Murdoc Pirate Radio 2 + Trailer (4/2)

Murdoc has done it again, sending out his second pirate radio broadcast, this time from AOL Radio's Top Alternative channel. For 45 minutes, Murdoc owned the radiowaves, spun some new songs from the upcoming Gorillaz album, as well as tracks from April March, Brian Wilson, Ray Davis, and Jim Carole. Check out the full broadcast on-demand below:

http://www.spinner.com/2010/02/03/gorillaz-murdoc-pirate-radio-show-broadcast/

And as we edge ever closer to revealing what's inside the Plastic Beach, you can now check out the latest Orchestral Trailer:

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Plastic Pre-Order & Q Cover (31/1)

Plastic Beach is available to pre-order on iTunes! Click to pick it up and get the brilliant new single Stylo delivered to your computer immediately! It's magic!

Select your store: USA | Worldwide | Europe

Meanwhile, the new edition of Q starring Gorillaz on the cover is now on newsstands. The cover feature contains a lengthy interview with the one and only Murdoc Niccals about how Plastic Beach came to be, and everything that led up to it, as well as some tasty bites from the album's co-collaborators. For a chance to win a signed copy of the cover artwork as well as other treats, click here...

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Murdoc Pirate Radio (22/1)

Gorillaz frontman Murdoc Niccals broadcasted a pirate radio show yesterday, hacking into Yahoo! LAUNCHcast’s Alt Rock channel and broadcast a 45-minute set of his favorite songs, which included tracks from the Dead Weather, Nancy Sinatra, Toots and the Maytals, and The Horrors.

The full broadcast can be heard in entirety KROQ.com, check it out by clicking here.

The playlist of the broadcast can be found below. To catch some glimpses of the "Plastic Beach" at Point Nemo (from where Murdoc launched his pirate broadcast), check out the video shots on the Gorillaz YouTube page or Gorillaz.com. New videos are being added daily.

Playlist from Murdoc's Pirate Broadcast - 21 Jan 10:
Track 1. The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother
Track 2. Kirk Douglas – A Whale of a Tale
Track 3. Le Tigre - The Island
Track 4. Fun Boy Three - The Lunatics Have Taken on the Asylum.
Track 5. The Horrors – Sea Within A Sea
Track 6. Nancy Sinatra – You Only Live Twice
Track 7. Toot and The Maytals – Sweet and Dandy.
Track 8.  Erika Eigen, I Want To Marry A Lighthouse Keeper (Clockwork Orange)

Be sure to tune in to Yahoo! LAUNCHcast’s Alt Rock channel for more Murdoc Pirate Radio, coming soon...

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PLASTIC BEACH ANNOUNCEMENT (21/1)

Plastic Beach, the new album from Gorillaz, will be released by Parlophone on 8 March, 2010.

The album is lead by a single Stylo (featuring Mos Def and Bobby Womack), which will be available for download from January 26th. The single is Zane Lowe’s "Hottest Record In The World." Confirming Stylo, Murdoc Niccals twittered: "A leak! A leak! Plastic Beach has sprung a leak! One of those Russian pirates has put a bullet hole in my island! My single's leaked! STYLO!"

Five years on from the release of Demon Days, Murdoc Niccals and co. return with Gorillaz. The band have taken up residence, recording on a secret floating island deep in the South Pacific, a Plastic Beach HQ, made up of the detritus, debris and washed up remnants of humanity. This Plastic Beach is the furthest point from any landmass on Earth; the most deserted spot on the planet.

As the world’s biggest animated band, Gorillaz formed in 1998, and have since sold 12 million copies over two albums Gorillaz (2001) and Demon Days (2005). They have hit number 1 in more than a dozen countries and picked up awards including Grammys, Novellos, VMAs and EMAs.

The Gorillaz return will be marked by a "tell all" feature in this month’s Q Magazine featuring a bespoke gatefold cover.

Plastic Beach is produced by Gorillaz.

The full tracklisting is as follows:
1. Orchestral Intro (featuring Sinfonia ViVA)
2. Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach (feat. Snoop Dogg and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
3. White Flag (feat. Kano, Bashy and The National Orchestra For Arabic Music)
4. Rhinestone Eyes
5. Stylo (feat. Bobby Womack and Mos Def)
6. Superfast Jellyfish (feat. Gruff Rhys and De La Soul)
7. Empire Ants (feat. Little Dragon)
8. Glitter Freeze (feat. Mark E Smith)
9. Some Kind Of Nature  (feat. Lou Reed)
10. On Melancholy Hill
11. Broken
12. Sweepstakes (feat. Mos Def & Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
13. Plastic Beach (feat. Mick Jones & Paul Simonon)
14. To Binge (feat. Little Dragon)
15. Cloud Of Unknowing (feat. Bobby Womack and Sinfonia ViVA)
16. Pirate Jet

Have a listen to the first single, Stylo, by clicking here.

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Plastic Beach Trailer + Coachella (20/1)

It's shaping up to be an exciting week for Gorillaz news (and more on that later) with not only the announcement of Gorillaz as headliners for this year's Coachella festival in California (tickets on sale from 22 Jan at 10am), but also with the release of this new teaser video, announcing the new album and website coming soon:

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Demon Day-ly Deal! (10/1)

Our friends over at Amazon's mp3 store would like to help whet your appetite for some more Gorillaz music - they've announced the Gorillaz classic album Demon Days as their "daily deal" for January 10! Head on over to amazon.com/mp3 or click here to pick it up... you can now get it cheaper than a pair of 2-D's smelly old used socks!

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Hewll Oxfam Adventure (13/10)

Gorillaz photographer and design advisor Jamie Hewlett has just taken part in a fantastic trip to Bangladesh in partnership with Oxfam, read on for the story...

Paintings by Jamie Hewlett, inspired from a trip to Bangladesh will feature in the climate change Under Water Colours Exhibition by Oxfam. The exhibition shows the human cost of climate change and includes films of Char Atra where Jamie visited, drawings by some of the children he met revealing how the rising water turns their lives upside down, as well as photographs and stories.

Location: Dray Walk Gallery, Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL

Date : 17 – 31 October, 2009, 10-6pm. Admission free.

There will be limited edition prints of Jamie’s paintings to buy in aid of Oxfam’s River Basin Programme, which works in Bangladesh and Nepal. Click here to view one of Jamie's illustrations from this exhibition.

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Bananaz Out Now! (2/6)

Ceri Levy's documentary Bananaz is now out on DVD! Snap it up and let us know how you like it! Pop down the shops to pick one up, and another for your friends, and another for your enemies, and if they're all out, click one of these:

HMV
Play.com
Amazon.co.uk

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Order Bananaz Worldwide! (19/5)

For those of you fans living outside the UK, we've got some handy links here where you can get your hands on the new Bananaz DVD:

Australia: JB Hifi Online
Denmark: CDon | Imusic
France: EMI Boutique
Switzerland: Ex Libris | CeDe.ch | Soundmedia.ch
Taiwan: Books.com.tw | G-Music.com

More countries on the way!

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Get Downloads & Pre-Order Bananaz Now (14/5)

In case you haven't seen yet, the Bananaz team have fired off a huge collection of downloadable goodies for your desktop. Why do work when you can watch the Bananaz screensaver? Check them out here.

Additionally, Bananaz is released on DVD from 1st June. Pre-order now from your preferred retailer:

HMV
Play.com
Amazon.co.uk

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Gorillaz Storm Babelgum, Murdoc Takes Credit? (29/4)

Fans.Gorillaz.Com popped down to the Babelgum Tribeca film festival party this week where, we are happy to report, Bananaz was all the rage! Ceri Levy's documentary has been taking the site by storm over the last week, with record streams coming in for the film.

Of course, surely this success is no doubt due to one Murdoc Niccals, who in a dispute with Ceri over on bananazfilm.com recently revealed "missing" Betamax footage from the film. This extra is worth a look - so pop on over to the Bananazfilm.com Blog and check it out!

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Bananaz: Watch Now! (20/4)

At long last, Gorillaz fans, the brilliant behind the scenes documentary Bananaz is now available for you to watch online, for free! Simply head on over to www.babelgum.com/gorillazgobananaz to watch the film now, or download the Babelgum app for your iPhone or iPod touch to take Bananaz on the go!

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Go Bananaz & Win! (13/4)

Babelgum and Ceri Levy have hooked up to offer Gorillaz fans some "very rare and exclusive prizes" in a new video contest. Fancy your chances in the UGC stakes, read on:

When director Ceri Levy hooked up with Babelgum's music editor over at the Banana Growers Club last week, they concocted a cunning plan to get YOU going Bananaz in support of the forthcoming Gorillaz documentary, 'Bananaz'. We will be launching a new video competition and there are hardly any rules. Show us your interpretation of 'going Bananaz' in 30-60 seconds; no Gorillaz imagery or Gorillaz music is allowable, and it has to be suitable for PG13 apart from that go wild; comedy, horror, melodrama and music hall all welcome. The top three silliest/funniest/most creative entries will win some very rare and exclusive Bananaz prizes, not to mention unlimited kudos from your fellow filmmakers.

Click over to the Bananaz Competition page here to enter!

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Murdoc vs. Ceri (9/4)

Well it was only a matter of time, and now it's well and truly kicked off over on the Bananazfilm.com blogs. Murdoc has lashed out at Bananaz director Ceri Levy, branding him a 'tosser' and leaving quite the nasty answerphone message to boot. Murdoc - who is also twittering @murdocgorillaz - claims that the Gorillaz documentary is inauthentic, much to the chagrin of the esteemed Mr. Levy.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to right the wrongs, Murdoc has offered Ceri some exclusive, prime footage not included in the film in a last ditch attempt to legitimise it. What will the footage be? Stay tuned to the Bananazfilm.com blogs...

... and while you're waiting to find out, why not have a go at the two new games, Banana Cannon and Head Pong on Bananafilm.com - click here to play!

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Bananaz and Apple in the LDN (30/3)

Fresh off the back of the successful trip to the Apple store in NYC, Ceri Levy brings the Bananaz roadshow to Apple's Regent Street store in the heart of London's W1 for a screening this Thursday, 2nd April at 6.30pm. Once more, Ceri takes the stage for Q&A with fans and the film's launch partner Babelgum will be on hand to talk all about their great platform.

Talking of Babelgum, all Gorillaz fans will want to check out their most excellent Gorillaz microsite at www.babelgum.com/gorillazgobananaz to view all sorts of great Gorillaz videos online and on iPhone/iPod Touch.

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Go Bananaz on Babelgum (23/3)

For those of you who can't make it to the screening tomorrow at the Apple Store in NYC, fear not! Bananaz has announced a partnership with Babelgum.com to premiere the film, streaming online from the 20th April!

Babelgum.com will also launch a Gorillaz channel, featuring live concerts, videos, two new games, a fan competition and exclusive Bananaz clips along with its four-week exclusive screening presentation of the film.

Subsequently, Bananaz has partnered with long-time label EMI to release the film threatrically as well as on DVD later this spring.

Bananaz is an un-sanitised, free-wheeling documentary film, taking down the virtual walls of Gorillaz in an intimate, honest and often hilarious account of the working relationship between Gorillaz' longtime co-collaborators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett and their extraordinary creative process.

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Bananaz in NYC (21/3)

Ceri Levy's brilliant Gorillaz documentary Bananaz will receive a super exclusive screening at the Apple store in SoHo, NYC on Tuesday 24th March at 6.30pm. Ceri will be in attendance and will be answering questions from the audience, as well as discussing the innovative distribution plans for the film.

Bananaz tells as complete a story as you will find about Gorillaz to date, and it was filmed over 2000-2006 by Levy himself. Stay tuned as we will be able to reveal further exciting news about the release of this film next week! And in the meantime to whet your appetite, why not head over to the Q&A section to read our interview with Ceri from last summer.

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Murdoc Speaks Out On Damon, Demos (14/1)

As anticipated, there seems to be a bit of a stir about why exactly The Good, The Blur & The Queen frontman Damon Albarn is waltzing into Radio 1 with some of the new Gorillaz demos later on today, and when we asked Gorillaz bassist Murdoc Niccals what was going on, he had this to say:

"Let's try and clear this up. As far as I can work out, I, Murdoc Niccals, the Gorillaz musical auteur, have been requested by the BBC to take over Zane Lowe's radio show this Wednesday between 7-9pm. Sounds simple. They want 'the guy who wrote all those Gorillaz tunes.'

"But now apparently 'Damon Albarn,' is hosting this farce and he's going to be playing some of the new Gorillaz demos, and 'would I like to maybe put in an appearance, say hello, kind of thing.'

"Surely, some kind of admin mistake. So yeah, folks, I'll put in an appearance this Wednesday, for sure. Let's find out who's hosting who, exactly."

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New Gorillaz Demos on R1 (11/1)

Following much speculation, we can confirm that Gorillaz' long time musical guidance counselor Damon Albarn will be making an on-air appearance on Radio 1, this upcoming Wednesday 14th January, between 7-9pm GMT.

The band has graciously given Damon the go-ahead to premiere some demos from the new record on air. It has also been hotly rumoured that Murdoc Niccals himself will make a special appearance.

While this story has been retracted from much of the media, we recommend you check out this post from our friends at Gorillaz-Unofficial who have retained the start to finish coverage since the whispers began!

Be sure to tune in at bbc.co.uk/radio1 this Wednesday, and be sure to chime in with your thoughts on the new tunes on the Forums!