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"It’s great music with brilliant visuals, a project that really fits the moment. The worldwide reaction has set up the U.S. release, with radio just now kicking in. Now, do you mind if I take my virtual tea?"
—Ray Cooper, Virgin Records America Co-President

GORILLAZ’ MONKEY BUSINESS

Animated Virgin Web Band Sells More Than 55k In First Week On Charts
The world’s going ape over Gorillaz…and the group doesn’t really exist, except in cyberspace.

The Virgin Records hip-hop cartoon collective and international sensation will hit the Top 30 in the U.S. this week, with more than 55k in sales after the label shipped almost 100k.

You’ve heard of bands breaking over the Internet, but Gorillaz were created as an animated band on the Web for the Web.

Virgin Records America Co-President Ray Cooper uploaded this response: "It’s great music with brilliant visuals, a project that really fits the moment. The worldwide reaction has set up the U.S. release, with radio just now kicking in. Now, do you mind if I take my virtual tea?"

The project is the brainchild of Blur’s Damon Albarn, S.F. hip-hop guru Dan "The Automator" Nakamura (a collaborator of Prince Paul in Handsome Boy Modeling School and Kool Keith) and comic book artist/designer Jamie Hewlett (creator of "Tank Girl"), who masterminded the band’s interactive cartoon website, www.gorillaz.com.

Other participants on the album include Del Tha Funky Homosapien, ex-Talking Head Tina Frantz, Cibo Matto’s Miho Hatori and "Buena Vista Social Club" vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer.

The cartoon character band members include keyboardist Murdoc, "a snaggle-toothed Svengali"; vocalist 2D with a "voice like an angel [and an] arse like a Satsuma"; drummer Russel, who sports "an enviable wardrobe and a private education," and guitarist Noodle, an "Asian axe princess, kick-ass riff-meister, martial-arts expert [and] little ice maiden." The deep website has the toon characters’ histories, downloadable tracks and details of their everyday lives.

•Gorillaz caught the ears of U.S. PoMo radio with the dance-hall dubwise track, "Clint Eastwood," but it was the band’s innovative website that got the buzz rolling after Albarn and Nakamura released a limited edition, four-track EP, "Tomorrow Comes Today," in the U.K. last November on EMI’s Parlophone label.

•Virgin has the full album for U.S. distribution, while worldwide marketing is being coordinated through EMI. "Gorillaz" has so far sold more than a million units in Europe and 300k in the U.K., where "Clint Eastwood" reached #2 on the singles charts and the album debuted Top Five. A second single, "19-2000," is about to drop there.

•The animated video for "Clint Eastwood" was added to MTV as Buzzworthy.com after substantial MTV2 airplay.

•The band is featured in Entertainment Weekly, Spin, Rolling Stone and Alternative Press.

•An Albarn-led group has been touring Europe by playing live behind a screen that projects the animated characters.

•A full webcast of their recent show in Paris can be seen at www.webchannel.fr/Gorillaz. A North American tour is slated for late summer.

EMI International Project Manager Jonathan Rice is handling the worldwide roll-out. "This has been a viral, word-of-mouth campaign. We wanted to build an underground phenomenon by spawning the world’s first credible cartoon band with the highest-quality web production and tools. The fans treat these characters as if they were real, and their appeal is universal. And EMI created me just to give this quote."

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