Whether photographing adult swim stars or vinyl Gorillaz, Brian McCarty transforms real backgrounds into imaginary scenarios and make-believe characters into lifelike subjects.
By capturing art toys in realistic settings, McCarty creates multimedia tableaux based on constructed narratives. The effect is disarmingly spontaneous, with colorful creatures becoming engaged storytellers in a practice that redefines the meaning of play.
Last weekend marked the eleventh time that the folks at Goldenvoice have produced the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, bringing together over one hundred acts of disparate musical genres and throwing them all together in the desert heat to see what sticks and what melts away. This year’s Coachella had its fair share of legends (Sly Stone, Public Image Ltd.), indie darlings (She & Him, Vampire Weekend), titans of their genre (Jay-Z, Faith No More), and once-in-a-lifetime acts with production that you’ll never see anywhere else (Plastikman, Fever Ray, Orbital, and Gorillaz). It also had its fair share of snags: parking was a nightmare, huge crowds created gridlock, and there was a surprising lack of fantastic art other than an enormous white paper crane.
After the jump, read our power rankings for some of the acts who we saw at the festival, based on each band’s buzz points coming into their performances and cred gained or lost after the fact. You might be surprised by some of the results; if you were there, let us know who you saw at the festival and whether you agree with our judgments.
We love Gorillaz, so we couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed by the recent rumor of the group’s uncredited music stealing borrowing. (Seriously, is there something in the water?) Reggae artist Eddy Grant claims the electronic keyboard riffs from his song “Time Warp,” were used in the new Gorillaz song, “Stylo,” without any due credit. Although both Grant and the Gorillaz are signed with EMI Publishing, the label refuses to get involved and is letting the artists settle this dispute themselves.
Grant recently told NME:
In a properly configured relationship I would have gotten a call from EMI to say, ‘Damon wants to use ‘Time Warp.’ What arrangement can you guys come to? Would you claim 100% would you claim 60%, or 70% of whatever it is?’ That phone call never came.
Although nothing has been resolved, we’re curious to hear your take on songs that borrow. After the jump, compare Grant’s “Time Warp” to Gorillaz “Stylo,” and check out our roundup of other musical “homages.”
Three albums in, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s animated superstars are still going strong, roping in Mos Def, De La Soul, Lou Reed, and Snoop Dogg for a stay on their Plastic Beach.
Other guests include Fall legend Mark E. Smith and Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys, plus the Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simenon. As always, equal attention is given to the band’s visual side, as represented by an immersive online game and a stunning video for lead single “Stylo,” which blends animation and live action and stars quintessential badass Bruce Willis.
Some days you just feel like surrendering yourself to visual eye-candy, removing those pesky blinders like “realism” and “believability” and “sobriety” in favor of some awesome rocket ships, life-size board games, pastel knife-fights, and Bruce Willis. This week’s crop of the best music videos includes some stunning design elements, from the animation/live-action combination in Gorillaz “Stylo” to the trippy apartment complex of Owen Pallet. After the jump, watch Flavorpill’s choices for best music videos of the week to remind yourself that slavish lyrical literalism can be way overrated. Let us know if you ever feel like returning to the real world.
With today’s online debut of Plastic Beach
If you’re a fanatic who truly cares about resolving the story lines of fictional cartoon characters, then Plastic Beach should be massively enjoyable, but the album works perfectly well as an experience for the casual fan. Albarn cares a little too much about the weather and chintzy dry-spells can get tiring, but the 56-minute trip currently streaming at NPR is still worth the trip. After the jump, listen along while reading our track by track review of the album, and let us know what you think.
Today at Flavorpill, we discovered what made Oscar so grouchy. We wondered how Nicholas Sparks gets away with churning out the same cliches. We checked out the plans for Madonna’s Academy for Girls in Malawi. We liked Jamie Hewlett’s Gorillaz-ized illustration of Lou Reed and the orchestral trailer for Plastic Beach. We learned the secret nicknames of the literary elite. We were excited to hear that a new Terrence Malick project featuring Christian Bale, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams, and Olga Kurylenko will start shooting this fall. We sang along with the Aliens rap. We decided that thought-controlled lighting definitely trumps The Clapper. And finally, we lusted after this DIY glass heart. Too bad we don’t live in West Brompton.
TwentyFourBit reports that comic book god Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell) will collaborate with Gorillaz on a followup to Damon Albarn’s 2007 opera, Monkey: Journey to the West. In exchange, the band will curate a few pages of Dodgem Logic, Moore’s new bi-monthly magazine.
Moore explained the mutually-beneficial deal in an interview with MustardWeb: “[Gorillaz] came down to Northampton last week because we’re planning for me to do the libretto on their next opera project. Being an opportunist, I of course asked them if they’d be prepared to contribute some pages to Dodgem Logic. Rather than just doing an interview with them, I thought it would be interesting to hand over a few pages for them to curate.”
More details on the project as they emerge.
Thanks to everyone who entered our competition to win a full Gorillaz CD/DVD discography in celebration of the band’s new documentary Bananaz. We asked you who your favorite Gorillaz collaborator was, and the prize goes to Jon Crowley, who provided the most poetic response.
“My personal favourite has to be Zeng Zhen playing the guzheng (no idea if I’m spelling that right) in the live performances of Hong Kong. Totally haunting, and just absurdly beautiful.” Congrats Jon, and to everyone else, you can still watch Bananaz in its entirety for free on Babelgum.com.
Damon Albarn isn’t one to indulge in much downtime. While he’s made big news lately with the announcement of a Blur reunion, he’s been making more waves this decade with his animated band Gorillaz. Director Ceri Levy was in on the ground floor when Albarn and co-creator Jamie Hewlett (of Tank Girl fame) came up with the band, and spent six years documenting it’s progress. The result is Bananaz, a 90-minute film following the cartoon group’s rapid rise to fame. Online video purveyor Babelgum has the exclusive full-length premiere up now, free to watch ahead of the June 1st DVD release. To help celebrate, we’ve got a full Gorillaz CD/DVD discography to give away. After the jump, check the details to enter, and watch preview clips from the film.
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