Gnarls Barkley

Gnarls Barkley is a musical collaboration between producer Danger Mouse (Brian Burton), and rapper/singer Cee-Lo (Thomas Callaway). Their first album, St. Elsewhere, was released by Warner Music on April 24 2006 in the UK and on May 9 in the U.S. by Atlantic/Downtown Records. It was made available for download one week earlier in the U.S. iTunes Music Store and other online download stores.

Career

"Crazy", their first single, based on samples of the song by Gianfranco Reverberi "Nel Cimitero Di Tucson" (1968), gained some of its popularity due to the use of it on primetime BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe's television advert, and it was also made Record of the Week by Ken Bruce of BBC Radio 2. Some of the popularity is also due to the performance of the song at The 2006 MTV Movie Awards, where the band performed in Star Wars costumes -- including the garb of Rebel Alliance pilots, Imperial officers, Stormtroopers, Chewbacca, Jango Fett, Obi-Wan, with Cee-Lo singing as an unmasked Darth Vader. It was released as a single on April 3 2006, preceded by its release as digital download and 12" vinyl single in March 2006. On 2 April 2006, it became the first ever UK number one single based on download sales alone.

In an interview with Observer Music Monthly, Danger Mouse denied that the band's name is a reference to former basketball player Charles Barkley, saying "Nope. It's just like everything else on this record. There was no conscious decision about stuff."

The duo made their debut performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 30 2006, but their first concert, hosted by Myspace.com, part of the Secret Show series, took place at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles on April 28 2006. They are set to perform at Lollapalooza 2006 in Chicago and the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin. Their U.S. television debut was made on May 25 2006 during Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The duo also appeared on the prestigious BBC TV music show, Later with Jools Holland, on May 19 2006, and on the June 12 2006 edition of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

"Crazy" is the first single to top the UK singles chart for nine weeks consecutively since 1994 when Wet Wet Wet's "Love Is All Around" was number one for fifteen weeks (the last song to spend exactly nine weeks on top was "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood in 1984). It has also equalled the Queen 1975 classic "Bohemian Rhapsody", which also topped the UK singles chart for nine weeks. Crazy is also the longest number-one on the UK Official Download Chart with its stay lasting eleven consecutive weeks. Gnarls Barkley announced that as the record had spent its ninth week at number one, it was to be deleted as a vinyl/CD listing from May 28 2006 so people will "remember the song fondly and not get sick of it".

Gnarls Barkley perfomed along with Christina Aguilera, AFI, and Wolfmother at the MTV Movie Awards 2006 June 8 2006 at the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California.http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1530297/story.jhtml

Gnarls Barkley appeared at the 02 Wireless Festival in London on Friday, June 23, and in Leeds on Saturday, June 24.

Discography

Album

St. Elsewhere (2006) #1 UK, #5 U.S., #6 AUS, #9 BEL http://entertainment.skynet.be/index.html?l1=entertainment&l2=ultratop&l3=charts&chartid=4

Singles

''For more detailed chart listings, see the indvidual singles' articles

{| class="wikitable" Title Release date Album Peak chart positions U.S. UK NZ AUS CAN "Crazy" April 3 2006 St. Elsewhere 2 1 1 2 2 "Smiley Faces" July 17 2006 St. Elsewhere - 23 - - -

References

External links

2000s music groups | Celebrity duos | Rhythmic Top 40 acts | American dance musicians | Dance/Club music artists