New this week:
- The Moment of Truth
- The Suggestionists are Back
- A Message to You, Jamie
- Demon Days Live – The Lost Interview
- Vidnight Society Analyzes Clint Eastwood
- Duetz Fan MV
- Demuny’s Visualz
- Fanart Picks
- John Lennon Toons
- Humanz and Now Now Picture Disc Scans
- G Is the Magic Number – Volume 1
The Moment of Truth
On Friday, Denholm Hewlett tweeted a message about June 25th being the “moment of truth,” only to quickly delete it. We still managed to get a screenshot:
Later on in the day, Facebook page Hewlett’s Art posted yet another message saying June 25th will reveal the moment of truth, this time showing footage of the band.
The tweet could certainly mean anything, but because the live band was pictured with the same teaser on Facebook, we’re speculating that June 25th may reveal the release date of Denholm’s Gorillaz documentary. Keep your fingers crossed!
The Suggestionists are Back
More Hewlett news! This week Jamie brought his solo exhibition, The Suggestionists, back to London’s Lazinc gallery. The opening reception (which Jamie attended) kicked off on June 20, and the exhibit will run until August 17. The Suggestionists features three bodies of work: Tarot, Pines, and Honey:
If you are in London or the surrounding area, this is definitely worth a visit. The admission is free and they are apparently selling signed copies of Jamie’s art book.
A Message To You, Jamie
Glowrillazart posted an important open letter to Jamie, Gorillaz and co. yesterday. The letter asks for a comprehensive press-kit of high-resolution art spanning the entire Gorillaz history (since what’s currently available is very slim). If you’d like this too, please read and share Glow’s post below!
Demon Days Live – The Lost Interview
As mentioned in my previous roundup, Shane from Gorillaz For Beginners recently nabbed some rare/lost Betacam SP footage from the Phase 2 era. We have another tape available for this week — this time, a rare/lost interview from the Demon Days live in Manchester show. The video below features interviews with Bootie Brown, De La Soul, Roots Manuva & Martina Topley Bird. Apparently, this was supposed to be on the DD Live DVD, but never made it on.
Vidnight Society Analyzes Clint Eastwood
The “Vidnight Society,” an homage to Are-You-Afraid-of-the-Dark’s “Midnight Society” is a Youtube Series that analyzes and reviews music videos. This week’s episode covers Clint Eastwood and features the expertise of animator Lindsay Small-Butera. She’s not a fan of Strobelite, but believes that the early days of Gorillaz animation held up quite well. Watch here:
Duetz Fan MV
G-fan Myles S. created this super surreal fan video of Duetz last year, but I wanted to feature it this week because I like it so much. Love the use of the Kidrobot figures and eerie video clips. ❤
Demuny’s Visualz
Disappointed by the fact that Gorillaz has not released HQ live visuals for the Humanz and Now Now tours, the very talented Sam Demuny has amazingly recreated a bunch of visuals on Vimeo. Yes, these are recreations. They initially fooled me — I thought they were the real thing!
You can see the rest of them on Sam’s Vimeo profile.
Fanart Picks
Here’s just a small handful of fan art that I really enjoyed this past week:
John Lennon Toons
You’re probably wondering, “how could this be related to Gorillaz?” Well! Jordan Powers of Gorillaztrivia posted a cool video this week: animations done by Jamie Hewlett (and his former design team Zombie Flesh Eaters) based off John Lennon’s sketchbook. In addition, many of the sound effects are done by Damon Albarn! Per Jordan’s IG post,
These animations were included as an extra on the 2003 John Lennon DVD Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon, which Zombie Flesh Eaters designed. Jamie talks about these animations in a 2006 interview with Icon Magazine. “These days, Gorillaz has almost completely taken over Hewlett’s work schedule, although in the last couple of years he has also managed to squeeze in some work for Yoko Ono, animating John Lennon’s cartoon doodles. “We went to meet Yoko Ono, which was a bit weird, and she said to us, ‘Just do what John would have done.’ And we were like, how the fuck are we supposed to think like John Lennon? So in the end, we just thought about them in a really stupid way, and they became really stupid bits of animation with stupid sound effects. I think we got Damon in to do some of the sounds, and I thought they came out really well. They were probably as throwaway as the drawings Lennon originally did, doodling down thoughts.” – Icon Magazine Interview with Jamie Hewlett, 2006.
Not necessarily news, but still really cool nonetheless. Here are the animations on YouTube:
Humanz and Now Now Picture Disc Scans
Shane of Gorillaz for Beginners has gotten us some high quality scans of all the picture disc sides for Humanz and The Now Now’s limited edition vinyl releases. You can see the Humanz ones here, and The Now Now ones here.
If you haven’t looked at Gorillaz for Beginners yet, please do! It’s got everything you need to know to get caught up on the Gorillaz lore, music, merchandise, and rarities. No details are spared!
G Is the Magic Number – Volume 1
If you’ve ever wondered what the live set from the Now Now tour sounds like as studio versions, look no further than G Is the Magic Number – Volume 1. Created by all-things-Albarn expert Must, the 25 minute track includes extended and reworked versions of M1 A1, Empire Ants, Andromeda, Sorcererz, and We Got the Power:
Gorillazland 
Regarding “The Moment Of Truth”… you’re reading too much into it and that’s all I’m gonna say.
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You were right!
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