Given Gorillaz Murdoc Niccal’s affinity for cheesy Australian tunes and cinematic steretypes, he might be shocked when he arrives this December to a land of… frankly, stunning, sophisticated, non-Paul Hogan types. And to be honest, he’s the cartoon character, right?

So the question is: are you more excited for Jamie Hewlett’s Murdoc, 2D, Cyborg Noodle, and Russel… OR for Damon Albarn and his magnificent live crew of Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack, Shaun Ryder, Gruff  Rhys & co? (let’s see who makes it to Oz).

Having seen the Gorillaz live shows roll out across the UK and US, it looks like we’ll be experiencing the best of both worlds. UK music journo Sasha Perrera described their Camden Roundhouse gig as “a two-hour bonanza of musical entertainment boasting a stacked deck of outstanding collaborators and musicians, overlooked by a giant video screen with interactive, animated visuals.”

So without any further ado, we present Gorillaz first ever Australian shows this December:

• Monday, Dec 6 – Burswood Dome, Perth
• Wednesday, Dec 8 – Entertainment Centre, Adelaide
• Saturday, Dec 11 – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
• Thursday, Dec 16 Dec – Entertainment Centre, Sydney
• Sunday, Dec 19 – Entertainment Centre, Brisbane

Tickets for all shows on sale August 6 at 9AM.

(When I was a teen, I played Clint Eastwood 100x in a row to commit every single line to memory. Now we get to sing it with 2D. Hells yes.)

Well, the beautiful beautiful thing that is Glastonbury Festival is over for another year. The sun was uncharacteristically, um… out, and the incredible line-up were out in full force celebrating the UK festival’s 40th birthday!

image courtesy of Brothers Cider

Our fellow In Sounder Sarah attended, so we’ll hopefully have a full Glasto report coming from her soon (unless we’ve lost her to the stone circle and herbal highs tent). Stay tuned!

In the meantime, please check these Gorillaz and Empire of the Sun clips because they are utterly epic! Damon Is God, ya dig?

Snoop & the band absolutley kiiiiiilling Clint Eastwood

Lou Reed! Lou Reed! Lou Reed!

The legendary Mark E. Smith giving Damon a soundgasm

Empire of the Sun’s We Are The People (who rule the muddy fields of Glastonbury)
PS, check out this interview with Emperor Luke Steele on Dots & Dashes!

Peace, love & mud that smells very, very wrong!

Happy Naughty 40 to our beloved Glasto!

We all saw Stylo, the first video from the Gorillaz album Plastic Beach starring none other than the animated Gorillaz and Bruce Willis. Remember how their Chevrolet Camaro crashed into the ocean, conveniently transforming into a shark submarine?

The saga picks up where we left off the next installation, On Melancholy Hill. Murdoc, 2D, and Cyborg Noodle travel though the deep blue waters of the South Pacific in their shark/submarine/car/inexplicable-feat-of-engineering, meeting up with fellow underwater adventurers Lou Reed, De La Soul, Gruff Rhys, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon from The Clash, and Snoop.

Original Gorillaz band members Russell and the real-flesh Noodle (she’s alive!) reappear as the whole posse make their way to the mystical Plastic Beach. I could tell you more, but Murdoc does a far better job explaining his experience first hand here.

Watch On Melancholy Hill on YouTube

The incredible video was yet again created by the very talented Jamie Hewlett and his team, and is available for download on iTunes now, whilst the single is released on July 23.

iTunes will be the first to show the world the new Gorillaz for On Melancholy Hill video on June 15 from the guys album Plastic Beach.

For a preview of the video check out the below… could that be the real Noodle (as opposed to Cyborg Noodle) under that mask? Looks like her work!

Also the “real” leader of the Gorillaz, Murdoc, spoke to the Hot30 team on Monday… catch his funny (even a little bit flirty!) interview on the Hot 30 podcast.

Plastic Beach out now.

Stay tuned for more exciting Gorillaz annoucements really soon I hope!

You may have heard about Cyborg Noodle and witnessed her getting shot in the Stylo video and short circuiting but what’s the story and how was she made? When Murdoc decided to it was time to re-assemble the Gorillaz band to record Plastic Beach, Noodle was gone, feared killed in the catastrophe epic El Manana video… cast your mind back.

El Manana by Gorillaz

No problemo. Murdoc had scraped up remnants of Noodle’s DNA from the El Manana crash site a long while back and had these shipped over to Plastic Beach by stork. Using cunning and ingenuity he creates a Noodle Cyborg, an android replica of his previous Gorillaz compadre! A fully operational life-sized Robot Noodle, the world’s premier guitarist! You can see some of the making of right here:

Plastic Beach is out now and there is more Gorillaz news to come soon

I have nothing else to say – watch the this and get excited… Gee I hope they come here!

Watch here.

Gorillaz Plastic Beach out now.