Gorillaz Has an Online World Premiere

Hooray again for alternative forms of distribution because without the kind folks at Babelgum, not sure anyone would get to see this funky doc Bananaz. It’s all about the making of Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz, the “most successful animated band ever” per the press release (who were they competing with btw? Josie and the Pussycats? The Chipmunks? Was there a vote?)

I caught this film at SXSW ‘08 and enjoyed the behind-the-scenes peek at how Albarn and comic artist Jamie Hewlett (Tank Girl) created the characters Murdoc, 2D, Noodle and Russel Hobbs. While it’s one type of art bringing the imaginary band to life on page, it was a pretty amazing feat to see how the characters did a live performance. There was a lot of British idioms and in jokes in the film, which weighed it down for me, but so long as its online friendly, it’s definitely worth streaming through and speeding past the slower parts. Other deleted scenes, screensavers, fan candy can be found here at Babelgum. The film went online earlier today.

A Proper Pearl Jam doc

Last November I wrote about Pearl Jam’s underground indie documentary that had some strange timing and was an Internet-only release. Now the band is going high profile. Our friends over at The Playlist have gathered news that Cameron Crowe will oversee a doc to commemorate the band’s 20th anniversary in 2011. The director and band go back decades: Pearl Jam did two songs for Crowe’s 1992 film Singles and Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard performed cameos (as the band Citizen Dick – see above for the nostalgic clip.) Notable director Morgan Neville, whose list of credits include docs on Muddy Waters and Hank Williams, will produce. The project will utilize existing footage about the band – note that the deluxe edition of their recently released and remixed album Ten included a DVD their rarely seen MTV Unplugged concert.