Publishing Splits and TikTok Legacy

Everybody is I love that harmony snack the Yeah. I don't think I knew that that was there. I don't think I'd ever really noticed it either. It's somewhat buried in the mix. You feel it, but it'ss that's the only time I think the vocals are so clear as well because his whole vocal there was also filmed. And do we know if that's just him singing the higher registers and It sounds like a stack of Damon. It sounds like Damons's a stack of Damion. Yeah.'s stack of What a great gift that would be. Hs your stuckam.'s the Scadam' for you. I know it's your birthday, so I aboutought your Stcad Damans? Oh, you're o Luxury today, we're diving back into the work of an artist who helped define British rock in the nineteen nineties, then turn around and helped imagine what a band could be and look like and sound like in the twenty first century That's right it to Yallo, and after covering Blur's song two, we're continuing our Damon All Barn two Parter, with a group that technically isn't even real, but somehow became one of the most important bands of the two thousands Today we're covering a song built around a filthy basass m. disgusting. haunted laugh, a massive daylost soul feature and a chorus that feels like escape floating just out of reach. Plus, this song on Aburn his only Grammy and scored him his highest ever ranking US chart position in the top four. That's right. We thought it was song too, but it was Gorillas it help D finally break it in America. Damon's biggest hit is this song is a song that sounds like pure fun on the surface, but underneath it It is asking a darker question. If feeling good is a company What exactly are they selling? So win mill, win mill for the lamb. We're talking one song and that song is F Good Ink by Gorillas Sure. Sh sh This episode is brought to you by Red Finn You're listening to a podcast, which means you're probably multitasking Maybe even scrolling homelistings on Redfin saving homes without expecting to get them. But Redfin isn't just built for endless browsing. It's built to help you find and own a home. With agents who close twice as many deals, when you find the one, you've got a real shot at getting it. Get started at reedfin. com own the dream whver your think It could be anything Candba helps you make that thing Cama is a simple online tool thing. way to design with our magic AI tool things social media your thing, generate images or videos of your thing, make tecks or presentations to show your thing. Whatever needs to be done for your thing, Canva can make it an even better and bigger thing. Canva, the thing that makes anything a thing I'm actor wrriter, director and sometimes DJ Diala Rill. and I'm producer, DJ An songwriter and musicologist, Luxury, AKA the guy who whispers interpolation. And this is one song. The show where we break down the stems and stories behind iconic songs across genres and tell you why they deserve one more listen. You will hear these songs if you've never heard them before. And if you want to watch one song, hey Have I gotten good news for you? You could watch us on YouTube, Spotify and while you're there, please like and subscribe All right, Gallo, I want you to start with your first memory of gorillas. because Depending on when someone found them, they may have experienced the span in a completely different way. What was your way in? Well, I think I was a fan of Damon Alberurn and Blur early on And so I was kind of hip. I think what caught my ear was the story around them. like for a minute, you know, is it a band? Is it not a band? Is animated? Damon Alberin is a Yeah this is this is a virtual band. It's a cartoon, but it's also a band. Yeah, and also. see pictures of these cartoon characters popping up. And you know, it's kind of still pre the internet the way we think of it now. L it was just like, I knew that there was something coming. I knew there was this whole concept and nothing happens in a vacuum. Like you got to think about this in the context of everything else that was going on. U Dap punk at this time is already starting to starting to vanish into the helmets. You know what I mean? Like You know, the times when you could just go to Nicki Beach and see, you know, the Napunk guys out there spinning records You know, in Miami, like that was already starting to fade away and they had come out with that cartoon Inestella five whichich also had a cartoon and you know, that cartoon, they're singing the songs of Dapbunk We knew there were corporal singers and there were just there was a whole lineup of people who were trying to reinvent What It was to even be a band. Yeah at the turn of the century.. So a concept like you were saying the word concept concept art I concept U sadly, nine eleven hadn't happened yet. so people there was like a good mood and it felt like art in particular was a place where all kinds of expression. We' like really after nine eleven, things got really dark for a while. But into this weird sort of like pre nine eleven, you know, two thousand one, let's say, very happy time. I don't even just think in my life, it's just a different time Yeah The gorillas have It gets announced. I don't know how would have found out about it. Maybe I was looking in LA. weekly, you know, like where you get your concert info right. The Gorriillas had a big show in Hollywood for all the all the hipst all the hipsters We were on their way to the knitting factory. The knitting factory used to have a place on Hollywood Boulevard. And I just remember that night everybody piled into the theater, not knowing what to expect. Is this just going be a band playing the music of these cartoon characters? Is it going to be animated robots on the stage like Chucky Cheese? like we just said no idea showbits. How did you even knowo that what it was? Like whereere did you get that piece of information from? It was a band called the Gorilla that it was associated with Albarn. I might have seen the cover of an enemy. I More likely I would have read a review of the single or something like in LA Weekly in Atlanta, we had creative loafing. likeike I felt like those used to be places where Ebody who wanted to know what was cool and what was next. It was either that or time out. Are you aware they were coming before you heard like Clinn Eastwood or whatever the first No. I think I heard the single Clin Eastwood. And you know, like being a DJ at the time I thought that s all was really cool. I'm feeling glad I got sunshine In a back I'm useless for not for long the future is coming on It happen. Study and play. Come together on a Windows eleven PC. And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the unreal college deal, everything you need to study and play with select Windows eleven PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft three hundred sixty five preremium and a year of Xbox GamePass Ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller Learn more at windows d. com slash student offer. Law suppupplies last ends june thirtieth turns at aka. mS slash collllege PC I thought that song was so cool Yeah. And by the way, I wasn't just a fan of Blur. I was a fan of Del the Funky Homo sapien. who had stayed with me for the two nights he was playing a gig near Harvard. Yeah They were like, hey, you I used to be on student government. They were like, Hey, the rapper needs a place to st.'s like, don't call the rapper. You're calling him Bell the funuckky hm sapien. And yes, he can sleep on our couch and I'll never get D shut up And I expected him to have like an entourage or even luggage. And he literally showed up. b a playaystation in one hand and a blunt in the other like he was like, Hey man, can I cannot hook this up and play some video games. I was like, sureure, Dell, you can do whatever. Did he have a bag? I remember he was just sitting there like Yeah, this game was shick.ick. It was like not in video games or marijuana, but I thought it was so cool that the man who made Mr. Dabolina was Bob Dabolina the room. All that is just to say, I thought Gerillas was always going to have Dell on the song. And so when I showed up as far as I knew, I would have Damon on stage and Dell on stage. We show up and it's basically just a huge screen. It's almost like watching a movie with sound Fault me, I don't know if the music was pre reccorded and piped in or if they were hiding a band behind the screen. I don't know because I didn't have any inside information on that level, but it was a great show and they introduced the band members of gorillas as the only people that you needed to know to appreciate this music. And it totally worked. You know, the presentation was the band, the characters, the visuals, the music It was all just One thing. And I'm just going to admit this right now. for the longest time, I just assumed Dell had done all the raps and that's including not just that first album But even some of the rapping on this album, including Fel Good Ink. devil When D Last starts rap, I actually thought that was Dle Du P So you to forget that this is a gorillas featuring Dl laa Soul Yes yes. I mean, I'm telling you and it's a little embarrassed to say shout out to Dl laa Soul. You know, I'm a huge fan. I thought Dell was doing voices like the same way that like he does different voices on G me the loot. I thought that was all still Dl just doing different voices. just I remember to see the featuring D laa Soul Well, this is as good a place as any to talk about the fact that gorillas are a virtual band. There's a lot of lore about them. Suddenly, they're a twenty five year old band. So not only do we have these four primary characters and I'll name them for you because they have names. twoo D is the vocalist. Noodle plays quote unquote guitar, Murdoch Nichols is the bassist and Russell Hobbs on drums So much lore. you can go down a real rabbit hole on the gorillas wiki. There's not just Wikipedia, but like a gorilla' specific wiki.. And there's characters these characters all have phases one through seven. I think we're in phase seven currently. One can get very lost in the lore. And it's important to point out that Damon Albarn has created this lore and this band The the unsung hero of ab Yeah So Damon did not do this in a vacuum. This is about Jamie Hewlett is the animator who created Tank Girl Big sorry, comic book and creator and animator, I should say, so artist And in nineteen ninety eight, he moved in with Albarn. The two of them lived together in their in a flat and both of them at the time in nineteen ninety eight, had both recently broken up with different members of the bandasta Bak up in David's case. Right. They had both broken up with different members of the band Alastica. So perhaps bonded by that Tuma bonding. Tuma bonded in nineteen ninety eight The conversations began to ensue like maybe we should put a project together. And the idea of this virtual band started to come together, designing the characters, creating the backstory all the lore. And by two thousand one, that first record drops the one that you're talking about with Clin East toood famously on it as the first the single that really broke them You're referring to the self titled debut album Gorillas. That's right from two thousand one. So greatreat, by the way, amazing. Uh that's the one with the Jeep And the camouflage on it with gorillasay painted in red. To me, that's one of those iconic two thousandousands records. I see itemously So much we talking about on this show reflects where we were when this music was released. Yeah two thousand one is the first year that I was really reallyally sort of like doing more DJing than anything else. Like I had my little stupid internship at Virgin Records, but really I was DJing at the standard I was DJ at a place called The Room here in LA. And that first Gorillas album really had some major cuts on it. Most people know Clinese with. my favorite song on there was Rock the House And also nineteen two thousand An another great song featuring Miho Hatori and from Shiba Mato. Yes, and Tina from Tom Tom Club. Oh wow. It's funny say that about two thousand one because that was a really transitional year for me where I was doing things that weren't music and suddenly I put all of my effort and attention into like figuring out how to write songs, produce them. I got my first Pro tools rig. And this was the moment that I was like, I'm done with the advertising thing. I'm done with whatever I was doing before.. And what's interesting about it that I'm only making the connection now is in a similar way that Damon Albn is coming from a band background. And I have talked about this on previous episodes, but there's this moment that I think Damon has had where he's like he can break out of this band box, as it were, where there's four opinions. and the music making process requires expensive equipment and studios, et cetera. But in this moment, a lot of us are realizing that there's gear out there that's more affordable And there's also musical ideas that kind of compport to what we want to do with rock and roll. We want to take rock and roll in this direction that has different beats and different rhythms. I found this great quote where Albarn literally says one of the reasons I began gorillas is I had a lot of rhythms. I never thought I could use G flur. So as simple as that like what the beats were kind of implied a different musical, you know, on top of that. I was gonna say bad, but it's the opposite of that. Yeah, no that makes a lot of sense because also we said a lot in part one of this two part episode that there was, you know,, you know, in the mid nineties, it was all about the guitars and the groups. as early as like ninety eight, ninety nine, you could see that things were moving in more of a direction Everything from the Spice Girls to Britney in sync Uh, The Backstreet boy. I'm sure that at some point, Damon was just like, you know what? I just kind of want to do the other beats in my head. Like it's well known that at this time he's sort of getting more into African music definitely feeling hip hop. you wanted to do more dancy stuff. And this would be a project that would allow that. And the beats are both the rhythms, but also the sound of sampled instruments. the sound of like hip hop sounds and product techniques. And for me personally, the revelation I'll never forget was when I had a song that was very, I was super into stoneer rock. I was super into Kaias and Queens of the Stone Age And there was like all this I was doing rock stuff and I first I got my Pro tools rigged together and I didn't have any way to record drums. So what I needed to do was sample drums. So I started chopping break beats from my record collection, from my CV collection, which necessarily, and that meant I would go, I remember some early beats that I got. I got a Sonic Youth beat from the song one hundred percent. There's this part where Steve Shelly goes, Yeah I remember taking that beat And basically that was my first sample. And I took that loop and I put it down in Pro tools. I laid it across the song Go back to our song two episode we just did. That's what they did in that song. And then on top of that, I started playing guitar And it just, it had this feeling of Rock but with robot. Rock but with robot. Robot rock. D punk is doing robot rock in this moment. You think that breakwater be Absolute. The convergence of these genres was happening because of the tech and maybe because to your point, a feeling of getting away from the, you know, we're post grrunge, we're postpit pop, maybe we're post spice girls., we were all feeling in it was definitely a time for like a post modern ash up By the way, mashups are really big one hundred percent right modernash. The tech enables that The tech enabled that too. The technology. Your point, right Yeah. Girl Talk literally is enabled by the technology to your point to do these mashups where he takes the instrumentals from one genre and the a capellaas to a different genre. Z trip. I always say you can't talk about mashups without talking about Zach at a DJZ trip who was one of the first people I knew to do on all matchup set in Miami at Winter Music confonference one time. that was the first time actually ever pig yeahbbath. Yeah because he mashed up with. It's funs how all these things converge in this moment, two thousand one. and in Damon Albarn, the connection between blur and gorillas is also happening as a result of maybe the desire to put new beats together like you're saying, But the technology is also enabling it too. The technology is allowing a new scene to sort of grow out of the nineties and it was very fun So now we're moving forward to two thousand five Their second album Demon Days an album that if you thought that the first Gorillas' record was Damon clearing a path with his collaborators to do more genres than Blur have maybe been able to do. This one even further expanded The musical palette, that you will, off collaborators. O what Yes, of what gorillas could sound like and the type of people he could work with. It wasn't all the same people from the first album. And I think that alone sort of let you know that oh no, he's going on on an even grand on an even more diverse journey into sound. And that's why this song is so special because it had such a combination of factors that hadn't really been put together in this way, especially in two thousand five. We do a little bit take for granted that a song like this It does sound more like a twenty twenty six song. But in two thousand five, this combination of you know, essentially a hip hop beat for lack of a better word.' not we hear that it is not a drummer playing it. We hear that it is a programmed beat. And then we do on top of that, however, have what sounds like a live bass line a live guitar player, I think, doubling that bass part and then of course, there's Damon singing, but then there's also Dayas all rapping. Yeah. This combination of things in one song in two thousand five was we hadn't really heard anything like that before. I think even his singing on this song is a little poppy that makes sense? Oh, we're going to get to that. I'm so glad you said that. There's going to be a call back to another recent episode, but you're hundred percent ye I'd also say that u It's funny 'cause I agree. I feel like the song is hip hopy. But you gott to remember this this particular moment, the definition of hip hop is very broad. Yeah. Like I think I think Alc has kind of changed the world with Hey, yah. Yeah. Technically a rap song, but it feels like a song from the sixties. It's a pop song. It's a wedding song. You're right. It's like a pop song with sixties stacks Mown vibes. It's fast. And by the way, feel good Ink on the relative scale of hip hop tyippo Kind of a fast song. And yet there's still enough hip hop there, maybe because of Daylast Soul, maybe because of the way that Damon is also rapping. Yeah, they're rapping like madmen.' the speed of their rap, you know, the cadence is sixteenth notes. This BPM not far off not from a DJ sense from Alcas', Hey, yeah. So I think that again, this is a very fun time in hip hop when hip hop can be as grimy as Get Rich and Dive T trying the to Decent album or it can sound like T good ink by Gorillas and He by Ales. It's a fun hundred percent. By the way, I think there's a pop that makes you think. Yeah because it's got all this commentary about where society is and it somehow put it all into a really infectious basassline. Well it's also the kind of song too that like I think title itself being feel good. It does kind of work It's a Trojan horse. It's a little bit of a Trojan horse. It's almost like this is how we do it. Oh totally. it's like the band name happappy Mondays. Why Happy Mondayays? becausecause you're fuck up on p. But it frames your experience of the song that going into it, that's the title. no. The song makes me feel good. I don't know why. All it lacks is like a parenthetical coming after it It makes me feel good because it's been sold to me. This happiness can be bought. Happiness can be packaged and resold. Exactly. Shove down your throat. And byy the way, if you caught part one of this two partarter when we talked about Blur song two, first of all, thank you. And if that sentence is confused, you go back and watch that episode Please do becausecause one of the things we talked about in that episode is how the gorilla sound was already starting to sneak into Blur. We want you to go back and listen to their self titled album, Blur. And there's a song on there called On Your ownwn, which I really like that song. It's kind of a pubppy song for Blur. but in it he mentions Hooligan Gorilla. We feel like that is not an accident and Damon has even said that on your own by Blur is sort of one of the earliest orillas songs. So since you are such an all bar and A lister, you do know the lore of this man in his career. what is it about that song in particular that feels like it's the beginning of guerriillas? Well, you know, I don't know this for a fact. I meanike he said that's one of the earliest Gorriillas songs, but I didn't realize until we were working this episode the Jamie Hewlet of it all Yeah. and they would have they would have been talking sort of backstage at Alastica concerts. you know what I mean? Like Yeah And so he might have just thrown out a word or an idea to Damon that meant that Damon took those ideas into a blurred session. Yeah. And Hooligan Gorilla. I mean, like, you know, I can see some soccer hooligans, you know That seems to work for me, but it's also probably not an accident that they were both dating a member of the band at that time that you know, there are times when when the spouses get together and talk. And so I imagine that was sort of the beginning of them talking about possibly collaborating. and again, taking some ideas that him and Jamie had been tossing around and throwing that into a blur song. So whether it was, you know, because he's a Tang girl fan or maybe because like I said, theyre talking backstage in Eastica concerts, at some point, there's a friendship here. And there's a bond. And apparently as the story goes, there was one time when they were watching MTV you know, cortly in the late nineties and they were just like, man, everybody just feels like a cartoon. And it' like, you know, like all the Brity Spears is, the in sync tootally. rightight. They were like, why don't we just skip the middlemand? Right and give MTV exactly what they want, which is a cartoon pumps out good music. Totally. And the earliest days, I think to your point about like the band maybe being behind a scrim, maybe not when they're touring. It sort of conjures up ideas of like, you know, Blue Man group or like even kiss, you know, putting together a musical entity that can survive beyond the members' desired per Even have to get in a van and tour or tour of the world A show and not even have to be there for it. I mean, if you wanted to be really cynical, I said for years, Dap punk could tour every year, we would never know was in those robot helmets. Absolutely. And I do feel like to a certain extent, this is Damon saying, lookook, more artistic freedom. I can do hip hop and nobody's going to be like, Hey, butif from you know, you would just scoo with Damian. You know nobody Asking for street credit because it's a cartoon. Yeah. You know, it gives you more freedom. And like you said, they can go, they can tour anywhere and you don't have to feed them. Yeah. And it can outlast you. It's a brand that can go for hundreds of years and your family can eat off of it because you don't have to stop touring just because you're old or you died I think about that all the time when I think about it. evenven artists like Prince, like Prince, I thought aged wonderfully well But at the end of the day his his Even if his voice is gone, he could still play that guitar. You know what I mean? I feel like similarly with gorillas like even when, you know Damid gets a little bit older and he doesn't fit into some of the suits he used to be able to fit into. he can still call up Ty and noodles and then can just bring the band band together and pump out some new music. Oh yeah, no, they just came out with a new record, The Mountain just came out. And we want to talk about how this idea of collaboration has ballooned. The list of collaborators on this record is incredible. I won't name even one third of them We've got Dennis Hopper, Ididols. We've got Tony Allen, we've got Sparks. We've got Asha Putley. We've got Marky Smith. There's at least two dead people on that. I know So when we come back, we're going behind the screen We're going to be the ghost in the machine and we're gonna get into the stems. Don't go away. stick around, We'll break it down This summer, Prime Vide takes you back before legally blonde, before law school and into the world of Elle Woods in high school. Set in nineteen ninety five, this Gemini vegetarian knows exactly who she is until her family moves from Belair to Seattle. Packed with iconic fashion, nineties nostalgia, and a throwback soundtrack, Elle proves one thing Law school was hard. High school was harder. From the world of legally blonde, watch Al, a new original series only on Prime videoideo july first This summer, serve up the cookout cllassics, craft Mayo and dressing. Toss green salads with delicious ranch dressing or zesty Italian. Serve smooth, craably creamy potato salads with mayo. We all know it's not a cookout without craft All right, welcome back to One song. Before the break, we talked about gorillas as this manufactured band commenting on manufactured feeling With that said, now let's get into the song. and as we do on the show, we're gonna listen to some stems. Let's listen to some drums and then we'll talk about them. Here is the two bar loop that goes through the whole song You've heard it twice now. I've heard it all my life, becausea the anyime I hear that particular drum pattern. Y I think about Dita. Wh therefore makes it oatic with this baby A little later, we have some sixteenth notes that join in the party. Let's listen to those Very subtle to you hear that? Oh I heard it and then it goes Which to my ears sounds like a sample becauseuse it's got's a very distinctive It's not a hi hat from a drum machine. It's a very distinctive like It has recording artifacts Yes attached. And it has tone. Yeah, has tone. It has a note, has a color. G Yeah Could you let it play it 'cause I wan tona he how often it comes in? Sure. Well it's about to go into that other thing. Oh, I see. Yeah. Well maybe it happens to aice or then It's just a sort of subtle thing that's peppered throughout that loop to spice it up, make it like. different. And then in addition to that, we have basically a hook in the drums. There's a motif That is very much when you think about the song, kind of like one of the parts that's cool that you think is iconically part of this song. H it is Those two crashes, right? Yeah. One, two, three, four bones don don which mirrors what's happening in the vocal. Feel good, right Yeah good that there's something really cool about how that motif, very simple, It's just literally adding a crash to the two kick drums there. And sometimes there's a little bit of a variation on it like this one started too close to it Bink thing, two crashes, but now three kick drums Now do we know what human drummer played the drum? So this is a great that's a great question. And you know on this show, longtime listeners will know we do our homework. There's a lot of hours of research that go into making this show. I can tell you that not only was I unable to Not a cartoon named Russell by the way. Not only was I not definitively able to find the answer to that, but I'm fairly sure that was obscured on purpose Yeah. There are There are credits on this record. There are splits we'll be getting to and there are names associated with the making of the song. And we'll give you all of them But when it gets down to the who did what in terms of what you're hearing, gets a little bit, I think, again, obscured on purpose.. It's not in the liner notes and it's not in the splits that there's a guy who programm these drums. However, one thing we do know is that there are three credited producers on this song.. Danger mouse. Yeah, we were talking a little bit more about it. I feel like the two thousands danger mouse was Maybe the Stehven Street Yeah. Like he was an end to man producer who worked on so many great, great songs. Beginning a little bit with this one. This is a little bit his origin story, but we'll be getting into that in a second. There's also Jason Cox and finally, Damon Albarn's cousin, whose name is James Dring. and he does get a production credit, a programming credit In different sources, I've seen programming drums credit, but like I didn't see that every time. Yeah. So it's possible that James Ding programmed this beat. And then there are other times where the sometimes live drummer for the band when they perform who at the time was Cass Brown I also have seen credited, but that feels a little less credible All this to say, we're not really sure who programmed it. Maybe it was Daemon he's muddying the waters to have his collaborators maybe feel more included. You know, I do feel like I feel a little bit of Assuming that Danger Mouse did anything on this track. I feel like it does sound like a Dangerouse track when I saw his name a Danger Mouse. I was like, I kind of get it because this doesn't seem completely far from some of the other songs of his that I like. Like people who know Danger Mouse know that he was one half of Narl's Barkley with Cilo Green in their song Crazy So just a little bit of shine for unsung Ho, one of several for this band and this episode. Brian Burton, AKA Danger Mouse. He had just done the Greay album in two thousand four now theay album. Yes, sorry. That's what put him on the map. Do you want to tell us about the Greay album? Yeah, the Greay album, It was taking the Beatles white album and putting it with JayZ's black album. right all of a sudden JayZ's rapping over the Beatles. It was an intellectual property nightmare, but it was it was artistic gold at that In that mash upp era that we were talking about I was just going to call back to that exactly right. So in the mash upp era, one of the biggest records to come out of it and a breakout star from the opportunity in this tech era he could with his laptop and access to the, you know material thanks to the internet, put together, as you put it, the a capeellas from Jay Z with Beatles instrumentals. and did to great effect. ninety four we much longongest. I also throw out there that in the middle of the two thousands, there's so many technologies coming about. Like you said, more and more people have what used to be only happening in studios. You could do it on your laptop. Correct in garage band and some of these early changed my life too. L absolutely. Yes. But there was also, I think it has gott to be st because I come at this from the DJ point of view. and at the time It was It took me years to find out some songs had the same BPM because you might think, well this song has such a great vibe and find out that the temo is actually really slow and vice versa, there might be a song that you think is very slow, but it's actually about one hundred twenty BPM. When Serrato Scratch Live came out famously, you were able to finally not only assign the computer program could actually Discover what the DPM of everything is, but then because it was a data point in the line, you could sort yourself a DPM. and I was telling you what happen. L changing. one hundred percent. DJ started DJing differently. all of a sudden, you werere like, wait a second, radio headads idiot teech is the same speed as Miami bass music. You can start going things go together genres abbsolutely. this open format DJ was And there was also I think open format DJing was sort of almost It wasn't a result. I always say before met DJing owes more to the birth of the iPod. Okay because all of a sudden, all your songs, you could play through your songs. you could shuffle and all of a sudden the Beatles are right next to JayZ in a totally different way. But specifically with Serato Scratch Live And I realized that they were kind of different entergities at the same time, but they both came together to sort of show DJs All these songs have the same VPMs that you would never suspect And people just started experimenting and they started building those MP three s in their computers. And I feel like this wonderful mash up world come the gorillas. What a perfect metaphor to g us back into the song because from one stem to the next We have the ability, as we now know Damon Albarn was consciously wanting to do, to put together different sounds from different genres, different worlds to make basically This song doesn't necessarily fit into any one genre as we've been discussing. It's got a hip hop beat and rapping, but it's also got this kind of maybe sixties into seventies, bordering on like this this don' That's kind of sixties B fifty two aspect B fifty two' kind borderline surfer Surf very well put All of these things are coming together in one place and the technology is helping to enable that. Absolutely. enable that or able to. So just to wrap up the Brian Burton of it all the Danger Mouse. So Aluburn said that he had heard the Greay album and he needed a producer. He had been working on the first Gorilla's record. It was Dany the Automator Dan Nakamura. Dan the automater. shout out Hanson Boy Meling schoolool Yeah That guy has been at the forefront of just great music for a very long time. Yeah. So he'd been working with him and he needed a new producer. So when heard the Greay album, he thought to call up Brian Burton who remember, wasn't part of Nnarl's Barkly or anything. This was his big break really was getting Because at this moment there was litigation that came from the Greay album. As much as it gave him a name, it wasn't with something that was saalable that he boomers were not happy. Yeah. The boomers who grew up on the Beatles and were working at record labels for J Z were not happy about the Greay album. Yeah, this was a moment that he had there was an asterisk next to the fame of Danger Mouse in this moment So Albar calls him up and he says that this song feeleel goodood Inc. was one of the first things that they did together He says, quote, it was very instinctive. When you don't really know someone and you say, do you want to come over and try a few tracks? It doesn't really work out this way, whichich I love as a story because I was co writing before the podcast era and before the DJ era. I came to LA as a co writer and I would get in a room with strangers every day for three years. there is always this sort of uncomfortable moment of like, well, let's make art together strangers. So I do understand what he's saying. It's like it doesn't always work out that the first thing you make together I love that song like this. You know, the problem with with not art podcasts, but like the idea of telling stories on podcasts is that it makes it seem like every choice that everybody does directly led to that really great thing that they did. And we know that the story is written by those successful moments But there are hundreds of oh yeah, notot successful moments that get you to that. That's why you just gotta keep trying. Absolutely. pock marked with failure as the expression goes. Yes. Yeah, I've tried to cover up my pock markarks. Oh, you were talking about something else. Well, you're failing to do so. No, don't use that. unnecessarily mean Iention strays, I thought it was a safe strace. You set me up for a joke I couldn't resist And for his part, Danger Mouse says, nothing I had done had really prepared me for doing this. I just thought it's such a simple statement, but it's like he really was doing mashups and kind of working in an artistic realm. He hadt produced He hadn't gone on to do what he was about to do, which in two thousand six, Nnarls Barley and crazy This already that over the plan. That was next level. Yeah, that was next. I mean, you could play it at weddings, you could play it for briefly, you could play it for like really hit parties with like supermodels from Wilhamina. Like it was like everybody like That sounds very specific. did that happen to you? Yeah, clearly. But was at the time, I was hiring the DJs for the Chateau Mermont and the Bar Momo. and we had some Ver flaw. and I was also doing the the standard in New York every now and then, so there were a lot of there were some fancy parties. be fancy parties. I w I'd been friends with you then Me too. Wh we could we could have written some songs. I think we could have done some damage back then. younger, leaner uss. Come on, man You would have done something bad I feel like there's a very distinctive clap in this s. Yeah, let's listen to that. There's a one bar loop and you can even hear the bleed Proving that humans did this Oh yeah And I'll add that to the beat It's, it's really got a weird beach Very sixties that d up d d I'm trying to think of a song that does that. I think a thousand serve rock songs do it teaming d d d d d. So that's what we'rearing in the claps. And then I'll I'll meet you Phil the McNast', man Here we go That's our beat. Yeah. We probably don't know who did the claps, either I'm not sure Could be Damon, could be one of Damons When we find out it's him just smacking his stomach like Quest love said have the claps on next movement. Go back and listen to our episode on the Rots. The bass guitar. Nowother question mark, Morgan Nichols. Okay is the name of a friend of Jamie Hewlet. and is the live bassist or has been the live bassist in the past O their songsillas. And his name is the bassist Okay, seeee that word his name is the basis. The name his name is the basis for the virtual basassist because remember that character's name is Murdoch Nichols. Which I think Murdch Nichols, even though he tried to spell it all weird is like the most British sounding name Americaed like Murdoch, like Rupert Murdoch and then the word Nichols, but spell it like kind of cool, but you can't that's a British name But he's not credited in the liner notes or in the splits. We're not sure, but let's listen I love that slide up to the octave there. And I hear it doubling a guitar, which is a very surf rock, very very reggae thing to do, very rock steady thing to do. Yeah. the same line being played on both bass and guitar So you get a little more high end, you get a little more of that low register and the high end together. It's possible also too, by the way, because there is a guitar player who's credited Simon Tong additional guitar, Maybe we're hearing him on the doubling there. Not really sure I will say like There's something Blursian If I can use that. Blurion. there's something Blursion about that bass Yeah I don't know. maybe maybe because I knew Damid, but I could I could have seen that being in a blur song. I love that bass line. It's so simple. I just love these like really simple hooky, you know, lowest string riffs. Again with the B fifty two s did lot of them, but so did Dick Dale. It'ss very fifties surf rock on London loves, you know, like again, I think that A little signature bass kind of goes well with Damon' style of singing. And again, we're sort of building that within these layers of stems, we have a mix of machine made and human made. That was very clearly a human bass and guitar. but if you weren't positive, we hear the little isolated thing at the end here ay the whole things are D we know And listen Yes definitely a human being and their fingers on the strings and the little imperfections right they know how to do all those perfections. Thanks to our show. We will be inadequate. Our show is helping them scrape all that human content. Sorry we don need. Sorry, future So we've heard the drums. By the way, Russell Hobbbs sounds like somebody who did not get paid by Barry Gordon Sounds like the guy who was definitely in the Funk brothers. In the lore he's supposed to be from Brooklyn, actually. He's supposed to be Brooklyn In the lore, ' he's a cartoon character, right? They're all they're all based in fact. Russell Hops. Tell us about the guitar All right, so noodles, right U right or Simon Tong who gets credited with additional guitar. And by the way, Simon Tong was in the verve He plays guitar on Btersweet Syphony and joined Blur after Graham Coxson left in two thousand two. Okay. So he's on the thinkink tank LP. And he played live for the Demon Days tour. And by the way, he's also in another Daemon Albarn side project, which is The goodood, the Bad and the Queen The goodood The Bad in and the Queen is Damon Albarn with Simon Tong Paul Simmon from the Clash. Oh, and Tony Allen, the famous Afro beat drummer from Pay Aouti's band. Well, fantastic. Another really cool side project Now here is what he is playing. Yeah. And that's a loop We hear that exact same thing again, words and all Can I hear where that is in I it sounds famar? I'll bring in some layers so you can hear that in context I just love how imperfect that whole thing is. The sound of it, the recording of it, sort of in the red, it's not perfectly tuned. And then he does this slide, which is a little bit awkward and off But with the repetition, your ear just kind of likes it. It kindind of goes with it. And I feel like I'm in, you know, Hawaii. It's very Hawaiian sounding. All right, I'll bring in some other elements. Okay, justust so we know where it is in the song Wh. that is here. That's a little early Fllowing where would have thought it fell That's pretty outstanding It gives it so much character that quirk by the way, the non pro toolsness of that, not being on grid is really so much a part of the human, the character. And that's, I think a huge goal of mixing machines and human. I think that's a project goal. I gotta say, if you're working on the little squares, you working on the grid, you would not think to put the else there No I'm sorry just so we can have it absolutely cleaan. C you just play the bass Yeah that part playing in syymphony in harmony together I driveving Simon Tong. Well done. Well done. Well done, man. Well done. That is something that I didn't really I don't know that I knew to give it flowers in the my one thousand listenings to this song, but that is just u That is angelic. There's so much beauty in the strangeness of all the choices of what's being played, how it's being played, the timing of it, the sound of it being recorded, the rhythm, like the whole thing These are choices that only a person would make. I tend to agree. The name of the album is demon Days. Yeah. but I would argue it should be called Angel days because that is just beautiful. It's so cool as a contrast to the otherwise locked in rhythm. The rest not the bass and guitar aside Just having the drum be locked in like that, it provides a really incredibly not only nice contrast but like essential. You know it gives the song so much of its character. I mean, it's very baric. If you want to talk like that's a good word. British I still say Aita. and I don't know you're trying to be Id be fancy, but I say like the British. I sayitha Definitely sounds baric and that kind of fits with the other songs on this album because one of my favorite gorilla songs of all time is on this album, a song called Dare with Sean Ryder from the Happy Mondays, ironically And he's a man who knows about partying in a Ba So I feel like that's in keeping with the general sound of demon days Let's listen to the acoustic guitar that comes in during the break, or technically the chorus. Okay. That's the part I like. And then a little bit later, that same thing That same part, but it' it's treated a little different. Is that a different guitar? That's an acoustic guitar. It might may be two layered p probably. Certainly a third certainly on top that melody is another layer guitar And then what's interesting, I hadn't noticed it until I was in the stems is when that same part comes in for the second chorus, this is the windmill windmill part, by the way It sounds it's treated a little different sonically. let's listen. It doesn't have that high passass filter, so it's more high fi. l's mow f fun And there sounds like some claps. Yeah. It sounds like it could be the reverb from from a clap. Yeah but not the clap in. Yeah, with Reverb, what you can do is you have the wetness and dryness. If you put wet all the way to one hundred, Basically, you can take out the sound source and only have the resultant reverb from it. That's a little bit what I'm hearing Yeah. So yeah, that's the guitar line there from. S somebody's like, you know what? the claps on feel good Ink. That was me. I was clapping for a while in there. You know, I told him to leave my name off. I don't need the glory. Just for context here, I'll put the vocals in so you know where we are The sky ends. You know, every time I play it I know. I'm wait for those drums to come back in because they come back in like a yeast. I just wantanna call attention to this really fun sample. That I've always noticed, but I don't know what it is. Now that it's isolated, maybe we can get the One song nation on board to figure out where did this come from I'll play it isolated, then I'll put it in the mix and you'll be like, Ohh yeah, I noticed that before. Here it is Right? Had you evered that before? No, I hadn't. You will never unhear that. Here it is in the mix And it's dissonant. It doesn't fit in musically with the bassline or with the rest of what's going on. You checked who sampled, there was nothing there. Not on who sampled. I looked lots of interviews.s but that very much sounds it's one of two things. Either, we were just talking about Port his head. This could be Simon Tom. sureure. Damon. They could have recorded it and made it sound old sound. I would say play that again. Yeah Play that little thing again and let me see Let me see if I can shazam it. O, good idea because not everybody has the stems so they can't isolate it. So let's see what we got. All right. Shazam, tell us what this is. ready to go B point. Let's go. And obviously thatsnth stab is not hard to loop it U Sure, I'll try looping it. One second I love that risic rabbit hole. I'll loop it without that synth stab sounds like it was overdubbed over this private ored try toask it. let's go Here we go It feels like it's a sample because I'm hearing other instruments. It feels filtered. It's just a top end of a there's like even a A man talking. Do you hear that voice? There's like a human voice on it And There's several things happened. There's a guy singing somewhere in there. It could just be some old library record, whatever it is We're not trying to get him in trou fair fol. I'm saying it'sair use and I'm a musicologist. that you're not going to jail. No we know music snch on. What actually was that? That was Jamaican. I That was clearly an undercover agent trying to sound Jamaican. Then there's another sound that we'll be hearing right after this answering machine. Let's listen and then I'll explain what it is. Oh yeah, I know this Now that sound, you know what that is Oh, um we You might know it you might know it from your childhood. You might know it from grade school, from like grammar school, from like, you know, from being a kindergartner, I don't know You mean the instrument? That instrument, yes. What is that? I don't think I know.'s It's called a Suzuki omnichord. off the rack Yes. We've talked about this another episode of the show a while back, I think. Maybe. you know, you might be right and I can't remember, but what it is it's basically an electric auto harp. It was very inexpensive when it came to. Suzuki, you know, was literally a brand, a Japanese brand. They made motorcycles. They made motorcycles, but a lot of music education as well And it's a single button. I've actually got one here. It's called an omniord. It's called an omniord. I've got a VST version of it so I can show you exactly how it works. Tell other people what a VST is. VST is just a plugin. so here in Ableton. So with a Suzuki omniord, you can just with one finger, actually two. One finger pushes a button and the other one like an auto harp, you strum it. So I'm not going to strum it here, but what I will do is show you Dam. No, I refuseed. Basically with the one button you choose the character of the chord. if it's major minor or a seventh chord. and then you can get an arpeggio out of it by strumming. So here's an example of just strumming a major chord And then that was with one finger. It was playing all the notes in the chord itself, the root, third, fifth, basically. but going up several octaves, which is why you hear it go higher and higher and hard. And now I'll do it for a minor chord. So that's a Dlat minor, and here's a deflat seventh Dominant seventh, minor seventh. These are all not complicated chords, but certainly like I said, this is an educational tool. So for children, the ability to sort of make, you know you can basically play a song if you know what chords what finger to go for one that what the root of the chord is you're trying to play. You can play the chord figure out which chord sound good next to each other. That's right. And the simplest way to put this is this is a way to play a chord with one finger I could have started with that, but I didn't. That's it Yeah, that's not a great man. That's the Omni chord off the rack. And we know that Damon Albarn loves the Omni chord because the other place that you've heard it before is it also came with a little cheap drum machine And that one of the presets sounded like this A et That's a preset on the omnipord. p I got sunshine. in a b. He used the same toy for Clint Eastwood.. But just a different you know use of it. It's got the same chords, but it's a preset. So one button gives you all of what I just played. Incredible. And can you use those presets on a song without everybody just beaping it So glad you asked, let's listen to a song that does that. byy luxury. So let's st together So there you go. I love that. You can because I did it and therefore the short answer is yes, you can because it's an off the rack instrument, just like using a rohodes. know, We've talked a lot about how sounds, you know, another example of this is the preset from Show me Love, right? The M one key. Sure. right Or like the melatron on some of those Beatles songs. A hundred percent the melatron that we've heard millions of times since the sixties and evokes its use on strawberry fields. Anyone is free to use it. It's just a sound that's available. That's a pretty good melatron. Nice work. I like the hand gesture too That you need to watch the show on you. I had to play yeah, you gott to see, I'm doing so much with my hands. Well the song didn't sing itself. So let's hear a little bit of Damon's singing, I would argue it's almost rapping. Let's hear a little bit of Damon Albert' vocals on the song H I love how he's out of breath. G. shop sh You know what that is like to my ears as a guy who stepped up to the microphone to do scratch vocals on music I'm working on. That's the first time he's ever done it or maybe the second time. It's such a scratch vocal The proof of the pudding is besides it being charmingly imperfect Normally you'd go in and overdub that second line so that you don't run out of breath. shop shopop shop feel good. Okay, can we address that? Yeah, ye yeah other elephone in the room is that I didn't know he was saying feel good. I thought was just going Yeah. all this time. And I mean, a couple of years ago, I think I figured out somebody said like he's saying feel good. And I was like, Oh is he? I think I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing about me. When I like a song, I almost never Unless it's like, you know, like some hip hop, you definitely want to know, oh wait, what did do you mean by that? And they don't go on genenius or one of these websites or whatever. But especially on a lot of like singing songs from my Youth all the way up until like the two thousands It never occurred to me to go online and make sure that he wasn't just going You know I You't feels good. It's feels good. It's the title. I actually saying feel good. shhop shop. Yeah, there's no w good. I just love He just like runs out of breath, but he just he does both parts, but like normally You would you would have two people sing that or two takes. Yeah. you would just ensure that they didn't interrupt each other like that. Well, I'm going to take a step further. I also hear a little bit of like, you know, because we know he knows who Phillek Kouti is and there's a little bit of that sort of like afro Beats, not have to be confused with Afro beats, which is more recent, but there's a little bit of that, you know Afro Beat where it's not so much a word as it's just like Yeah, you. And also pergsive sound. This is part two of a two part episode that we've done about Damon's projects. He went from H You went complete feel good. So he's like, I just gotta take these two syllables that anybody can say and make it work.. Two note melody. T two note hook. Can you name that s? Can you name that song in two notes? Yeah. I name He goes feel good. I can name two Damond Albarn songs in two notes Ay, you should just do a so called Dayan There's a sinister laugh at the very Top of the song. canan you play for us Long lap too Sh me that's one of the members of Dayl Last Sooul. It's Mio. It's plug three. Oh, okay, all right.. Yeah, totally, I can totally see it. And that's the part where I was like, yeah, you know There's definitely a rapper. It's so That intro, it's like a seven second long laugh. It might be longer than the Vincent Price laugh at the end of thrilling Wa, I'm gonna try to left along. Creaking door sound Mic. Mhhmh. We talked about Schrecht Gesang just a couple episodes ago. This is the Fredch Snyder thing. It's the Tal singing where there's melody in it. Talk singing, not toxicity. N talkal singing. It's there's melody in there. and he he goes back and forth. There is d, d That's more explicitly melody But the d d d This sort of one falling note. They going down the stairs. It kind of mirrors speech, but we kind of wouldn't talk like that either Yeah So it's somewhere in between speaking, rapping, and singing. It's also got that effect that makes it sound like he's got a tin can with a string up to his mouth That's right. Yeahah, he's either using a low pass filter or it's an inexpensive microphone or it's literally a megaphone or some kind of like, you know You can put a microphone in front of a megaphone, you know, There's lots of ways you can get. Oh that's kind of cool. I didn't know that. Yeah. I could certainly see that. But it has the effect of old AM radio or old telephone, right? Yeah. ' weve cut out all the mic.. It's just the Dodgers win.. The Dodgers win. It's just very low fi. Very low fi Forever, you am me W mill wom mill father landies everybody I love that harmon snack the Yeah. I don't think I knew that that was there. I don't think I'd ever really noticed it either. It's somewhat buried in the mix. You feel it, but it's's that's the only time I think the vocals are so clear as well because his whole vocal there was also filmed. And do we know if that's just him singing the higher registers and It sounds like a stack of Damon. It sounds like Damons's a stack of Dami. It's a stack of What a great gift that would be.ere's your second name. Here's the secondc Dam' for you. I know it's your birthday, so b your secondav'? Oh, you're so. Dayl L Souls on the track. we hear a little bit of their isolated Of course, as we always would say our IP true laughing dasties hasast mas fast cast, lining them up like Lony. It's my chocolate lit. No, I'm stepping in hoter this year. K be stepping in hoter this year. Watch me as a gravitor No donon't forget about the laugh contest Yeah. I'm sorry, Play that very last that very last laugh. Okay. L listen to David J sound a little I think I hooing. I thinks hooing by that point. R was Michael Jackson there. That's more of a feel at all in that one. So I don't think I was crazy. I was probably just focus on the later whooooos Um and by the way, Dayla has always brought a little bit of snark comomedy, laughter, sarcasm Bing wick, acerbic to what they do and hear nothing. Nothing unexpected in a good way. Yeah. Like there's still Daylot soul, even though they're on this track. and even though the first time I heard this, I just thought Dl was using different voices. But it would have been crazy. byy the way, also, I think there was this thought that like hip hop could only be one thing, especially when Daylot came out. they helped explode that myth. But I love the fact that they work it Don't stop get it. get it, which is Luther Campbell and two live crew You wouldn't necessarily think of two live crew and yes and D liive Soul getting along, but guess what A lot of your favorite rappers actually do listen to more than just the particular style of hip hop that they perform. And by the way, Damon talks about like finding this voice for the song. He said, quote, feeleel good was the beginning of it. I really enjoy that voice because it's an opportunity to say some quite bizarre things that I wouldn't necessarily be able to sing about Yeah. So it gives him another character to play. We were going to break down all the lyrics, but I think it's important to point out that The lyrics don't always have to be like interpreted to Literally You know what I mean? I think that we just decided to leave them as they are. As it stands, these lyrics are more akin to sort of like the nonsense lyrics in a good way of a David Byrne song. and I think that we're going just leave it at that. I think you're right. I think they're just a stream of consciousness a little bit. And maybe the meaning is what you make of it All right, we've heard the song. How did the splits break down on gorillas? All right, well, Damon takes thirty seven point five percent of the publishing pie. Interesting. Slitting it equally with his buddy, Jamie Hewleittt, interesterestingly, who I don't know had much of a musical contribution literally, but perhaps just as the inspiration source, you maybe lyrically they work together. Unclear the waters have been muddied in terms of who did what on the song. Sure. exxcept that we know His co creator of guorriillas, Jam Hewlet got thirty seven point five percent. Amazing. And you know what's crazy about I think you know where I'm going with this. like an older Damon is taking less of the pie. and I think it's because he's gotten older and he sort of recognizes, you know, nothing happens in a vacuum. And why don't I try to split the pie more evenly? By the way, who gets the last twenty five percent? Dave Trugoid Jolly Kur. Yes from D Los. That's awesome And Brian, Danger Mouse, Burton gets the last five percent. Okay, well, great, that's super cool. Which to me maybe implies that he did have something to do with what sounds very danger mouse, that bassline guar part and maybe with sample. Maybe he found the sample. It's unclear, but those are the four names listed in the publishing splits What should be said that feel good In has taken on a second life thanks to TikTok. like so many songs from the past. theseese kids here for the first time Gen Z is like, what's this cool song? And what's funny is that people are not really using it for the dark corporate dystopia side of the music. They're using it for nature videos, hiking. Have you seen this thing where they' like rape benches? No what There's like a thing where like they'll show the bench and it' handan over and they'll show you what the bench is looking at. Okay that's what gets the bench it's rating out. And by the way, some of these benches are amazing, but they use the windmill windmill part of the song as the part where you whip over. I love how things like that need an explanation. It was a thing. It was not obvious at all. people will be like, look at this nice bench with a view one hundred out of ten Windmill windmill by gorillas. Okay, whatever. Also like the see sca of one to ten, it's one hundred.. This TikTok trade is basically people finding their own little windmill island, a bench, a trail, a view, just a moment outside the Matrix and these data centers that we're all going to be slaved to and then sharing it on a screen, which is very gor. I know. And I think look, the same way the gorillas continues to release music U I think that Damon is not finished with this band and thankfully we get to, you know, we get the benefit of getting new music. All right, as always, you can find us on socials. you can find me on Instagram at Diialo DIA LLO and on Instagram at Diiala Riddle. And you can find me on Instagram at LUXX URY and on TikTok at Luxury XX. You can also watch full episodes of One song on YouTube and Spotify. Just search One song podcast. We love it if you like and subscribe Also be sure to check out the onene song Spotify playlist for all the songs we discussed in our episodes. You can find that link in our episode description. I don't no why I said it like that, but that's where I'm gonna leave it. because we also have a Patreon now. That's right. Patreon dot com slash Dialo luxury. That's right. And if you've made this far, you're officially part of the One Song Nation. Show us some love, give us five star review, if you can. And send this episode out to a fellow music nerd. It really helps us keep the show going All right, let'xy help me in this thing. I'm producer DJ songwriter, musicologist and every Friday night from ten PM till midnight, KCRW DJ Luxury. And I'm actor writer, director, and sometimes DJ Diialo Riddle. And this is onene song. We'll see you next time This episode was recorded at KCRW Headquarters Engineer by Katie Gilchrist prodrouced, edited, and mixed by the onene in only Eric Hicks