pop-girl crush. Josie McCoy was the fearless leader of this band, and her rock ‘n’ roll travels often brought her into situations of espionage and intrigue. And let’s not forget Casey Kasem as the voice of their manager.
4. Jem and the Holograms, circa 1985: Jem was truly outrageous. And her show is full of pop-culture nuggets that still bring on a smile. Remember the holographic computer named Synergy? What about the rival band, the evil Misfits? Oh, yes, Jem — we miss your pink, Brooke Shields-styled hair.
5. Dethklok, circa 2007: Fans of metal compliment this group — from the Adult Swim program “Metalocalypse” — and its connection to hard rock’s past and present. Series creator Brendon Small also writes the band’s music, and he’s even taken the virtual group on tour a couple of times.
Ricardo Baca
