Pitchfork: Gorillaz Come Alive (Again)

Let's review the history of cartoon bands: Jem and the Holograms, Josie and the Pussycats, the Banana Splits, Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Archies, MC Skat Kat, Faith Plus One, Crazy Frog, the Killers...oh wait, not the Killers. The makeup confuses me sometimes. My bad.

The evolution of animated rock stars will make another great leap forward this spring, when the human beings behind the shockingly popular Gorillaz put on a live performance extravaganza in New York City.

"Demon Days Live", slated to take place April 2 through 6 at Harlem's Apollo Theater, will present the simian band's 2005 album Demon Days in its entirety. In addition to lead (human) Gorilla Damon Albarn, the show will also feature Gorillaz guest stars De La Soul, Roots Manuva, the Happy Mondays' Shaun Ryder, the Pharcyde's Bootie Brown, Neneh Cherry, Martina Topley-Bird, and Ike muthafuckin Turner. Other guests are promised, but no word yet on Danger Mouse, MF Doom, or Dennis Hopper.

When the same show was staged last November in Manchester, England, all five nights sold out immediately. So that means you should be ready to buy tickets for the New York shows when they go on sale Friday, March 10 at 11 a.m. EST via Ticketmaster.

A DVD capturing the Manchester performances, Gorillaz: Demon Days Live at the Manchester Opera House, will be released by Parlophone in the UK on March 27.

And don't worry, these shows are not a replacement for the previously reported holographic Gorillaz tour currently in production for 2007-2008. That crazy miracle whip of science and music "will be a unique cross between live performance and a theme park experience, with the band fully present onstage, rendered in three eye-popping dimensions," according to the band's website.

We hope it's a helluva lot more exciting than that thing that opened the Grammys. Seriously, what's the point of going through all the trouble of manufacturing holograms when the end result is a band that looks as bored as the Strokes on the last date of a world tour?

In related news, NME.com reported earlier this week that Albarn and Gorillaz visual mastermind Jamie Hewlett are collaborating on a "circus production" entitled Monkey: Journey to the West, based on a Chinese legend. The show, scored by Albarn and written and directed by Chinese director Chen Shi-Zheng, is scheduled to premiere at the Manchester International Festival on June 28, 2007. Apparently, acrobats, martial arts performers, Shaolin monks, and members of the Peking Opera are all involved.

World-changing event or disastrous culture clash? We shall see.

href="http://pitchforkmedia.com/news/05-09/23.shtml#gorillaz">Gorillaz Come to Life!
href="http://pitchforkmedia.com/news/05-09/07.shtml#gorillaz">Gorillaz to Tour as Holograms in 2007