Gnarls Barkley Is God

Good music creates a counter-reality to the real world.

Have you ever seen the guy walking down the street all by himself, ear buds in his ears, singing out loud at the top of his lungs, dancing and strutting, completely unaware of the world around him? Maybe you’ve almost run over him with your car and thought he was nothing but a f*$king idiot getting in your way. The truth is that that person has been taken away, has been transported to an alternate universe in another place and time. He’s living in that moment, just the song and him… and you do not exist.

Gnarls Barkley’s new album hits stores on March 25th, 2 weeks earlier than planned… and it’s already been released on iTunes… probably due to the fact that the album has been linked online and is being passed around and it just so happened to land near me and I picked it up. And I am very, very, very blown away.

The first time I heard the single ‘Crazy’ off their last album I was immediately hooked. I spun the track almost 24 hours a day, only taking breaks to sleep… the second I got up I started it again. It’s the way I listen to music when I’m in love with it and want it to dig into my soul structure. I drove people nuts with it… everywhere I went I played it. At the time, no one knew who Gnarls Barkley was and then a few months later… wammo. It was a world-wide smash.

Cody, my friend and co-conspirator in the band Born A Number just got back from a few weeks with Gnarls in LA and New York working as a drum / pro tools / electronic geek for the band and upon his return he said “you have to hear the new album” and pointed out a few tracks that were his favorites. Listening to the new music makes me hate him even more for getting to go and be immersed in the real deal, live Gnarls show.

The sh*t is great, creative, spooky, uplifting. It’s extremely upbeat and sad at the same time. The music has an old-school, beat up texture… like you’re listening to 3 different scratched up records at once. Danger Mouse is the shit. I recently watched a 1/2 hour interview with him about how he and Ceelo (the group’s singer) met… it was great. They were both about 17-18 years old and Ceelo’s band The Goodie Mob had already blown up. Danger Mouse won a talent show and was able to open for The Mob at a local show and afterwards he was able to slip Ceelo a tape of some of the music he was working on, he said he thought Ceelo would like it. Ceelo took the music and they parted ways and never talked again until years later. I forget exactly how it happened but Danger Mouse had created a name for himself and ended up getting Ceelo to listen to a song that perhaps he could sing on… after a time the two agreed that he should just sing on all the songs and wammo, Gnarls Barkley was born.

The combination of sounds that these two guys bring to the table are insane together.Ceelo, sick and soulful, voice like syrup and saw dust, Danger Mouse’s dirty, ambient, cut up, looped magic. It’s extremely unique and uplifting… but not “peppy” the music and lyrics have this warped, almost sick thing to them… some of the things he says are kind of spooky and then he’ll wrap it up with a phrase about everything being ok now, it great.

The vocals are distorted throughout most of the album, adding to the creepy factor. The first track “Charity Case” is one of my favorites and includes a lot of bell parts that you can almost miss if you cross your ears. “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” is one of the neatest songs I have heard in ages, that’s the only way I can put it… its f*&king neat. It sounds like an old recording of a female, black, soul singer breaking down in a vocal booth.

“Who’s gonna save my soul now? I wonder if I’ll live to grow old now, getting high cuz I feel so alone now.”

Strong. “Would Be Killer” is definitely one of my favorites… he says

“I’ve got a secret, something maybe I could do, but I can’t now can I, lucky you. Did you know I could be… a would be… killer.”

Speak it. “Blind Mary” also rocks. On the last track of the album “A Little Better” Ceelo says

“I can sing you the story line and if you like my story fine but ain’t none of the glory mine. See my life was a lonely one and I was still mama’s only son with no idea what I’m gonna become. And I didn’t have long to know that you don’t have to be grown to go… I could have died so long ago.. Then I finally saw the sign and I made it on down the line… one step at a time. I feel better, I can smile at it now I feel better.”

F*%king Tough.

If you’ve made it to the end of this post, you’re a trooper and I’ll tell you now, go pay for this album, you won’t regret it. As soon as it hits stores I’ll be picking it up.