#he's not a frontman though he's a real creepy drummer

[deathandthesoul]

Got Aidan's Halloween outfits sorted

[youcantfiremebecauseiquit]

idk if u care but crispin gray recently had an interview about his entire career and it kind of changed my perspective of queenadreena…idk if for better or for worse lol. it was weird to see him so dismissive of a lot of his catalogue w katie except for ‘love your money’ just because that was the only remotely chart successful song. i get you want to be able to sustain yourself but jeez him and katie really had a weird back and forth relationship

Sorry i'm replying late, i've seen the interview pop up on Youtube but honestly i was too invested in university shit recently & generally not in the good mood for that but i'm planning to watch. How did it change your view on Queen Adreena, did he say something mean specifically on QA or Katie? I mean i gotta watch it but honestly? Not surprised in the slightest. A few years ago he was asked to describe fave songs he recorded throughout the years and he listed more of Daisy Chainsaw ones than anything else, with Love Your Money as number 1. The differences in their points of view are real something, Katie Jane absolutely HATED Love Your Money, same as Daisy Chainsaw. Kinda apparent he wanted bigger fame but DC dropped fast and QA failed to live up to their predictions.

i had a time when i liked to dig up old Queen Adreena interviews that are lost in the old internet & generally not available for years (which i planned to post on is-she-suffering but my investment in that site is... varied in its intensity). Also that was back in the days when i wrote Queen Adreena book during manic phase and tried to sell it but lost motivation Well since i don't do anything with that knowledge anyway i'll put what i know here as i love fan discussions

So they sure had/have odd back and forth love-hate relationship & that's the reason why their career went how it went. There's been a huge tension between them at some point. I'm sure you know she had a major mental breakdown (probably schizophrenic episode) after Daisy Chainsaw, or even beginning before her leaving, and then she went into isolation and lived with an old woman in Lake District for awhile. She left Daisy Chainsaw cause Crispin didn't want her to come up with her own songs (all of DC was by Crispin except for Lovely ugly brutal world by KJ).

They almost split up as Queen Adreena after Drink Me. The material for The Butcher and The Butterfly was written at different times, originally it was meant to be called Atom Bomb at Bikini but it was constantly delaying and they eventually recorded everything they've got live. So that's obvious right? But i was surprised to find out they were writing songs separately. Some of them (i forgot which though) were written by Katie Jane and Pete Howard's sons band (they're even credited) + some with Melanie Garside, Richard Adams + some other musician. Katie Jane didn't like it. They intended it to be their last album at the time. She also hated live at ICA show but they released it cause they were broke

But that's a digression. I just wanna say that at this point they were done with each other but kept pushing it. Katie had her own art projects and stuff, Crispin started Dogbones with Nomi and i just remember how vaguely pissed at Katie he waas in the interviews. Like he stressed that Dogbones is his number one priority and if Katie wants to do something with Queenadreena, she must wait til Dogbones have a break first or something, and it sounded oddly bitter.

RaCH and Djinn era are just so weird, they had opportunities but let them go in a way. I don't think many people know but they were huge demand in Japan. They entered album charts and were interviewed by 11 magazines and 6 (!)TV stations there (wtf happened to that material i want to know???). But they only played 5 times or less.

Katie said she considers the band dead but they decided they can try to play for a couple more months. But aside from that she 100% lost the interest in the band around Djinn. There's an interview where she says "the overall image is Crispin but the shape will change again at rehearsals". And you can hear it, it’s more blues rock than anything. IMO it's their worst production wise. Instruments are fine but Katie's voice is so badly produced that sometimes i find some songs fucking irritating, cause they didn’t cut out her breaths and the vocals are TOO LOUD, to the point of distorting. As if she stands too close to the mic. The album is fine but it feels unfinished.

And here we come back to Crispin... here's what he said after the QA split:

Why the Dogbones started? “I needed to work more than the previous band I was in was working, the previous band who shall remain nameless, haha… um… Queenadreena. I wanted to work more than the singer of Queenadreena wanted to work… so that’s why it started. Fine by me… but I really like to be in a band, I’m not a solo project kind of guy. The last album (‘Djin’) did come out in the UK, but it was so low key because Katie kind of disappeared so there was little point in promoting it. Personally it’s my favourite by far so it was a shame but there you go… So here are Dogbones, it’s not been an easy ride but we are trying very hard.

Ok so the bitterness is kinda apparent isn't it. I think there were two reasons why they argued so much, first musical differences. Katie at some point lost interest in loud rock music for some years and went the folk way in Ruby Throat. I have a theory that Taxidermy and Drink Me are more influenced by Katie Jane and Butcher and Djinn are more Crispin. During first albums i think Katie more actively took part in music composition and choosing arrangements. She wrote lyrics, melodies but also composed a lot of songs on some little electronic keyboard thing and 4 track (Heavenly Surrender, Pray for me, My Silent Undoing, all Lalleshwari +more). Plus she wanted more peaceful/dreamy sound on Taxidermy than full on rock, Crispin complained about it in some 00's interview, that he'd like it to be more rock. Then there are 2 versions of Drink Me, the original has rough and alt versions of songs (it was sold by Katie and it's leaked on FB and probably YT). Crispin Gray apparently really hated the final Drink Me. Now next album is The Butcher & The Butterfly and it's more standard blues rock, no more crazy dreamy things of previous albums etc., Djinn is even more blues rock but darker. Djinn was his favourite at some point while KJ hated Butcher, not sure about Djinn. So i think they had different views on where they should go, Katie made her weird simplistic creepy tunes (like Lalleshwari) and folk melodies adding that strange things to noise rock. Crispin probably wanted blues & rock.

Other than that, i’m convinced they are bitter exes, lol. There’s been rumours about them dating during Daisy Chainsaw for years, plus Katie had a history of dating band members. Crispin wrote X-ing off the days about her. I don’t know if they dated again in Queen Adreena. Then there’s this interview, timeline is unclear, either The butcher & the butterfly or later:

„Katie writes all the songs herself and often looks for melodies and structure with the drummer. With Crispin - her husband or ex-husband, which is not entirely clear to me - for almost three years she has no longer been in a room. "Sometimes we send him a letter with a new song and that's all we can do. All we have are our lungs and our musical talent and we have to do with it. It is repugnant difficult life, I know most of the time how I should deal with it." But Queenadreena will still remain even exist? "I think so, we are now pretty busy and I see where the ship aground.”

I always wondered what exactly happened after Djinn, i’ve seen Katie Jane say „i think they gave up on me” while others said she disappeared. Other times CG said there’s no bad blood between them but at the same time there’s been some weird tension.  As of recent i thought they reconnected somehow through the internet and had a good relation but who really knows.s

I get why Crispin gets irritated when people compare everything he does to „stealing from KJ” but honestly, he gave them good reasons, at least in the 90’s. I can believe Starsha Lee singer isn’t copying Katie cause she’s from Brazil or something and she didn’t know Queen Adreena before. But everything else… Crispin’s problem is that he doesn’t know what he wants. He spent 90’s chasing something, tried singing himself, had girl singer replacements and even one KJ copy. Dogbones was ironically his most original non-Katie band, even with all their grunge influences. In a way he wants to be a frontman and at the same time doesn’t. Idk if he’s very controlling, but Daisy Chainsaw shows he valued his songs/lyrics first & in Queen Adreena he had to step back a lot, cause Katie’s condition was she would be in charge of the lyrics. I don’t think he realizes how strongly Daisy Chainsaw issues affected Katie, i mean from her own words you can read that aside from media attention/hate, her being unable to write lyrics had a role in her breakdown. I think she now let go but for years she hated remembering Daisy Chainsaw and she felt kind of worthless cause she was only somebody else’s mouthpiece. I’m not trying to say he’s cruel or anything, but i firmly believe rock lyrics writers should sing their own songs or else there are problems.

They both were writers-composers with different vision and i have impression they struggled a lot while shaping their songs, cause they both stuck to their ideas. Hence 2 versions of Princess Carwash maybe. Katie once said that he „gets terribly upset with her” cause she writes her songs on a simple wind organ and uses a few chord buttons only. Clash of writer ways/personalities/egos and at some point they had to let go.

Maybe he prefers music/bands where he was 100% in control including lyrics (note he wrote/sang some lyrics in Dogbones too). Daisy Chainsaw achieved bigger success US and UK wise as they were offered to play Top of The Pops, and they’re more well liked/remembered by „general alt public”. Queen Adreena however is way more valued as a cult band, with cult following and admiration in UK & France. Most people think Pretty Like Drugs and other QA songs are his best work and he probably finds it irritating cause truth is, he never managed to be more successful than Daisy Chainsaw/Queenadreena. Love Your Money is ironically the least Crispin Gray/DC/QA sounding song in my opinion. I kinda find it irritating that he downplays Queen Adreena cause it was probably his best work in this band but whatever

So yeah sorry for the word spill, that’s what i can think of it right now but as i said, i haven’t watched the interview yet, it’s just this kind of treatment is in a way consistent for him

[cuntbliss-blog]

Auckland City Limits 2018 review

I made a very last minute decision to buy a ticket for Auckland City Limits. I had enjoyed a windfall and felt a deep sense of FOMO. Within half an hour of gate’s opening, I purchased a ticket from the Ticketmaster Box Office in Aotea square.

Seeing new up and comer Jed Parsons who opened the festival was a real drawcard for me. Unfortunately public transport caused me to arrive a little late. But hearing the opening notes of his absolutely stellar ‘Get Lost’ seemed like a very good omen. I caught two more songs, and it appears as so this young lad is rapidly ascending to the mighty mantle of other local greats like Ruban Neilson. He has roots in the traditional formulas of rock and roll songwriting, mixed with funk and psychedelia but also inflects it with tasteful modern production. His recently formed band were solid, Parsons was a friendly, seemingly unpretentious and generous entertainer. I look forward to seeing more from him. 

I was astounded upon arrival and over the course of the festival as to what an ideal and world-class public venue Western Springs can be. Two main stages to the East at the entrance, a small Golden Dawn stage across the bridge alongside the lake and of course two ‘main stages’ inside the stadium/speedway itself. It meant that a punter never had to feel boxed in or claustrophobic and could still enjoy the music at a reasonable distance. Grass abounds, there are trees to find shade beneath, not to mention a natural body of water! It really is quite perfect and massively superior to Mt Smart Stadium. The food mostly came from very classy inner city eateries, but I had to save my money for beer, which given that it was 2.5% ABV I had to really throw them back. 

Second for me was Alien Weaponry. I see they’re gaining a lot of local attention and accolades and while I find the use of Te Reo lyrics in their music intriguing, I didn’t see the music itself as being much more than a fairly derivative mash-up of Thrash, commercial 90s metal and maybe the vaguest prog flourish. I also find overt political righteousness of any variety (no matter how well intended) in music to be irritating if not unnecessary. I understand they’re very young though, and it was difficult to fault their musical competency.

Next were Head Like a Hole a band who don’t exactly cater to my tastes but I’ve always had an unexpected fondness for. Rocking up on stage looking like a team of mechanics from Te Atatu (they could be for all I know, oops nah they’re Wellingtonians) frontman Booga Beazley is well versed in the theatrics of rock’n’roll buffoonery.  They have too much groove to be metal, but are a little too heavy to be lumped into the hard rock label of the early 70s. They really just carry themselves so well, seem so confident in what they do given how long they’ve been doing it. Their cover of ‘Immigrant Song’ was for me a highlight of the entire event. 

Next up I thought I’d check out the Golden Dawn stage across the bridge. Nicely secluded and shaded by trees, this relatively small stage still enjoyed good sound. So, thumbs up to the engineers involved. I saw Simon something or other. Restrained indie pop but very confidently delivered. Almost teetered on Slowdive-esque shoegaze at times, I thought. I wasn’t madly keen but it was resolutely competent.

By this stage I thought I’d consider giving Carseat Headrest another go. I can’t say I’ve been impressed by the recordings I’ve heard - I frankly can’t stand vocalists who mumble or murmur, unless they’re Kevin Shields. I find the overtly jammy song structures uninventive and a bit tedious, frankly. With the large band set up, two drummers, and aforementioned jamminess, they remind me superficially of Pavement. But Pavement they are not. Although the knotty segues in their songs can make it difficult to predict where a song begins and ends, the progressions tend to be formulaic, albeit drawn out, just with the unexpected, appended additions to structure. These songs generally erupted into ‘whoa whoa whoa whoa yeah, tonight we are young esque’ call and response sing alongs. I know the guy writes heaps of lyrics and I always respect that, but frankly I couldn’t really hear them. Yeah kinda fuck this band tbh.

Next, between two of my frequent panic attacks, over-exposure to the sun and the proper ABV beer I enjoyed at the Golden Dawn stage, I retired into the shadows of the hills, regrettably missing most of Thundercat’s I was assured (and I am sure) excellent set. 

Next up were the Libertines. Who were poised to be a highlight for me. I really enjoy their first album especially. There he was - Pete Doherty. Looking surprisingly healthy. Or maybe it was the make up from a distance. The only two people I bumped into and knew during the entire festival are about 21 and both wrote it off as ‘old guy stuff’ within a few songs. Yikes. I’m only about 5 years younger than them. They reminded me heavily of the Clash in terms of their sing shouty choruses, vague 1950s rockabilly/early rock’n’roll rhythmic undertow and general vocal style. The rhythm section might secretly be the best part of this band - the bassist showing effortless dexterity and the drummer incorporating vaguely Afro-beats at times. Something just wasn’t right. It didn’t help that Doherty’s guitar was out of tune for the first few songs, but something just felt off. Like it has just become a job for these guys. The Libertines are creative songwriters but their stage-show felt underwhelming for me, fostering cheesy showmanship that seemed to compensate for substance.

What happened next? Fuck. Not sure. Was pretty drunk and stoned at this point and freaking out again. I saw the D4. Whyyyyyyyyyy. Ok I’m being a total dick, the D4 play with impressive energy and proficiency but their songs just don’t do it for me. ‘Get up and get out and get loose?’ No thanks, I think I’ll just do the getting loose part then curl up like the neurotic sociopath I truly am. 

The Avalanches I was somewhat looking forward to. Because of that ‘Boy Needs Therapy’ song. Well. I genuinely didn’t realize they were a band. I thought they were electronic. Avalanches was very 50/50 for me personally. Whoever took charge of sound wasn’t doing a great job - too much bass, too little vocals. I didn’t really enjoy the bunch of really obvious songs they sampled into the music. At some point during the late 90s people discovered computers and DAWS and samples and decided that inserting great music into electronic tapestries was tantamount to genius. I’ve never quite understood this. Avalanches were still enjoyable, but I can’t say I loved it. 

Then I started freaking out again and walked back to the Golden Dawn area. The most violent, obnoxious, obstreperous bass I have ever fell victim to seemed to penetrate the entire complex. The trees were trembling, man. Must have been some hip hop guy. How can they even sing over that shit? What is it with you humans and excessive bass? I hate it. 

So then I got my shit together (popped some sedatives, had some more low alcohol beer) and prepared myself for Grace Jones. I’m not a Grace Jones fan in any huge way, but the second she graced (hah) the stage in an outrageous space-age costume replete with golden helmet and red laser beam eyes, her voice, her charisma, her band and her sheer sound production out shined everything which came before (and after). I was a bit far back cuz I’m a nervous freak but someone I know claimed she changed costume (11!) times. But I must not begin to let this sound like it was all about the stage show (which was dazzling, inventive and spectacular). Graces’ breed of mutant post-funk disco is at once entirely artificial and yet somehow primordial, spiritual even. Her voice is commanding, rich, full and doesn’t even have the vaguest shred of elderliness to my ears. ‘Do you feel the life’ Grace asked the audience ‘I love my life was her response.’ I’ll bet she does. What a fucking lady. Every younger band at that concert could take an encyclopaedia  of knowledge and wisdom from the glorious uniqueness and pure charisma that is Grace Jones.

Then I saw Beck. Fuckkkkkk. Beck was 50% of the reason I came to this fucking gig. Beck’s set was A) too quiet B) lacking energy, conviction, enthusiasm C) too top heavy with his more recent stuff which is frankly barely distinguishable top 40 tripe and D) well I’m a cunt. Anyhow. I’m being overly negative. Perhaps Grace simply set the bar too high and I was getting too sedated. There were some highlights. For some reason the Chimpmunk funk of ‘Mixed Bizness’ from Midnite Vultures turned out to be an unexpected highlight for me. We also got to hear Devil’s Haircut and Loser. Yeah they were good. But I dunno. Amidst the awkward attempt to get people to sing along to ‘Raspberry Beret’ and the massive screen projection of him, I sensed the vague whiff of scientology in all its epic soul destroying creepiness. I left early.

But I had fun. Seriously. Auckland City Limits is fucking awesome. Make sure you go next time.

[tune-collective]

The 15 Best Gorillaz Songs

The 15 Best Gorillaz Songs

Every band has a story, but the Gorillaz are a story. We all know it’s Damon Albarn behind the mic with a rotating cast of collaborative characters, but the stellar, genre-blending electronic music is only half of the band’s greatness. Jamie Hewlett’s cartoons are rife with personality, and the foursome’s outlandish comic antics and adventures bring the project to life. They were breathing in the virtual before society realized its own cyber destiny.

Gorillaz proves that you don’t have to let experimentation and originality fall to the wayside in the name of commercial viability. You can still have songs on the radio and sell a bunch of albums even if you continuously push yourself to be strange, dark, and a little twisted. Gorillaz are virtual beings, and yet they are continuously one of the realest acts on the market.

The proof? Here are 15 of the best Gorillaz songs ever recorded.

15. Gorillaz – “Rhinestone Eyes”

This electro-funk song from Gorillaz’ third album Plastic Beach stands out for its delicious weirdness. That pumping, synthetic organ surrounded by swirling ghost voices is some kind of wonderful. It’s dark, because almost everything by the Gorillaz is dark, but it’s got a jolt of energy that makes you wanna get up and adventure, as 2D’s deadpan delivery is fabulously juxtaposed against stabbing samples.

14. Gorillaz – “Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head” feat. Dennis Hopper

This Gorillaz song features Dennis Hopper, from effing Easy Rider, reading to you the damned destiny of men who do not heed the warnings of nature. The only other song I can think of anywhere remotely similar to this is The Velvet Underground’s “The Gift,” which is equally narrative-based and disturbing. Put this one on next time you’re sitting around a campfire exchanging ghost stories.

13. Gorillaz – “Don’t Get Lost in Heaven”

Right after the demise of the Happy People in “Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head,” “Don’t Get Lost in Heaven” sweeps you into the bright lights of the afterworld. It bleeds just as seamlessly into Demon Days‘ album-ending title track This whole little closing act of the LP is quite brilliant, running beautifully on a theme with this tune as a reflective centerpiece. And who doesn’t fall victim to the charms of an angelic chorus?

12. Gorillaz – “Every Planet We Reach Is Dead”

This Demon Days deep cut has a Western feel, the crashing symbols sound like a cowboy’s heavy walk punctuated by the clinking of spurs. Albarn could be a man singing a sad song of love lost in an old saloon. The bright keys could be the dusty piano. It’s a cinematic piece that grows ever more interesting and noisy in a sweeping, chaotic build, before coming down in a sunset of strings. Nothing is resolved, and everything is as it should be.

11. Gorillaz – “Plastic Beach” feat. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon

The title track from the Gorillaz’ third studio album is a real creamy dream. Funky creaks and croaks and wonks plop here and there among the cascading keys. It’s also, essentially, a collaboration with punk all-timers The Clash, as both guitarist Mick Jones and bassist Paul Simonon grace the tune with classic cool. This is a summer song for when everything is wrong, but partying is still on the docket.

10. Gorillaz – “Rock The House” feat. Del The Funky Homosapien

’90s alt-rap great Del comes through for his second appearance on Gorillaz’ debut LP. He plays the role of drummer Russel’s dead MC friend. Russel is possessed by Del, which is really not that bad of a deal. While comments from the cartoon members of the band in faux-tobiography Rise of the Ogre reflect a certain distaste for the tune, “Rock The House” stood out on Gorillaz with its bright horn sample (courtesy of “Modesty Blaise” by John Dankworth) as one of the most fun and fanciful moments on the record.

9. Gorillaz – “Superfast Jellyfish” feat. Gruff Rhys, De La Soul

Any song that opens with a clip of a commercial is a winner in my book. De La Soul’s Trugoy grabs the baton of sarcastic capitalism and runs with it right into a bubble of cheeky fun. The bouncing beat lulls you into a false sense of happiness as you crunch on your sugar-coated mind-control bites. Slurp up the pink-and-purple swirl of milk and wash away the feeling that there might be something more meaningful at stake. There you are! You’re ready for the dance floor called life.

8. Gorillaz – “Andromeda” feat. D.R.A.M.

There’s no denying the fabulous funk of this Humanz single. It’s got an interstellar groove that boldly goes where no cartoon band has gone before. It’s a fun, seemingly innocuous song, but it’s actually very personal to Albarn. It’s named after a nightclub from his youth, and it was the only place that played soul music in the area. He tried to capture the spirit of those nights in the song. He also dedicated “Andromeda” to the mother of his longtime partne,r who recently passed. It’s an emotive dance track with highs, lows, sick synthlines; in short, everything you need in a dope dance hit.

7. Gorillaz – “Ascension” feat. Vince Staples

Sirens and Staples’ apocalytpic party-starting mark the impending dopeness that will certainly leave your ears damaged and demanding more. The off-beat melody creates images of women twerking in dirty streets as buildings crumble and people spontaneously combust. Ain’t no club like the end of the world, and when this world meets its demise, put this Gorillaz song on full blast.

6. Gorillaz – “19-2000”

If you were a nerdy kid around the turn of the Millennium, it’s highly likely you remember that night when Cartoon Network’s Toonami ran a bunch of animated music videos. It was the first taste a generation of youngsters got of Daft Punk’s Interstellar 5555, and it was also the most we’d ever seen of Gorillaz to date. This song blew my mind when I was 13 – I’d never heard anything quite so strangely, electronically funk – as did its explosive and hilarious video. It’s like a modern day Looney Tunes episode, and it helped introduce us to the characters we know and love today.

5. Gorillaz – “Tomorrow Comes Today”

This lo-fi beat comes straight from the band’s debut LP and hits you right in the soul. It’s the kind of rainy-day rhythm that turns you inside out and has you thinkin’ all deep and stuff. It’s all blues and grays — the underlying melancholy sucks you in, but you can’t help but head-bob. It’s a little sad, but it’s still a mean groove.

4. Gorillaz – “El Mañana”

This is one of those rare Gorillaz singles that isn’t a down-and-out dance tune. It’s beautifully sad, the melody of one stuck between a rosy yesterday and the far-off gleam of a better tomorrow. The music video depicts the destruction of the band’s floating island: This is the point in the story where Noodle got lost. As a single, it didn’t perform as well as its Demon Days predecessors, but as a song, it’s haunting and honest, the kind of melancholy sing-along that lives in your heart on rainy days forever.

3. Gorillaz – “DARE” feat. Shaun Ryder

This was our introduction to Noodle’s singing, brought to us via the vocal chords of Roses Gabor. 2D, a.k.a. Albarn, is on the backing track, with Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder chiming in alongside him. Did you know “DARE” samples Daft Punk’s “Revolution 909” at the end? It’s a downright danceable track, though it keeps that Gorillaz’ creepiness running throughout with those slinking synths and ghostly chorus vocals. It’s got bits of disco, trip-hop, and new wave peppered throughout for a fresh take on commercial viability that doesn’t have to put brakes on experimentalism, a cornerstone of what Gorillaz are all about. It remains the band’s only U.K. number one hit. Ryder is actually saying “It’s There” on the hook, and that was the working title for the track, but the singer’s accent is so intense, they just went with it and changed the name. The music video is full of horror film references, from The Birds to The Brain That Wouldn’t Die and The Ring.

2. Gorillaz – “Clint Eastwood” feat. Del The Funky Homosapien

I remember the first time I saw this music video. I was 13. My bestie was sleeping over. She got scared. I fell in love. “Clint Eastwood” is the first rap song I knew every lyric to, and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone: This eerie, drum-driven synthetic experiment is the musical equivalent of Damon Albarn creating his Frankenstein’s monster, which might explain the zombie apes in the visual. That red Japanese letting under the logo? It’s a quote from Dawn of the Dead, and it reads “Every dead body that is not exterminated, gets up and kills. The people it kills, get up and kill.” A couple months after this tune came out, every single one of my friends had a favorite Gorillaz member. It inspired me to listen to the group’s debut every time I did my homework for about two years straight. “Clint Eastwood,” much like it’s namesake, is America at its most goddamn iconic. Nothing sounded like it before. Nothing will ever sound like it again.

1. Gorillaz – “Feel Good, Inc.” Feat. De La Soul

This tune broke the top 10 in 17 countries (and came just four spots away on the Billboard Hot 100), and it’s not hard to see why. It’s got classic Gorillaz rump-shaking buffooner, a cool hook, a cartoonish attitude, and blistering verses from De La Soul. The feature won each a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration. “Feel Good Inc.” is actually the band’s most successful single, and it perfectly encapsulates the group’s vision. That wild laugh in the background is everything that makes Gorillaz what they are — they’re mad with genius, and the only way off their twisted carnival ride is to dance.

This article originally appeared on Billboard.

https://tunecollective.com/2017/07/18/15-best-gorillaz-songs/