Gnarls Barkley

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Gnarls Barkley
Cee-Lo (foreground) and Danger Mouse (background)
Cee-Lo (foreground) and Danger Mouse (background)
Background information
Origin Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Genre(s) Neo Soul
Funk
Alternative
Alternative hip-hop
Years active 2003–present
Label(s) Downtown, Warner
Website Official website
Members
Cee-Lo
Danger Mouse

Gnarls Barkley is a Grammy award winning American musical collaboration between multi-instrumentalist and producer Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) from New York, and rapper/vocalist Cee-Lo Green (Thomas Callaway), from Atlanta. Their first album, St. Elsewhere, was released in 2006; it and their first hit, "Crazy", were major commercial successes, and were noted for their large sales by download. The duo released their second album, The Odd Couple, in March 2008.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Background

Cee-Lo first entered the scene as part of the Atlanta hip hop group Goodie Mob which had a large hand in the Dirty South Movement of the 1990s. Cee-Lo left the group after their third album in 1999 and started his solo career. That year he sang on "Do You Like the Way" along with Lauryn Hill (from Fugees fame) on Santana's multi-platinum Supernatural album. Cee-Lo released two solo albums, one in 2002, and one in 2004. Danger Mouse has produced for a number of hip-hop artists, and he produced Gorillaz' Grammy winning album Demon Days. He received national attention for his mash-up Grey Album, which blended samples from Jay-Z's The Black Album and the Beatles' White Album.

They first met in 2003 when Thomas Callaway was on a tour for which Danger Mouse happened to be the DJ. They began working together on the songs that would become the St. Elsewhere album; prior to the release of that album they collaborated on the songs "What You Sittin' On?" for Lex Records in 2004, and "Benzie Box" from the Dangerdoom album The Mouse and the Mask in 2005. They took the name Gnarls Barkley for their project as a duo. Burton explains the collaboration's name came from friends, "making up fictional celebrity names like Prince Gnarls and Bob Gnarley." When Heavens' Josiah Steinbrick came up with Gnarls Barkley, Burton wrote it down.[1] According to a Billboard article: "Burton and Cee-Lo have been cagey about what the name of the act means, and each live performance is an opportunity to play dress-up as tennis players, astronauts and chefs, among many other get-ups. The costuming extends to photo shoots, as Burton and Cee-Lo would rather impersonate characters from such films as "Back to the Future" or "Wayne's World." Cee-Lo even appeared at the MTV Movie Awards in a full Darth Vader outfit. (Burton was Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the rest of the backing band and singers also wore Star Wars costumes.)" [2] About Gnarls Barkley, Cee-Lo said in an interview: "That is that electric industrial Euro soul, that’s what I call it…if I can call it anything. It truly is shapeless and formless. My style and my approach is still water, and it runs so deep. So, with that project I got a chance to be a lil’ zany, of course a continuation of eccentricity, abstract and vague, and all of those wonderful things that make art exactly what it is. And that’s subject to interpretation. As far as the artiste himself, it does cater to and extend the legacy of Cee-Lo Green, and showcase the diversity and range and intention of Cee-Lo Green. It is a great project that I’m very, very proud of." [3]

[edit] St. Elsewhere (2006–2008)

Downtown/Atlantic in the U.S. and Warners Bros. Records in the UK signed the band after several songs including "Crazy" were played for them by Danger Mouse's management company Waxploitation.[4] "Crazy" was released as their first single on April 3, 2006, preceded by its release as digital download and 12" vinyl record single in March 2006. It gained some of its popularity due to its use on primetime BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe's television advert, and it was also made Record of the Week by Ken Bruce of BBC Radio 2, Scott Mills and Jo Whiley of BBC Radio 1 as well as being made 'Weekend Anthem' by DJ Spoony and Sara Cox (also of Radio 1). "Crazy" is the first ever single to top the UK singles chart purely on download sales as it was released online a week before it was released as a CD single.[5] It is also the first single to top the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks consecutively since 1994 when Wet Wet Wet's "Love Is All Around" was number one for 15 weeks (the last song to spend exactly nine weeks on top was "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood in 1984). It has also equaled the Queen 1975 classic "Bohemian Rhapsody", which also topped the UK singles chart for nine weeks. "Crazy" is also the longest number-one on the UK Official Download Chart with its stay lasting eleven consecutive weeks. Gnarls Barkley announced that as the record had spent its ninth week at number one, it was to be deleted as a vinyl/CD listing from May 28, 2006 so people will "remember the song fondly and not get sick of it".[6]

The group released their debut album, St. Elsewhere, on April 24, 2006 in the UK and on May 9, 2006 in the U.S.. For their American television debut on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, May 24, 2006, the band performed their smash hit, "Crazy". The band performed along with Christina Aguilera, AFI, and Wolfmother at the MTV Movie Awards 2006 on June 8, 2006.[7] They were dressed as characters from the film series Star Wars: Rebel Alliance pilots, Imperial officers, Stormtroopers, Chewbacca, Jango Fett, Obi-Wan, with Cee-Lo singing as an unmasked Darth Vader. In October 2006, Gnarls Barkley recorded a live session for Live from Abbey Road at Abbey Road Studios.

St. Elsewhere has been certified Platinum by the RIAA for selling over 1,000,000 albums in the U.S.. A limited edition deluxe package of St. Elsewhere was released on November 7, 2006. The CD+DVD package includes a 92-page booklet, four music videos and bonus songs from live performances. From January until March 2007, they toured with the Red Hot Chili Peppers through the United States of America. [1]

They did a collaborative short film in both the Spring of 2006 and 2007 with the international TV series Kung Faux which airs heavily on Channel V around the world, and they also toured Australia in March and April 2007 as part of the Channel V Festival.

The song "Go-Go Gadget Gospel" appears in the show 'The Boondocks sung by Rev. Rollo Goodlove, who was voiced by Cee-Lo.

[edit] The Odd Couple (2008–present)

In early March, 2008, Gnarls's much anticipated sophomore release, The Odd Couple, was leaked over the internet prompting the duo to push the release date up from April 8. On March 18, 2008, the album became available via download on the iTunes Music Store and Amazon MP3. Hard copies of the album were released on March 25.

They appeared as the musical guest on the April 12, 2008 episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live. They were supposed to be in a Digital Short parodying amateur music videos according to the scrolled text but only appeared in the singing performances of the live broadcast.

On November 11, 2008, they released an EP, Who's Gonna Save My Soul, featuring four versions of the song which originally appeared on The Odd Couple, along with a live version of "Neighbors" and a previously unreleased song, "Mystery Man." A music video for "Mystery Man" was directed by Walter Robot and premiered on Yahoo! Music.[8]

Cee-Lo stated in a recent interview that Gnarls Barkley will record another album.[9]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Year Album Chart positions Certifications
US UK AUS SWE
2006 St. Elsewhere 4 1 — —
2008 The Odd Couple 12 19 20 59
  • RIAA (US): 234,500[10]
  • CRIA (CAN): —
  • BPI (UK): —
"—" denotes the album failed to chart, not certified, or wasn't released

[edit] Singles

Year Single Chart positions Album
U.S. Hot 100 U.S. Pop 100 U.S. Adult U.S. Mod Rock UK
2006 "Crazy"[A] 2 2 1 7 1 St. Elsewhere
"Smiley Faces" — — — — 10
"Who Cares?"[B] — — — — 60
"Gone Daddy Gone"[B] — — 35 26 60
2008 "Run (I'm a Natural Disaster)" 114 64 — 35 32 The Odd Couple
"Going On" 88 64 — — 143
"Who's Gonna Save My Soul" — — — — —
"—" denotes the single failed to chart or wasn't released
Notes
  • A^ "Crazy" is currently certified 2× Multi-Platinum by the RIAA.
  • B^ "Who Cares?" and "Gone Daddy Gone" were released as a double a-side single in the UK.

[edit] Awards

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Fontina, Katalin (2006-12-09). "Heavens Interview". Spin Magazine. http://www.spinrecords.com/articles/heavens. Retrieved on 2008-01-13. 
  2. ^ http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/genre/e3ie48bde3ff6c458aa55b73c763ddf4c84
  3. ^ http://www.thickonline.com/interviews/index.php?mod=cnt&act=cnt&id=1143&page=2
  4. ^ "Interview - Josh Deutsch, A&R for Gnarls Barkley (No.1 UK) - Sep 04, 2006". HitQuarters. 2006. http://www.hitquarters.com/index.php3?page=intrview/2006/September4_0_0_1.html. Retrieved on 2006-11-09. 
  5. ^ "Crazy song makes musical history". BBC News. 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4870150.stm. Retrieved on 2006-04-02. 
  6. ^ "Gnarls Go Out On Top". The Daily Record. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/therazz/tm_objectid=17140356%26method=full%26siteid=66633%26headline=gnarls%2dgo%2dout%2don%2dtop%2d-name_page.html. Retrieved on 2006-05-28. 
  7. ^ 2007 Movie Awards Story | Justin, Luda To Appear At Movie Awards - Show Story | Headlines | MTV
  8. ^ Cohen, Jonathan (2008-10-22). "Gnarls Barkley Bares Its 'Soul' On New EP". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003876348. Retrieved on 2008-10-28. 
  9. ^ Cee-Lo Green: What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been | Features > HipHopDX.com
  10. ^ Billboard Top 200 R&B/Hip-Hop Soundscan (4/11/2009)
  11. ^ CNN.com, February 11, 2007

[edit] External links

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