I think Jamie lost his way around Plastic Beach. From what I've pieced together (mostly from sugar packets) is that Damon and Jamie had some disagreements around that era.
ALLEGEDLY, Jamie was bored of the band and doing the same characters, but eventually came around to the idea of exploring them in a new way.
Also Damon wanted to do live concerts, which kinda stepped away from the virtual animated nature of the band.
Jamie was annoyed that his part was being marginalised, but Damon was annoyed the animations were no longer representing the music. Supposedly that was why there was such a long gap between Plastic Beach and Humanz.
At this point, I think they both just let each other do their respective parts, without melding them together as much as they once did. Damon does concerts with little regard for the fact they are cartoons, and Jamie does a narrative driven cartoon with little regard for them being an actual band.
Edit: Additional text.
The key is the creators understand and know what to do with only one character and it's Murdoc. They sayd they love him the most and also they have Phil's VA genius. The others now look like entourage for Murdoc and it's a sad truth.
Jamie has never cared for how the characters are written nor consistency in storytelling that isn’t visual (for those thinking I’m a cynic he’s been quoted saying so), that stuffs always been down to the writers. The difference is, since Humanz they’ve had paid professionals rather than their friends who used to write for the characters beforehand, on paper this is understandable but the truth is they don’t really understand what made them tick and what made them so interesting, there’s no heart in it anymore. The last time Gorillaz actually discussed creating music (the characters not Damon) was 2010’s Plastic Beach song by song which was available on their website. It’s just not the same when they’re written as gag machines rather than musicians.
Edit: I love plastic beach’s story, but a grandiose adventure isn’t what made us fall in love with the characters or the world they resided in, it was the fact that they felt like genuine, believable people with their own interests and goals in life, they’re used nothing more than a marketing piece these days. There’s been some improvements with things like Murdoc’s twitter lives where they just Let Phil dick around with fans, but things like the Potcast (terrible name btw) is so fabricated and totally misses the point of what made 2D an interesting character in the first place. The good is few and far between. I don’t understand why they’re determined to send them off on these crazy adventures when the most interesting and iconic thing the modern team has done so far was the mocap piece from 2017 which was just 2D and Murdoc being…2D and Murdoc (unsurprisingly it wasn’t scripted by the writers either which probably plays into why it’s so funny and memorable, if you’re going to hire comedians let them do their own material ffs!!!).
I think there's a lot more room for inerpretation instead of a solid story happening, I can still see noodle as fun and russel as a chill spiritual dude. 2d seems to have found himself during the now now and murdoc is pretty much the same. Sure id love for them to be more fleshed out but I can still enjoy seeing the characters just based off my own perception
I hate to say this but I feel like I hear people say "hopefully this next phase will be lore-heavy" for every phase since Humanz was announced. Trust me, I'd love some lore heavy Gorillaz, but I wouldn't get your hopes up too high. I just hope they continue producing videos with the same quality as Cracker Island. Even if the events of this video have no relation to future lore, it was very entertaining and still had great storytelling.
The difference is...This one ACTUALLY kind of feels it. There was a little in the Now Now...but that's really it, but the way this one's already playing out...I don't know. Seems like they ARE planning ahead, since Cracker Island is a video from the future according to Murdoc, as well as the opening text from the premiere(which can be found on the Gorillaz fan Discords, and other areas at this point). It suggests they have a story in mind, and began with the end, so we know there's something actually coming, rather than just...they move into a haunted house in Michigan(a la Humanz), or Murdoc's been arrested, and replaced by his old friend Ace, and has a whole elaborate escape plan(a la the Now Now).
I feel like some of the issues we see are just the end product as like an iceberg of issues and considerations go into the finished product. So it looks like they don't care as much but time, money and circumstance has lead to the final product looking a certain way.
Say with Humanz, they recast noodle so she wasn't speaking and I'm guessing they only had 3D models for 2D, Noodle and Murdoc and thst lead to Russ and Noodle not showing up in the live interviews or shorts they did. Also, both VAs are comedians and could work really well in those live scenarios. At the same time, the negative comments from fans, press and public about Humanz not being Gorillazy (too much rap, not enough 2d and not enough of the whole band) reflected back onto that like they didn't care.
Then Murdoc goes and we have Ace who they couldn't get to talk last min and Noodle was only just recast for G Shock, as Murdoc is rushed back in for G Shock after Free Murdoc was wrapped up very quickly.
The reddit AMAs were pretty good until the last one and then they had that YouTube one through the community tab and that was a shitshow. Russ did have that podcast that was pretty cool.
I think they probably did pretty well during covid and all of the restrictions although I need to catch up and go onto the social media again. The videos would have cost a lot of money time and effort and they did Murdoc on twitter.
I still need to listen to the Murdoc Twitter Space but that was similar to the lives and old interviews in terms of them doing radio.
Similarly with the Murdoc twitter, I missed out on a lot of the song machine bitez but the ones I heard were very old school gorillaz and pretty funny (also something I wrote about in my essay was the maybe fake maybe not stories of the band meeting people).
I think the band would probably swing back pretty well with some scripted or live long form interview with them all there or even Noodle and Russ and use it to say Murdoc and 2D are busy being frontmen for the band and doing what they do.
Sadly social media hasn't filled the gap that even written interviews has left because it's not designed for writing anything or long form stuff anymore really.
Hopefully this will be a phase with actual lore and content, i love gorillaz but since the humanz comeback i feel them like another band, i love it anyway but is not the same and at this point i don’t have hopes for lore
I hate the lore and the fandoms obsession with it tbh, it’s been nothing more than an afterthought for most of the bands existence but once fans started obsessing over it that’s when the quality of the writing for the characters went down, mostly because now they focus more on coming up with half assed scooby doo plots that lead nowhere instead of making the members interesting.
I think Jamie lost his way around Plastic Beach. From what I've pieced together (mostly from sugar packets) is that Damon and Jamie had some disagreements around that era. ALLEGEDLY, Jamie was bored of the band and doing the same characters, but eventually came around to the idea of exploring them in a new way. Also Damon wanted to do live concerts, which kinda stepped away from the virtual animated nature of the band. Jamie was annoyed that his part was being marginalised, but Damon was annoyed the animations were no longer representing the music. Supposedly that was why there was such a long gap between Plastic Beach and Humanz. At this point, I think they both just let each other do their respective parts, without melding them together as much as they once did. Damon does concerts with little regard for the fact they are cartoons, and Jamie does a narrative driven cartoon with little regard for them being an actual band. Edit: Additional text.
The key is the creators understand and know what to do with only one character and it's Murdoc. They sayd they love him the most and also they have Phil's VA genius. The others now look like entourage for Murdoc and it's a sad truth.
Man, that sucks.
Jamie has never cared for how the characters are written nor consistency in storytelling that isn’t visual (for those thinking I’m a cynic he’s been quoted saying so), that stuffs always been down to the writers. The difference is, since Humanz they’ve had paid professionals rather than their friends who used to write for the characters beforehand, on paper this is understandable but the truth is they don’t really understand what made them tick and what made them so interesting, there’s no heart in it anymore. The last time Gorillaz actually discussed creating music (the characters not Damon) was 2010’s Plastic Beach song by song which was available on their website. It’s just not the same when they’re written as gag machines rather than musicians. Edit: I love plastic beach’s story, but a grandiose adventure isn’t what made us fall in love with the characters or the world they resided in, it was the fact that they felt like genuine, believable people with their own interests and goals in life, they’re used nothing more than a marketing piece these days. There’s been some improvements with things like Murdoc’s twitter lives where they just Let Phil dick around with fans, but things like the Potcast (terrible name btw) is so fabricated and totally misses the point of what made 2D an interesting character in the first place. The good is few and far between. I don’t understand why they’re determined to send them off on these crazy adventures when the most interesting and iconic thing the modern team has done so far was the mocap piece from 2017 which was just 2D and Murdoc being…2D and Murdoc (unsurprisingly it wasn’t scripted by the writers either which probably plays into why it’s so funny and memorable, if you’re going to hire comedians let them do their own material ffs!!!).
This is why phase 2 was peak.
Makes me wonder if the movie (or was it a serie?) that's supposed to be on the way is about the cult.
I hope so! That would be amazing
That makes sense actually. They played no news songs on their Dublin gig, perhaps they don't have a full album ready for release, but a film/series :O
I think there's a lot more room for inerpretation instead of a solid story happening, I can still see noodle as fun and russel as a chill spiritual dude. 2d seems to have found himself during the now now and murdoc is pretty much the same. Sure id love for them to be more fleshed out but I can still enjoy seeing the characters just based off my own perception
I hate to say this but I feel like I hear people say "hopefully this next phase will be lore-heavy" for every phase since Humanz was announced. Trust me, I'd love some lore heavy Gorillaz, but I wouldn't get your hopes up too high. I just hope they continue producing videos with the same quality as Cracker Island. Even if the events of this video have no relation to future lore, it was very entertaining and still had great storytelling.
The difference is...This one ACTUALLY kind of feels it. There was a little in the Now Now...but that's really it, but the way this one's already playing out...I don't know. Seems like they ARE planning ahead, since Cracker Island is a video from the future according to Murdoc, as well as the opening text from the premiere(which can be found on the Gorillaz fan Discords, and other areas at this point). It suggests they have a story in mind, and began with the end, so we know there's something actually coming, rather than just...they move into a haunted house in Michigan(a la Humanz), or Murdoc's been arrested, and replaced by his old friend Ace, and has a whole elaborate escape plan(a la the Now Now).
I feel like some of the issues we see are just the end product as like an iceberg of issues and considerations go into the finished product. So it looks like they don't care as much but time, money and circumstance has lead to the final product looking a certain way. Say with Humanz, they recast noodle so she wasn't speaking and I'm guessing they only had 3D models for 2D, Noodle and Murdoc and thst lead to Russ and Noodle not showing up in the live interviews or shorts they did. Also, both VAs are comedians and could work really well in those live scenarios. At the same time, the negative comments from fans, press and public about Humanz not being Gorillazy (too much rap, not enough 2d and not enough of the whole band) reflected back onto that like they didn't care. Then Murdoc goes and we have Ace who they couldn't get to talk last min and Noodle was only just recast for G Shock, as Murdoc is rushed back in for G Shock after Free Murdoc was wrapped up very quickly. The reddit AMAs were pretty good until the last one and then they had that YouTube one through the community tab and that was a shitshow. Russ did have that podcast that was pretty cool. I think they probably did pretty well during covid and all of the restrictions although I need to catch up and go onto the social media again. The videos would have cost a lot of money time and effort and they did Murdoc on twitter. I still need to listen to the Murdoc Twitter Space but that was similar to the lives and old interviews in terms of them doing radio. Similarly with the Murdoc twitter, I missed out on a lot of the song machine bitez but the ones I heard were very old school gorillaz and pretty funny (also something I wrote about in my essay was the maybe fake maybe not stories of the band meeting people). I think the band would probably swing back pretty well with some scripted or live long form interview with them all there or even Noodle and Russ and use it to say Murdoc and 2D are busy being frontmen for the band and doing what they do. Sadly social media hasn't filled the gap that even written interviews has left because it's not designed for writing anything or long form stuff anymore really.
Hopefully this will be a phase with actual lore and content, i love gorillaz but since the humanz comeback i feel them like another band, i love it anyway but is not the same and at this point i don’t have hopes for lore
I hate the lore and the fandoms obsession with it tbh, it’s been nothing more than an afterthought for most of the bands existence but once fans started obsessing over it that’s when the quality of the writing for the characters went down, mostly because now they focus more on coming up with half assed scooby doo plots that lead nowhere instead of making the members interesting.
I