Gnarls Barkley?
Crazy flog: It sounds like a name you wouldn't give your dog, but Gnarls Barkley is the name on the lips of music industry movers and shakers as they chew over the news that this mysterious duo have just made UK chart history with their debut single, Crazy. It's the first record to reach No 1 on download sales alone, knocking Ne-Yo off the top slot, and keeping Morrissey from getting to pole position. Crazy outsold every other single out last week and will probably remain at No 1 this weekend, as the rest of the world catches up with the down- load set and snaps up the first available CD copies. Since last April, download sales have counted towards chart positions, and now here's proof that the web is fast becoming the platform of choice for today's music-hungry pop kids.
PR waffle: Like such reclusives as Thomas Pynchon, JD Salinger and JT Leroy, Gnarls Barkley has long been a riddle wrapped in an enigma. "I've made him my life's work," says one befuddled seeker after the truth. "And even with all the evidence I've gathered, I'm still not sure he really exists. Maybe Gnarls Barkley isn't a person. Maybe he's out there in the wind. Maybe he's inside of all of us. Like 'Bob' from Twin Peaks, only more funky and less evil." Actually, Gnarls Barkley is the pseudonym of two very real, very funky and not-very-evil men: US hip-hop producer Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse, and singer Thomas Calloway, better known to r'n'b fans as Cee-Lo Green. "I saw Danger Mouse come in here," said a chef who worked in a South Carolina waffle house. "Cee-Lo was with him. And they had this other dude with them, dressed up like HR Pufnstuf." The trio left a $500 tip and a note that said, "Compliments to the chef. Gnarls Barkley."
Grey area: Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo launched Gnarls Barkley two years ago, but the project was put on hold when Danger Mouse's notorious Grey Album, a mash-up of Beatles songs and Jay-Z raps, took off. While Burton was locked in legal wrangles with EMI over The Grey Album, Calloway was enjoying success with his own (original) album, Soul Machine. More distractions came when Burton was recruited for production duties on Gorillaz' new album, Demon Days, and found himself being hailed as Eccentric Genius of the Year by Spin magazine and the world's hottest hip-hop producer by NME.
Bark psychosis: Crazy is a fine blend of old-school r'n'b and streetwise hip-hop - Marvin Gaye meets Quannum - and fully justifies the internet buzz about Gnarls Barkley. The pair will soon release a full-length album, and it promises to be a genre-hopping gem of soulful hip-hop tunes. Gnarls Barkley will play at Electric Picnic in Stradbally, Co Laois, on September 3rd.
