Damon has done the big star thing for quite a while now (just not in the U.S.). He was front man for the band "Blur" and a huge heart throb in the UK during the 90's. Blur just recently released a new album called "The Ballad of Darren" and did two back to back nights at Wembley performing. They are kind of a huge deal in the UK and many other countries. I'd recommend their track "for tomorrow". Very talented guy. Jamie Hewlett is a comic book creator and has been around since the 80's his character "Tank Girl" is probably his best known work (there was even a movie based on it in the 90's).
The two members were already famous when Gorillaz originated, Albarn with the Britpop band Blur, and Hewlitt with the comic book Tank Girl. Originally the band's members were anonymous (but not well hidden since the album has to point to the record labels that are allowing them to play for legal reasons. Originally they played behind a screen so that they stayed anonymous. Now the real band is on stage, with the cartoon shown on a screen. What amazed me about the show was how many famous people they got to tour with them. There were a number of big stars, at least to my kids generation, who came on to sing or play on one or two songs and otherwise just wait backstage. They had one rapper on this first album, but after that they used different rappers on different songs, including Snopp Dogg. They also had Elton John on one song, and Stevie Nicks on another. Although it likely has nothing to do with why the song is called Clint Eastwood, but he did do a movie in the 70s with an orangutan. I think it was called Any Which Way But Loose.
They bring in whoever they want between albums and songs, but it's all lead by Damon and Jamie. They created Gorillaz as a way to poke fun at pop music/pop culture, to have a way of avoiding the press, and to have creative freedom. Some of their songs have nothing to do with their names, as another one of their songs is called 'Bill Murray' with no reference to him within the song. For the earliest shows, they began performing behind a screen with animation playing above. They later switched to performing in low light as silhouettes. Since 2010 they perform as a regular band and don't hide anymore.
Del the Funky Homosapien is criminally underrated as a rapper. A couple friends from high school who were into lyrical underground hip-hop like J5, Dilated Peoples, The Alkaholiks, Swollen Members, etc, played me some of his shit and his cadence was so unique, his wordplay ridiculous. Interesting that he's cousins with Cube.
While Gorillaz is basically down to two people, the musical composition is by Damon Albarn, while the visuals are by Jamie Hewlitt. Beyond that, they bring in any musicians or singers they want on an as-needed basis. The song's name comes as a result of the 'harmonica' (really a melodica) sounding reminiscent of the spaghetti western movies.
Jamie is the cartoonist and Damon is the singer (also Blur frontman) is 2D (bluehaired dude in gorillaz) Gorillaz is also big on collaborations with other artists and they often tour with them. Back in the day they really did hide behind the scenes on stage with the characters often on screen or holograms. Nowadays they tour the other way around, where they perform infront and screens with visuals and the characters in the backround.
The Ghost in the MV was Del the funky homosapien, lore-wise he is Russel's dead homie that's possessing him :P Also it's called Clint Eastwood cuz its sounds similar to the theme of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
I have been to a gorillaz concert and it was really cool. They were on stage themselves and showed clips from the gorillaz behind them. But I have seen some 3d concert clips on RU-vid which is neat. I think they somewhat do similar setups to how miku tours
I think Clint Eastwood's characters are mainly this loner you rarely see smiling. That's why they brought that up. The record is all about heaviness. When it says "I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad" it means he's not completely unhappy but somehow he's sure he's going somewhere he will be.
This was great! Please react to more Gorillaz music videos!! Try reacting to their music video for the song, "Rock the House" next. Thank you for the excellent content. I''m definitely subscribing!
