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tobi-smp · 1 year

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are the gorillaz those guys with the animated music videos that have lore n stuff ??

context: [Link]

yeah they are !! I've been aware of them basically since I've had an internet connection, even if I wasn't always are of it, though I've been putting off getting Into them for basically as long specifically because I Did know there was a story but didn't know how to get into it

I watched a video essay on it the other day, and Specifically on the fact that their most ambitious story telling venture nearly killed the entire band. or more accurately Did kill it until the band reformed with sort of a soft reboot. the video is Really good, you can watch it here uwu [Link]

everything about it scratched the Sorting part of my brain, the nearly lost media the websites preserved through 15 year old youtube videos and walk throughs, the ambitious plotline left hanging by canon and yet never forgotten, the Everything

so ! I've started a project, that ended up turning into Two In One

first I wanted to collect All gorillaz media and put it roughly in order. all the music, all of the shorts, all of the commercials, specials, live appearances, books, interviews, podcasts, radio dramas, Etc Etc Etc that I could physically find on youtube into One Playlist. so if someone asks "how do find out more about gorillaz" it's all there baby

my Second task, which came to me as I was sorting and came across some True masterpieces from the fandom (such as three and half hours of a fandub audio book with in character voice acting, or finishing the animation for scrapped music videos that existed in the form of canon animatics).

and that's seeing how far I could get into crafting a cohesive and satisfying narrative for "plastic beach" (the aforementioned storyline that almost killed the series but fucked big time), Including An Ending, while still keeping it roughly in line with canon. and it turns out the answer to that is Pretty Damn Far.

I'm still working on that Huge Massive playlist, which is understandable since I started three days ago. (though it can be found here for anyone that wants to poke through it while it's under renovations [Link])

But I decided to make Another playlist that's Just all of the songs and all of the shorts for phases 1-3 in one place. Because it's less intimidating for new fans (that don't hyperfix instantly like me jfkladsjklfads), for Binging Purposes (which you wanna just let all the videos autoplay without having to skip around a 5 episode pirate drama), And because it's Finished jklfdasjklfads

so ! If you wanna watch all of the first half of gorillas, including a Finished Plastic Beach, Click here [Link]

I'll probably make another playlist like that for phase 4-present once I finish the main playlist ! I like the idea of keeping them separate both because it just feels right with the sort of soft reboot that happened between them, And so that I can justify shoving the recent songs that Do reference the plastic beach story line into phase 1-3 playlist without having to break the continuity of the 4-7 playlist, Like This

I'm Almost Certainly gonna make another, Shorter, announcement once all of the playlists are Done. but ! I'm happy to get the chance to do it now too fjksldaljkfsad

@sunlitmcgee

#gorillaz #plastic beach

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collark · 2 years

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wahoo! hello gorillaz fandom. i have finally reached my breaking point and decided to dedicate a blog to the unending unending thoughts i have about this silly little band! preepmtive thank you to @snobgoblin for letting me have my quick ramble about this in their askbox before i decided i needed to make a whole blog!

so. let’s talk about murdoc niccals.

one thing that’s always struck me as odd about murdoc, as someone whose family comes from stoke-on-trent, is how.. un-stokie he is. this is the place that defined his childhood after all, and considering just how distinct a potteries accent is, you’d think we’d see that at least a little in his portrayal.

now, obviously, the real life answer for this lies in his voice actor. phil cornwell is from leigh-on-sea, and with all the love and respect for his murdoc voice acting in the world, i am really quite happy not hearing someone from so far down south mimicking my accent.

but from a character perspective.. it opens up something really interesting. remember pirate radio? episode 2?

Oh, I went all Northern then. (bad Northern England accent) Oh, ‘ey, it's Murdoc from up North! Sounds funny, dun’t it? (laughs at himself, drops the accent)

murdoc’s accent slips, and he plays it off as a joke shortly afterward. he plays just for a moment at sounding northern. my proposal is this: murdoc has been intentionally masking his accent this entire time.

so why would he do this?

the first answer is the most immediately obvious. murdoc fucking hates the city he grew up in. of course he does! every single worst memory he’s had has been formed there. it’s the home of his drunkard father, it’s where he was bullied and abused. it makes sense that murdoc would want to distance himself from that as much as possible. and by teaching himself to speak in more southern, far less accented english, he severs his most obvious tie to the place without having to lift a finger.

the second is a little more complicated, if you’re not someone used to how classism works and is perpetuated in the uk. here, class status and accent are deeply, intrinsically linked. certain manners of speaking are incredibly localised to single towns and cities rather than states or counties. and thick accents, especially thick accents from areas in the north that face staggering rates of deprivation, are considered to be markers of the working class and unintelligent. i personally mask my own accent when interacting with people in professional settings due to a fear of not being taken seriously if i speak freely; i’ve seen reviews of stores in poorer cities complaining that employees there “make no effort to disguise their working class accents”.

and murdoc, well, he’s a man that wants- needs to be taken seriously. he would not be able to stand anybody being able to tell his background from the way he speaks. when you want to be someone with power and control you don’t want to open your mouth and have everybody know you grew up in one of the poorest places in the country. murdoc would absolutely loathe to appear anything but high-class. he knows full well that people would take him less seriously if he spoke the way he was raised to.

(there’s a really good poem on this problem by the way!)

and i think that the best example i can give of this actually is 2-d. in the early phases especially, 2-d having a typically working class accent is exaggerated for laughs, used to make him seem stupider in the eyes of their audience. 2-d and his unapologetic, unashamed use of his accent (which by the way is closer to a mockney accent than one from sussex, but i digress) perfectly embodies everything that murdoc would want to avoid about his own.

so it seems reasonable all in all to believe that the reason murdoc, despite coming from an area with an obvious and distinctive dialect, doesn’t use it.. is because he’s trained himself out of speaking that way.

i think in general with the gorillaz fandom there tends to be a lot of untapped potential when it comes to thinking about murdoc’s character in regards to his origin. and i can’t fault the fandom on that! a lot of gorillaz fans are american and probably only know stoke on trent exists because of murdoc. so if you’ve read this far (thank you! :D) let me provide you with a couple of fun ideas!!

accent/dialect slipping. maybe when he’s drunk and emotional (like pirate radio), or maybe just in moments where he has his guard down. noodle coming to sit with him and he greets her with “ayup, duck?” and refuses to ever acknowledge it left his mouth

having a habit of checking the trade marks on the bottoms of his ceramics, refusing to buy anything he doesn’t know is good bloody pottery.

oatcakes as a comfort food <3 this one is definitely just me projecting btw

i dunno! i just feel like with 2-d and murdoc especially their hometowns are treated as.. where they were born, and that’s that. i think it’s interesting to think about how these places would’ve actually shaped them, yaknow?

anyway this hereby concludes my essay on murdoc niccals, classism and how i excuse phil being southern <3

#murdoc niccals #stuart pot #2-d #2-d gorillaz #2d gorillaz #murdoc gorillaz #meta #i guess?#headcanons #gorillaz #synthspeak

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chalkxtabletxtowers · 10 months

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bit dramatic lol

YEAH because, Murdoc is a dramatic character. He thrives on drama, and he thrives on making a huge show out of everything, particularly and most notably Gorillaz. Besides that, he is also a unreliable narrator, a lot of what he says can not be taken at face value, because he either straight up lies, or exaggerates his claims to make them seem more exciting, even sometimes turning them into the downright absurd or unbelievable

But it's all part of the Gorillaz show, all part of his staging, with him at the top (of course), and the others being mere marionettes or companions. You could argue that him making sure 2Ds eyes stay black, or him wearing a cape to seem more dramatic, is all part of that staging.

Considering all of this, this quote and especially pirate radio in general, is relatively raw especially for Murdoc, he's letting his true feelings and true desperation shine through, and reveals his own suffering in and on Plastic Beach. Seeing it like this, yes you could argue the quote is dramatic, but it fits in.

#gorillaz #Murdoc Niccals #i could analyse this man for hours and not get bored #I'm pointing at him like an animal at the zoo

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earthtourist · 5 months

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Am I a shadow musician? ✹ How music keeps me going.

Am I living thru the lives of my audio engineer partner, friends, and the music I listen to? Because I’m not an active musician, I’ve never taken the time to reflect on my musical journey. But sheesh, it’s been there all this time and is here to stay. And more than ever, I’ve been having a calling to make music. But before I dive into that, let’s pay tribute to everything that’s led to where I musically am so far. (As a pretext, you’ll see me mentioning different places. I have attended 11 different schools, moved 12 times and lived in 8 cities across the US.)

Although my parents aren’t the most musically aware (their taste in music is strictly The Beatles, Elvis, and Filipino serenades)- I always had an affinity towards music. I recall my parents getting me my first keyboard. Then eventually heavy-weighted piano which still sits in my living room today. The piano lessons which I honestly despised because my young wild mind couldn’t sit still. Nonetheless, I never failed at performing for my relatives at family parties. And we never failed at singing cheesy Filipino renditions of f pop songs on Magic Mike. Because my family was extremely poor and didn’t like me listening to “trashy radio music”, the only CDs I had at the time were Gorillaz - Demon Days and The Black Eyed Peas - Monkey Business. Luckily, now-that-I-think-about-it, I had the gift of being part of the golden Limewire/pirating era. Literally remember being 10 years old (2006), downloading London Bridge By Fergie. Damn did we all destroy our parents’ computers, but at least we had all of the .FLAC files to our hearts’ content.

Middle school was when I first entered a formal musical setting. In 7th grade, I learned an embarrassingly masculine instrument. A more mellow and melodic low brass instrument, the baritone/euphonium. But unfortunately resembled a tuba. I absolutely loved band. I was pretty bullied when I first moved to Florida in 6th grade. So the movement I got away from my racist enemies, I found my hobby and went all in. Immediately signed up for Jazz Band as a keyboardist and insisted on proving myself. By 8th grade, I had a sort of an identity crisis and embraced my scene/emo kid side- but never let go of the band nerd inside. I became first chair in advanced band then switched to trombone, where I got to learn how to improve on stage. My parents weren’t the most pleased and never went to my concerts. This continued throughout high school, and eventually had the same response to my art career. But that’s a story for another. Although they weren’t the most thrilled- they still did the minimal support to at least keep me happy. Admittedly, my musical taste was pretty trash! A weird mixture of metal artists (Fall Out Boy, Paramore, The Devil Wears Prada, Lamb of God), ska (I LOVED Big D and the Kids Tables), and pop (Regina Spektor, Bjork - these two artists I give total credit to Allison). Aside from getting separated from my family at a Backstreet Boys concert when I was 7 years old- I have insane early memories from Warped tour. I’m having trouble remembering the band. But it was the middle of the Florida summer, with me heat-wave disoriented standing in the middle of the pit. The singer announces something intelligible. The crowd splits and at the count of 3, 2, 1- I realized that I too, am suddenly rushing towards the center. I immediately am shoved to the ground as piles of skinny men fall onto me. With nothing but my scrawny arm left- I reach upwards. Low and behold it’s my tuba playing classmate Charles, who helps me up.

In high school, the music department of VHS became my refuge. Students at my middle school were split between the beachside and inland school. I bid farewell to Kristen, Isabella, Alyssa, Lauren, and Alec. Although entering high school was always awkward, the band room became a place where I truly became myself. Learned to be loud, talkative, creative, competitive- and thrive around other people with the same passions. I had such a powerful friend group. Michelle, Lauren, Taylor, Kara, Jacob, Joseph, Allison, etc. But also honestly, every member of the music department was so endearing, sweet and creative. I found my place and became obsessed. All of my elective courses were taken up by Chamber Winds, Jazz Band, Marching Band, and Wind Ensemble. This might not sound much to you, but all of this involves going to school in the summer, before school starts, and after.

We had the best community an insecure but creative kid would ever want. What really helped is that I had these really extremely passionate band directors, Nick Egan and Wayne Bressette. Mr. Egan would have these huge emotional fits when we wouldn’t march the right way. Or if a section blatantly didn’t practice. But at the same time, we all loved him. He was incredibly encouraging and knew how talented we were. We later discovered it was because he was having huge family problems at the time. My life was still troubled at the time. But he always pushed me to try for All-State/County. Motivated me to go to the closest and most magical thing I ever experienced to Hogwarts, band camp at FSU. He even had me audition to become section leader after he found out I was moving. Maybe it’s because he was used to be a euphonium teacher too. But wow- thank you.

youtube

All of this probably has to do with the fact that that the South takes football seriously. And sequentially, marching bands were epic. And I mean fucking epic. We were the little nerds that helped fill the stadiums and work up the crowed. We practiced for weeks during the summer Florida heat waves. Spent our Friday nights at football games in the rain. Getting high off the bus chants and sweaty fumes. We recording every show and marching rehearsal. I remember one hood-ass band performed these hip-hop trap bangers that riled up the whole field. I’ll never forget those sober and energetic nights.

After moving to Massachusetts, although I attended band for my sophomore year, I chose not to continue the following. The Southern passion unfortunately wasn’t found there. Don’t get me wrong, there were some talented musicians. But god we sucked. There was only one level. Even though I was the top trombonist, I was forced to be 2nd because the older students had seniority. No jazz band. Marching band was still a thing I guess, and we had these town parade where band moms kept an eye of who was about to pass out from the sun. I remember when a flag twirler permanently knocked my front tooth into its now-half-crooked angle. My highlight from the Acton-Boxborough band was the DC trip for the cherry blossom parade. It’s not their fault. It is honestly just because New England schools care more about education than football and band…

The biggest blessing from being at ABHS is that’s how I found my friend group. Kris Roman was a saxophonist whom I knew was in my grade but also in band. But one day in my English class I noticed Kris wearing a light blue band shirt I also had! It was some random ska band (Maybe Less than Jake, Might Might Bossstones, Street Light Manifesto, or Big D & the Kids Table) which was freaking random. Eventually, he put up a flyer that he was having a ska show, which sparked my curiosity. At some point, he had Kevin, the singer DM on Facebook and was eventually added to the friend group. Little did I know, they had dubbed me as trombone girl. They invited me to band practice one day, and then suddenly I was in Mad Frolick. I played maybe 3 shows total and fucking loved it. Eventually, band practice turned into just smoking weed and drinking. I officially no longer attended band class. We got more into listening and enjoying than performing. Except for Kris who got into Berklee! Our whole crew was really into music, but me, Kris, and Colin were really into deep cuts. For example, I honestly wasn’t super into hip hop until Colin showed me the The Beatles X Wu Tang compilation. But I remember then getting really into witch house, trap, trip-hop. That was an epic music phase that paved the way for entering my first cultural experience and city: Boston.

Boston. Oh Boston. This will honestly need to be detailed for another day. But simply put. Having never lived in a city, and entering as a rebellious music nerd was wild. And taste-wise, I learned an immense amount about punk, EDM, deep house, and alternative hip hip. Now that I think about it, this is the first time I’ve ever revisited my time in Massachusetts. I’ve been extremely avoidant of the topic due to how painful the memories are. To the point that I forgot about all the other wonderful memories in between.

Skipping thru Boston, I made it back to my home state of California. But this time, in Santa Barbara, I landed in LA. My time spent in Santa Barbara didn’t go as planned. What started as an optimistic move to begin a new life, ended with another cool set of friends which I called “the tribe”. Ultimately, fled after one year due to a lost sense of self due to partying. It was a fun and frantic blur to say the least. But an eye-opening one that pushed my limits. Who knew that such a beautiful place could hold so much chaos. Those Santa Barbarians. My musical obsession took a bit of a turn there. Where I was forced to play music for a more skater turn-up type of crowd. Learned my bit about sad boy $uicideboys, hyphy Mac Dre, some electronic, and hmmm. Yup, that’s about it! Definitely didn’t spend as much time researching music, but hey- at least it was a good time.

After nearly dying in Santa Barbara, I finally convinced my parents that I wasn’t going to major in anything they wanted. Moved further down the coast, and ended up becoming a graphic designer in in the music industry of Los Angeles. (To this day, my dad still asks if I’m interested in going back to school for coding. But I still love him~). Finally living my dream, I initially lived alone- which allowed me much more freedom for my audiophile tendencies. There was a great deal of healing involved. What seemed to really help with keeping was indulging in the world of new music. As new chapters and events in my life happened, I tended to need a new genre to ease into the transitions. My musical phases ranged from dream psych, post punk, cold wave, electro pop, hyperpop, folktronica, UK garage, all things indie, french house, philly shoegaze, world folk, etc etc. I give huge credit to Spotify's radio, similar artists, and "create similar playlist feature". I experienced the horrors of working as an assistant at a music PR firm. Not that the job was bad, it was more of the revealing truths of working in the music industry. It’s a low-paying, unappreciated, but self-fulfilling sector. Learned how hard and what it takes to become a successful musician. I’ve made incredible friendships within the Berklee alumni. Then started a business with my incredibly talented audio-engineering boyfriend. Someone who I utterly adore and, best of all, shares nearly the same exact music taste- it’s unreal. So here, in the present day, I can’t believe I had a whole narrative to write about my musical journey. It was awesome framing things thru the lens of music. I often find myself wondering what my life would’ve been like I actually pursued my love of music. But the reality is- I always have. Music, annoyingly clichely put, has been my anchor all this time. And will probably continue to be my beam of light in the now and in the future.

follow me on Substack for my latest musings. Check out my Spotify Playlists here.

#marching band #marching season #band geek #band nerd #musician #music #shadow artist #the artist's way #blog #blogger #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #female writers #Youtube

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