Real artists and Gorillaz's success:
Gorillaz is an English cartoon band, which looks to be a really good one. It was created by Blur singer Damon Albarn and his pal Jamie Hewlett an illustrator and an author of Tank Girl comic series.
The group consist of: black eyed pretty-boy singer 2D, evil bassist Murdoc who likes to pretend he's the leader of the band, possessed drummer Russel and a little guitarist Noodle. Behind these cartoons Gorillaz are presented by a collective of artists and musicians like "workaholic" and mixing desk genius Dan "the automator" Nakamura (producer), Del Tha Funky Homosapien (rapper), Miho Hatori from Cibo Matto (vocals), Ibrahim Ferrer of the Buena Vista Social Club (vocals), Tina Weymouth of the Talking Heads, Kid Koala, Deltron 3030, and many others. Even we know the names of artists joining Gorillaz, we don't know exactly who is standing behind the cartoons, because the main producers want to keep it secret. Despite the huge number of protagonists who co-operate on this project, Gorillaz is not a short-termed project. Definitely their music sounds more like a collective work than an Albarn's side project. Probably that's why Albarn tries to stop everybody connecting him and Blur with Gorillaz. Even so everybody would make comparison between its sounds.
Their first album Gorillaz sounds like a good co-operation between each member who stands behind the cartoon band. It changes music styles and definitely has more than one good track. You can find rap, punk, rock and instrumental tracks here. And all that stuff is mixed so well that it looks like the members of the band have been around many years before. Good beginning for beginners (that 2D, Murdoc, Russel and Noodle are). The band doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.
All artists put into the protect piece of their minds. Albarn has fun sending up Blur's cheeky pop on songs like 5/4 and Re-Hash and trash pop on Punk and M1A1. Del Tha Funky Homosapien raps on Gorillaz's breaktrough single Clint Eastwood and on track Rock the House which he co-wrote with Dan the Automator. You can find Miho Hatori's voice at the first track Re-hash and on 19-2000 track.

At the beginning Damon and Jamie didn't expect such a big success. But after triumph, which came with the Clint Eastwood single accompanied with it's zombie hip-hop styled and brilliantly animated video Gorillaz became famous. And sound is almost as good as the band looks. Just take for example sweetheart blue-haired 2D, who brakes ladies hearts, or wicked Murdoc, who makes the band so cool, Noodle, who is so cute and peaceful Russel, who the big protector of these guys.
While you must listen to commercial lovely bands with a typical biography "he was born, he worked hard and so he's successful", Gorillaz are it's opposite. The fact that you have to believe that guitarist is 10 years old Japanese martial artist, that Murdoc is Satanist who fried cats, Russel is possessed by his dead pal Del and 2D is got two eyeball fractures and lied in coma, is unbelievable and funny. It looks like Gorillaz want to laugh into the faces of commercial artists.

Gorillaz's home is on web:
Gorillaz is very special virtual band who lives on the web (www.gorillaz.com - official site). Jamie said that they wanted to create something special, what is not similar with traditional websites. And Gorillaz's home page is special! It is not just a site where you can watch interviews, photos, bios or lyrics or click the buttons and download them if you want. You can get interactive here. You can visit bedrooms of each member of the band who lives at Kong Studios (which you can see at Rock the house video too)...except of Murdoc, who lives in his winnebago at Kong Studios carpark. You can snoop through the band member's computers, read personal e-mails and find out about upcoming endeavours (Jamie). For example, once when Murdoc lost his winnebago, he wanted fans to find it or just tell him if they saw it somewhere. Authors of this idea wanted to get into fan's attention and they successfully did.
Also on the band's official site you can find a Message Board, where kids are chatting away and once in a while one of the members of the band comes on and chat with them. Everybody is going raptures over it and it's damn cool. You can be a part of the site. And it is the way, how to be with cartoons and fans in contact.

How can cartoons performing live?
How Gorillaz make their gigs? Well it's simple. Real musicians perform behind a curtain, while Hewlett's animation is projected onto the screen. All together looks really messy. Few pictures of Birmingham gig you can find on Myra's site.

Jamie and Damon are so close to each other:
Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn both have studios in the same Notting Hill building. In Albarn's rooms you can find synthesisers, guitars and other music stuff, in Hewlett's rooms zombie posters hang on the walls and you can find here many interesting people sit generating Gorillaz graphic computers. And all this things are connected together perfectly in one band.

Spielberg and Gorillaz?
And finally a surprise: Gorillaz are planning to team up with Steven Spielberg to make a full-length animated feature film. We are all excited…

Similar music by style:
Alternative, Dance and DJ, Pop, Alternative Hip-Hop, Alternative Rock, Zombie Hip-Hop, Rap…

My inspiration: MTV news, bn.com Music, Flak magazine, Parlophone/Virgin,...