This is your driver, Gorillaz for Beginners speaking. TFL apologises for the delay in roundups due to SO MUCH STUFF!!!
This week:
Aries
Yes, it finally dropped last Thursday! Gorillaz’ Song Machine gave us a good reason to stay inside with the latest episode, Aries, feat. Peter Hook (of Joy Division/New Order) & Georgia. The song was also co-produced by James Ford, who prior to this, handled The Now Now & Désolé.
While the song rides on a chilled groove as 2D sings from the perspective of his own keyboard, the video depicts an oddly relaxing “car chase” in Morocco, ending with a message from 2D telling us to stay inside and stay safe (which was also uploaded separately for the sake of sharing).
As with the previous Song Machine EPs, the song was bookended with Machine Bitez; #6 continuing the discussion regarding Murdoc’s “eyeball sweat” from Désolé, while #7 has all 4 members of the band chatting about how well the features performed on Aries. The latter not only marking the first time Noodle’s spoken since interviewing Mr. Ibe in 2018 (god, time flies doesn’t it?) but it’s also the first time all 4 band members have spoken together since the Interview Kit from 2005 (15 years ago!!!).
Of course, the launch window for a Song Machine episode wouldn’t be complete without a video of 2D plugging the single on streaming, or a new wave of merchandise…
More Merch
The Gorillaz store has once again dumped a ton of new merchandise, and this time with an interesting twist. Alongside a Song Machine-themed sticker sheet, we also got some memorabilia with artwork from Phase 4 (the Humanz era).
While the T-shirt alone is really cool, the art print stands out amongst the other products because the image seems to be a scrapped piece from years ago; evident via the Instagram posts by Jamie teasing this image almost exactly 2 years ago.
The print may no longer be available, but there’s still an official way to own a physical copy of the art around the corner…
Art & Articles
Like clockwork, a new Song Machine episode = a new article via Nasty Little Man, which you can read here. The site’s update to their Gorillaz page also saw the addition of 2 new promotional images (on top of Episode 3’s cover art).
It’s great to finally see an image of the cartoon band alongside Damon & Jamie that wasn’t made specifically for a magazine article, but it was really cool to hear that Gorillaz are going to be in the next issue of 1883 Magazine, even making the cover with that art print image you saw before scrolling down to this section.
The issue drops later this month, so expect coverage of the article in a couple weeks. Until then, it’s worth discussing Gorillaz’ newest series…
Get Lost
Last Tuesday, Gorillaz announced a new social media series (in case Debunked, G Club & G-Mix weren’t enough things to juggle outside Song Machine). It’s hard to determine what this series will be like based on the 2 images we got with the announcement, but it’s safe to assume we’ll be given a series of short stories in text form; given the description for what we should expect from this.
Speaking of Debunked, the Gorillaz newsletter not only confirmed that Episode 3 will take place soon, but also that Russel will be alongside Murdoc during this one to discuss Aries.
28 Days Later (4-11)
G Club’s 28 Day Challenge is still going, with a mixed hand of books, films, songs & a podcast from the band’s bottomless bin of recommendations.
New Instagram Teasers
Jamie’s Instagram saw a spike in Gorillaz teaser images this week, with new images of Noodle, Murdoc & a picture of 2D’s head (taken from the Momentary Bliss cover art) on a patch.
The purposes of all 3 images remain unknown, but as proven this week, their purposes will most likely reveal themselves eventually…
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