INFO DID DROP! News Recap 3

Welcome, people, to a new Gorillaz album! We got info of a new album, and some more things I missed, so let's go!

First, Cracker Island's video came out in-between this recap and the last one. Its pretty good and its in 3D, so if you want to check it out, click here or check out the video player I added a few months back!

Next, a little update on the Spotify playlists, new episodes of the Stuart Potcast are out, and Noodle has released a playlist called Noodle's Music Fridays. You can check these out under the artists playlists section on the Gorillaz Spotify page, which just so happens to be conveniently linked here.

Finally, onto the big stuff! Gorillaz have announced and as of yesterday, released a new song called New Gold, which features Tame Impala and Bootie Brown.  No video so far, hopefully it gets one, so here is a link to the visualizer.

The same day (yesterday) New Gold was released, Gorillaz was featured on BBC Radio 1's Hottest Record show again, this time with the New Gold collaborators. On that show and later that day we got news OF A NEW ALBUM! This is my first new album since I joined the fandom, so i'm pretty excited. The album isn't called The Static Channel like everyone thought, but it's called Cracker Island. This seems like a good album, with Silent Running being confirmed, the song with Bad Bunny being confirmed (officially confirmed, these were performed and talked about by Damon). Pre orders are up even though the thing comes out in February next year, February 24th to be exact.

 Some interesting ways to get the album, you have your standard CD and vinyl, a purple vinyl if you want to be fancy. If you want to be more fancier you could get the picture disc (coming soon). If you just want to go straight up retro there are new character variants of the album on cassette (also coming soon). And 2 cool vinyl box sets, one being really expensive for what it is! The first one is a deluxe box set, which has the album on a peach vinyl, standard CD,  Cracker Island as an exclusive art 7 inch 45 rpm single with an etched b-side, and some other extra art prints, a notebook, a sticker sheet, and some other fun things. This is exclusive to the official store (where have I heard THAT before?!) and goes for $69.98, which is a step up form the $300 Song Machine box set. But not a step up (or technically step down) in pricing is the 7 inch 45 rpm box set, which has all of the songs on 10 different 7 inches, with art on the b-sides. $174. No way. Im sorry, it may be value wise, but that's not worth it to me.

Too not end this off on a bad note, there are also some new shirts and hats on the store with this album launch. There are also the Cracker Island lobby cards. Those are all on the official store, which with another conveniently located link, you will be whisked away to the U.S. version of the store.

Welp, cool new stuff drop yes? Im tired, I will see you when more news comes out or I think of some more original posts, like the recent Plastic Beach one. Happy September and Happy Labor Day Weekend!

The History of Plastic Beach

 I never know how to start these, so i'm going into it right away.

PHASE 3: PLASTIC BEACH (2008-2012)

So after Murdoc burnt down the original Kong Studios (see Kong Studios: A Life I guess), he blamed the fire on some kids, and got some insurance money from it. So he used said insurance money to go to a far away island known as Point Nemo. Upon arrival he saw there was a ton of trash on the island, so he used the trash to build a little house he called Plastic Beach. He contacted the Boogeyman to kidnap 2D, used some of Noodles DNA to build Cyborg Noodle (typing this makes me want to do a lore recap), and the trio got to work on Gorillaz' 3rd studio album. Plastic Beach. Russel found out Murdoc made an album without him, and he started swimming towards Plastic Beach. He later ate some weird stuff in the water or something, and he turned giant. Now we get to the music videos, which for some reason is important to the lore of Plastic Beach. In Stylo, nothing really happens, Murdoc is driving depressed blue haired man and robot girl somewhere??? (this isn't really clarified, i'm sorry) They get chased by a cop and Bruce Willis, the car crashes into the water, Bruce Willis thinks he won, but the car turns into a submarine and starts driving toward Plastic Beach. This leads into On Melancholy Hill's video, where Noodle is found to be alive! She's on a ship going somewhere (typing this out makes me realizes there's a lot of traveling) when the Black Clouds (lore stuff, its basically a gang Murdoc betrayed before) attack the ship, so Noodle fights them off with a gun, but the ship starts on fire, and Noodle gets on a life boat, where she's found by a gigantic Russel. Meanwhile 2D, Murdoc, and Cyborg Noodle lead a search party for Noodle with other PB collaborators when they find the Boogeyman attacking a manatee. Murdoc commands Cyborg Noodle to shoot him, but they hit his coat thing, and he brings the manatee down into the water, escaping, but also revealing Plastic Beach. Before we go to Rhinestone Eyes, I need to mention gorillaz.com, which was revamped in 2009 to feature a Plastic Beach web game, Escape to Plastic Beach. I believe it was also on the Apple App Store and Google Play. the game was available from 2010 to an unknown date, updated sometime around when The Fall came out, and that's about all that's known, as the game is lost! u/sintendo and his team at Gorillaz Raritiez want and tried to rebuild it, but he mentioned he would need a whole team to rebuild it. I should also mention Doncamatic's video, where Daley is trying to navigate to Plastic Beach, with 2D trying to communicate with him. Eventually he finds it and realizes he's too late and missed the whole album recording. He also missed the album coming out, as it came out in March, and Doncamatic came out in November!

Now, onto Rhinestone Eyes, the biggest video out of all of phase 3. Or at least it was, as the single, and in turn the video, was cancelled. Thanks EMI! at least the storyboard was put out, and some fan recreations came out as well. So basically its this big thing where everything happens at once, Russel and Noodle find Plastic Beach, when all of a sudden the Black Clouds attack! Leaded by the Boogeyman, he summons the Gorillaz live band, and after we find out him and Murdoc's backstory, which ill save for that lore recap I mentioned. After the crew fight them off, Cyborg Noodle gets shot and turns evil, and 2D almost gets swallowed by a whale, when Russel grabs it and throws it out of his way! the whole video ends with the collaborators and Cyborg Noodle seeing Russel, who opens his mouth in a dramatic ending to reveal Noodle, who moves her cat mask to reveal the scar from El Mañana. and with that, phase 3 part 1 ends. In the original ending to phase 3, the gang moves to a apartment with the Boogeyman, where they get evicted.

PHASE 6: THE LOST CHORD (2020)

Fast forward to the last episode of Song Machine, The Lost Chord. After The Valley of The Pagans, they find themselves of Plastic Beach, with a ton of relics, like Noodle's cat mask and Daley! Then the monster (Leee John) comes out, destroying Plastic Beach. Then a portal opens up, 2D, Noodle, and Russel get in before the portal closes, leaving Murdoc to die. But then 2D shows up and save him, seeming to forgive him for all his abuse.

I also don't know how to end these, so uh, bye!

Heres another news recap

 So, there's a lot more Gorillaz news, i'm probably going to make this a normal thing, so I might have to think of a name.

First off, The Gorillaz Art Book has been released! It has been discovered that there are 2 variant covers, all of them featuring Murdoc.

Also, there has been a podcast released about the art book. It features interviews with a few collaborators, including Jamie. Click here for the website link.

Speaking of the website, a few changes have been made to it. First, Cracker Island's visualizer has been added to the video player. Next, the text has been made pink. Changes to the top left of the site, the quiz section of the site has been removed, and there is a new podcast section which links to the website for it. Also, the listen button has been changed from Song Machine to Cracker Island. Finally, a pop up shows up when you first visit the website, linking to Cracker Island.

Another segway, Cracker Island is out! No video yet, but there is a teaser for it. Everyone seems to agree that its pretty good, including Anthony Fantano, who Gorillaz dueted with on TikTok, featuring his review of the song, and the new 3D model of 2D.

2D has a new podcast (I'm killing it with these segways) called The Stuart Potcast. Each "episode" is only about 30 seconds to 1 minute, with Cracker Island in-between. You can find it here.

Murdoc's Twitter is active again, with an event being hosted live today. It was Murdoc (Phil Cornwell) live answering questions from the audience. You can find the replay, along with Murdoc's Twitter here.

Finally the merch section. Walmart is putting out an exclusive pressing of Plastic Beach with red vinyl. You can preorder it here. It comes out August 30th.

Cracker Island has gotten some merch, along with the store being turned pink. You can preorder a shirt with the single art, along with a hat with the classic spray graffiti logo right here.

Finally, unofficial news, but an image of what looks to be a Funko office shows a concept of Gorillaz POPs similar to the Queen POP Albums. The albums shown were Gorillaz, Demon Days, and Humanz. in the image you can also see a Beach Boys album concept. A commenter on Reddit said concepts at Funko HQ aren't always 100% planned products, just concepts employees can make. With the Gorillaz toy license being with Superplastic right now, I highly doubt we will get these in the near future or even at all. I really hope we do though, people would love these!

Well that wraps up another news recap. Shortly I will come up with a name and a section for these. Welp, until then, Adios!

Video Player Update

 Just a quick update post to tell you about the new page on my site, the video player! All of these videos are easily available on YouTube, and actually link back to YouTube, but it gives some good old Kong Studios Box Office vibes. You can find all of the Gorillaz videos, even some alternate ones like the commentaries, remixes, and alternative videos! Heres the link:

https://mygorillazlife.blogspot.com/p/video-player.html

Some videos may have wrong links, so I am currently in the process of checking them all. Hopefully I did a good job and there is none. 

Well, that's all, so bye!

EDIT: All videos work, let me know if I missed any!

Oops I forgot this existed again, so here's a news recap

 Well well well, oops. Hello again! Sorry for no posts, I've been busy doing nothing. Gorillaz have been busy recently, so let's do a quick news recap.

First off, G-Mix was updated with its 17th installment. You can find 2D, Russel, Murdoc, and Noodle's "tipz for 2022" under the "Artist Playlists" section on the Gorillaz Spotify page, or just click here.

Next, the Superplastic blind boxes are shipping around the world. I don't have much to say about this, but they are cool figures if you want to check them out here.

The same day the figures shipped, Gorillaz announced a world tour, which kicked off in Montevideo on April 28. No North American dates other than Mexico, but we will get to that. Find the remaining dates at gorillaz.com/tour. 

Two new songs have been premiered, Silent Running, and Cracker Island featuring Thundercat. A hint has been given during the tour that phase 7 will be called "The Static Channel." I will make a new post when anything is completely announced.

Next, Murdoc has been doing some commentary editions on select Gorillaz music videos. I thought they would do one for each phase, but they seemed to have stopped at phase 5. The videos they have done it for are Clint Eastwood, Feel Good Inc, Stylo, Saturnz Barz, and Humility.

Now for merch drops, The Gorillaz Art Book was confirmed to release on June 17. Pre-orders have sold out on the US store, but there should be other places to order it. Next, a Gorillaz range of semi-permanent tattoos are out from Inkbox. They have a hefty price, but are pretty cool. You can check out the collection here. Finally for merch, Target is repressing Demon Days for an exclusive purple vinyl release. This is the 4th official repressing of the album, following the Vinyl Me Please reissue, the 2017 reissue, and the picture disc. You can pre-order the album here.

Finally, Gorillaz announced a North American tour supported by Jungle and Earthgang. It starts immediately after the current tour ends, tickets go on sale this Friday, with specific presales on Thursday. From my understanding, you can get tickets at your local venue, Ticketmaster, and you can find info along with the other dates at gorillaz.com/tour.

Well, that is a lot of news, My theory is that The Static Channel info will drop sometime between now and the end of the North American tour, or sometime after the tour. Well, nothing else here, so see you when info drops!

My Collection!

 Hello Gorillaz fans! Last post I promised a collection post, so here it is! Sorry for the bad image quality.

First, here is my whole collection in a messy pile.

Here are my CDs, everything is from the U.S. except singles.

Kids With Guns/El Mañana comes with a poster, so here it is.

Next, here is my only vinyl, The Now Now.

Here are my DVDs, I don’t have Slowboat to Hades.

Finally, this is what I like to call the merch corner. Here I have the 2 Plastic Beach mugs, a Hot Topic shirt, the Gorillaz Almanac, and a Bonsey stress ball.

That’s it, thanks for reading!

Kong Studios: A Life

 Welcome to my second ever blog post! Today i'm going to be talking about the history of Kong Studios, the Gorillaz personal studio and home. Surprisingly, there is actually a lot to talk about here, so let's get started.

PRE-GORILLAZ: 1665-1997

The hilltop where the building would be was used as a meeting point for gangs to hang out and smoke.

The land was used as a dumping ground for people killed in the Great Plague of 1665.

The first building built was the Khong Mansion, owned by Sir Emerick Khong. Murdoc once said his ghost is still walking around Kong,  mumbling for a glass of water. The last known owners before Gorillaz were a gang of bikers known as The Nomads. One night they were having a party with over 2,000 bikers crammed into the basement. A fire soon broke out, and someone had locked the doors so no one got out. According to Murdoc, "They all got burned to a crisp!"

ORIGINAL KONG STUDIOS: Phase 1: 1998-2003

In September of 1998, Murdoc found Kong Studios on the website giganticdisusedhauntedstudiosinthemiddleofnowhere.com. The owners were looking for an "offseason caretaker." When Murdoc showed up for the interview, the owners threw the keys at him and ran down the hill screaming. Murdoc knew he found his home. He along with 2-D moved in before kidnapping Russel and "receiving" Noodle. Murdoc wanted fans to see what the life of Gorillaz was like, so filled up Kong with a ton of cool stuff and set up cameras around the studio that were connected to gorillaz.com. During phase 1,  Kong had 2 games, Noodle Fight and Geep Simulator, a magazine section where viewers could see various articles about Gorillaz, a jukebox that played Gorillaz songs (which was the only place 911 was available on besides the promo vinyl), and various interactive things in most of the rooms. After Gorillaz left in 2002 to go on tour, 2D forgot to lock up the studio, and soon after the Spacemonkeyz broke in and stole the master tapes to the debut album and remixed it. Gorillaz soon found out after a CD signing after a concert, when Murdoc was handed an album he didn't know, dubbed Laika Come Home. I can go on about Gorillaz lore all day but for now, this is where I end the phase 1 story.

ORIGINAL KONG STUDIOS: Phase 2: 2004-2008

After Gorillaz broke up near 2002-2003, Kong was closed off by Essex authorities and was only accessible through a port-a-cabin set up near the studio. After Noodle came back in 2004, she found the place was filled with zombies, so she decided to get rid of them. While hiding in a closet in-between killing the zombies, Noodle had started ideas for Demon Days, the second album. Soon after she called her bandmates back to start recording, and Kong Studios was officially reopened on December 8, 2004 with the premiere of Rockit. This time around, Kong had outdone itself, with more games, more interactive stuff, and other things. This included a new room accessible through the Car Park which was an old underground bunker, complete with a hell hole (how pleasing!). This was found after Danger Mouse (Demon Days' producer) crashed Murdoc's Winnebago into a wall. Around March-April of 2006, moving boxes could be seen in Kong's lobby, which was later moved to Noodle's room. Soon after, the contents of her room were packed up and put on the flying windmill island (from Feel Good Inc.), which later flew away. This was the result of the El Mañana video, where afterwards Noodle was said to be dead and in hell. In a panic, 2D and Russel left the band, leaving Murdoc on his own, who soon after also abandoned Kong to take a trip around the world. The studio was then reclaimed by the surrounding environment before being burnt to the ground by Murdoc on July 25, 2008. Afterwards, he went to see the play Monkey: Journey to the West, before blaming the fire on some kids, who got thrown in jail. He later used the insurance money to build Plastic Beach, which is its own story for another day.

STUDIO 13: 2017-PRESENT

After the events of Plastic Beach, Murdoc moved into a new studio, Studio 13, to record a new Gorillaz album, which became Humanz. Although Studio 13 was used to record Humanz, during phase 4 the main Gorillaz HQ was the Spirit House. Gorillaz (apart from Murdoc) soon after returned to record The Now Now. After the band returned from traveling the world, they renamed Studio 13 to Kong Studios, which now had weird, unstable portals. The band filmed Song Machine episodes 1-5 at least partially at Kong. Episode 7 was filmed on a green screen, while Episode 8 had the garage a few seconds into the episode. Due to the big pandemic, Gorillaz were separated around the studio, with Murdoc building his time machine. Phase 6 lore is weird, and incomplete! After a sinkhole opened up under Kong, the band took a road trip in Murdoc's Winnebago, while promoting the Fred Perry collection. After recording the Meanwhile EP, nothing really is happening with Gorillaz, so I guess this is where I end this. Thanks for reading!

UPDATE 8/13/22

With the lore always being updated and phase 7 starting, I have updated this post to give more context (and to also fix some grammatical errors)

Apparently the sinkhole is still opened up under Kong, so Gorillaz moved to Los Angeles, California to record Cracker Island and hopefully a new album. This was found out through some Twitter posts, the Cracker Island video premiere, and Murdoc's Twitter Spaces Q&A.