Good news! Time for the first music review; I can think of a few people who were waiting for this. Bad news! It's for a single song, but what more can you do when it isn't part of a full album?
DoYaThing is a collaboration of James Murphey of LCD Soundsystem fame, Andre 3000 who I personally remember from that old cartoon Class of 3000, and of course the renowned Gorillaz/Damon Albarn. Coming together under Converse's "Three Artists. One Song" series, these three were tasked with writing a song... for a shoe. "Music inspired by a shoe is quite a hard thing to get your head around. It's got to be quite abstract," says Albarn. He first became involved after Jamie Hewlett, Gorillaz partner, created several designs for the shoe creators, which you will find appropriately plugged in the video.
Dat shoe line
I've never gotten a pair of Converse, though I have been interested for quite a while. I think that I have a new reason to pick up a pair.
The song was apparently recorded live on the third, final day of recording spontaneously. The song does come off as a jam session of sorts, but with the energy and style of 3 brilliant artists meshing together impressively well. Murphy's stylish electronic bleeps and bloops lay the framework for the song, and the second Damon's singing begins it becomes immediately apparent that it works. Andre's introduction, and especially his riffing the line "do ya thing," maintains the energy, and the song takes on a little bit of a darker edge as he continues. The song doesn't break new ground, but it is a fun jam, and you can tell that each of the artists were enjoying each others company during it's creation.
These guys did this song. Which set? I'm not sure myself. I think the lower ones.
When asked if he would collaborate with the artists again, Damon Albarn stated in an interview with Pitchfork, "There are no plans yet, but I certainly would do it again. If we'd have had two weeks, we could have made a whole record, I'm sure of it." I can only hope that that comes true; it was about the case with Plastic Beach. If you found it enjoyable at all, you may be excited to hear the following piece of news (taken from Pitchfork.com):
"The track is actually an appetizer for a decidedly more insane 12-minute version that will debut on the official Gorillaz website in the coming weeks. The extended take of "DoYaThing" is marked by a huffing build-up reminiscent of LCD Soundsystem classics like "Yeah" while André goes totally off script with an ad-libbed, one-take vocal centering around the simple-yet-effective phrase: "I'm the shit!""
The song is available for free download at Converse's site.
After trying out one of each, what kind of reviews will I focus on? The answer: No idea.
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