So what is Cerebus Syndrome, and how do you know if you’ve got it? Well don’t worry it’s a term coined from TV Tropes, not an actual disease. The term was inspired by Aardvark Vanheim’s (Dave Sim’s self publishing name) series Cerebus the Aardvark. Fortunately to understand what it is you don’t have to be overly familiar with the World’s longest continuous narrative (it’s 500 issues of the same story), what it means is something that starts off as something silly or comedic and over the course of it’s story because more serious. As a perfect example of this in every regard I present to the committee the virtual band The Gorillaz.
The Gorillaz were created by Damon Albarn from Blur and Comic Book Artist Jamie Hewlett then best known for co-creating Tank Girl. Albarn’s band Blur had recently broken up and had lost the war of Brit-Pop to their rivals Oasis. The band were on a critical and commercial decline since losing lead Guitarist Graham Coxon and became a more experimental band (the later Blur stuff is almost a prototype for the Gorillaz sound) and while living with Jamie Hewlett whose most famous creation got made into a movie. This movie was not a critical darling either, but this was to be expected. Movies based on comic books were not universally beloved at this point, the world was recovering from Batman and Robin and even worse Steel starring Shaquel O’Neal. Imagine what was needed for a British comic being forced to fit the guidelines of A MOVIE and a PG-13 movie for a general American audience. Sex with her mutated Kangaroo boyfriend who she first met when he tried to steal her underwear would not fly, not to mention stories for Tank Girl are generally short and in Hewlett’s own words on BBC4’s Comic’s Britannia Documentary series “not works of great storytelling, they’re just an excuse to have her blow things up”. He’s not wrong, Tank Girl is at it’s best when it’s short and weird, breaking what it means to be a comic, the movie does try this but to absolutely no success. Instead of feeling in on the joke the whole movie is an incoherent LSD trip with a random musical number and an awesome soundtrack featuring a reworking Girl U Want by Devo and something to do with the badguy hoarding water.
Albarn and Hewlett first conceived of the idea of a virtual band when watching MTV and both sharing the thought everything is so artificial. Realising the logic conclusion to this was to make a band that didn’t actually exist. Hewlett came up with designs for the band based on what was popular at the time, the band consisted of; Murdoc Niccals on Bass. A Satanist who in his earliest incarnations looks like a Hanna Barbera villain and based on the darker Nu Metal. 2-D or Stu Pott as the Vocalist with dead black eyes and looking like he came from a pop punk band. Russell Hobbs on Drums who looks like the bodyguard to a famous Rapper and was told to look inconspicuous and lastly and certainly not least Noodle a 10 year old Japanese girl inspired by the UK’s Pokemon inspired obsession with all things Otaku and Oriental.
The Band now with Dan the Automator (added in the real world not as a fictional character) released an EP that could almost be a mission statement “Tomorrow Comes Today”. From there the progression was obvious a full album, with more people working on it, including Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz from the Talking Heads, Miho Hitorai (who would share the role of the voice of Noodle on the album with Tina Weymouth) and most notably Del The Funkee Homo Sapien who would get a character for himself and would appear in the music videos for Clint Eastwood and Rock the House. The Album also gave Albarn more freedom than he would’ve had with Blur, as nobody had any real expectations, so with this freedom he mixed genres like indie rock, reggae and hip hop together. As well as sampling George Romero’s Day of the Dead for the song M1 A1.
The Gorillaz first album was overall fun, but what would you expect from a band with a now really cringe-worthy Z on the end of it’s name. The band would next release an album of B-Sides and remixes called “G-Sides”. But with this came the first forming of Gorillaz lore found on their website, and I don’t think anybody other than Jamie Hewlett could’ve come up with this. Highlights from it include Noodles favourite method of transportation being Fed-exing herself to her intended location, Murdoc and 2-D first meeting when Murdoc ran him over, then 2-D being in a coma, Murdoc kidnapped him and then getting into another car crash but this one woke 2-D out of his coma (as well as detaching his retinas and knocking out his front teeth).
Other than Laika Come Home which was a Dub-Reggae remix album (which in fictional universe was explained by 2-D never locked the door to Kong Studios and the Spacemonkeyz got in) was Demon Days. The Album was conceived while Jamie Hewlett was working on trying to get a Gorillaz movie green-lit, by Damon Albarn in china. This time any ideas of artificiality or Bubble Gum where gone, they had to prove they where more than a gimmick. This album was much darker, the kids trying to“get the cool shoe-shine” were now “Kids With Guns”. The Albums most haunting track is probably Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s head, which is almost a bedtime story warning against greed as a mountain god is angry. The Album also boasted a more robust ensemble of musicians, but this time produced by Danger Mouse (not David Jason or Alexander Armstrong) and not Dan the Automator. The mindset behind the telling of “the Gorillaz story” also seemed more important, with the music videos being more steeped in symbolism (Feel Good Inc and El Manna) but as to not alienate more casual fans not all videos told a story. While Feel Good Inc’s would only set up for El Manna, the story within Feel Good Inc had a deep meaning, I’m sure. Nobody seems quite sure, I personally think of it as being about 2-D being uncomfortable with his fame, while Murdoc and Russell are enjoying the perks that come with it and Noodle is oblivious and still enjoys making music (this being why she is outside of the windmill). El Manna takes place on the flying Windmill as Jimmy Manson (a guy Murdoc said could join the band before Noodle) tries to kill her to take her place in the band. The Video ends with Noodle being missing and this has consequences for the band in the future (even if they never hear from Jimmy again).
The next album The Plastic Beach, was more focused on the characters and the storytelling. While the set up wasn’t told via music video all of the promotional videos for the album told a continuing story with the exception of Superfast Jellyfish. The story goes; Murdoc now strapped for cash having spent all the money from Demon Days on sex, drugs, around the world cruises etc. realised what he needs to get more money is to produce another album. Having promised to do that and hiring all the talent he could get to help like; Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg and De La Soul who wouldn’t come cheap. But he refused to work with Doom and Dennis Hopper like he did on the last album. He was now broke again, so he got a loan and help from the Demonic Gangster he originally sold his soul to give him a loan and help in locating the other members of the band. The only member he could locate was 2-D, who the pair kidnapped. Murdoc came up with handy solutions as to how he could replace the other 2, for Russell he bought a Drum Machine and as for Noodle ,well, he still had some of her DNA so he made a cyborg clone of her. Now in debt to his record label, all the albums collaborators and a Demonic Gangster, the solution was obvious, rob a bank. This is when the video for Stylo (featuring Mos Def) start our story with the 3 on the run, and I don’t think they’d get very far considering they’re a conspicuous trio of a green skinned satanist, an asian teenager and a blue haired man. In the escape from the cops (well, one cop John McClane from Die Hard) Cyborg Noodle is shot. The next video is On Melancholy Hill which has Murdoc piloting a submarine in an escape while 2-D is in the back trying to fix the broken Cyborg Noodle. The Real Noodle is trying to get to the Plastic beach (a man made structure of discarded plastic floating in the middle of the sea which Murdoc has built their new studio on so he doesn’t have to pay taxes to any government, and they need a new studio after he burned down Kong Studios for the insurance money) and her bumping into bandmate Russell who is now a giant after eating Radioactive Jellyfish. All the while the other collaborators are trying to get to the island to get their payments from Murdoc. The last part to this story is the unfinished Rhinestone Eyes (Hewlett and Albarn had already spent the entire animation budget). This leads to Noodle and Russell reuniting with Murdoc, Murdoc coming face to face with his evil bank manager and 2-D getting eaten by a Whale.
The next release from the band was The Fall which is was recorded by Albarn almost entirely on his iPad. But it has a real problem with it as it’s supposed to be a tour diary for 2-D but he’s supposed to be inside a whale. The other ignored release from the Gorillaz was a promotional tie-in with Converse called Do-Ya-Thing, which has a video that doesn’t fit in with story continuity especially as before the release of Humanz Jamie Hewlett made some instagram posts about the band and what they where doing during the bands 7 year hiatus. Now part of me thinks the hiatus was really so they could unveil the new sexy Noodle, because when Hewlett was asked about it in promotion for his return to Tank Girl and the earlier work being reprinted by image Comics as “he was bored of drawing those characters”.
Humanz was released and the music videos continued to tell a story for the Gorillaz but… on the album itself it felt if they where absent. Many fans (myself included) where disappointed with this, it didn’t sound like Gorillaz, sure for promotion the band would now do interviews with Phil Cornwell and Kevin Bishop (as Murdoc and 2-D) interacting with the interviewer and in real time being rendered in 3d animation. Helping them to do all the things a real band could do. Advances in technology also allowed for the Gorillaz to do updates about what was going on in their world and each of the members has been known to create their own Spotify playlist.
The displeasure of some fans caused Albarn to try and correct this by recording the album The Now Now (less than a year after the release of the last album) and this time guest collaborators were at a minimum and the inherent sadness that was present on Demon Days and The Plastic Beach was back. They addressed a criticism which is something you don’t do unless you’re dedicated to doing something.
But what does the future hold for the Gorillaz, well another album is (at the time of writing) in the works and this is confirmed and rumours are circling about an animated series. I really hope this is true because this would make the whole storyline of the Gorillaz easier to find and less of an easter egg hunt. I genuinely spent some time trying to work out if there is some sort of code to do with them wearing hats. An animated series for the Gorillaz would also fit nicely with Adult Swim with them ordering 70 episodes of Rick and Morty for it’s 4th Season they’re going to need a companion series for their biggest hit ever, and Warner Bros already owns Adult Swim and the Gorillaz.
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