Gorillaz Duo Use "Monkey" to Promote BBC Olympics Coverage

Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn — the duo behind Gorillaz — have created an animated clip promoting the BBC's coverage of the Beijing Summer Olympics. The video draws heavily from the duo's most recent collaboration, the opera Monkey: Journey to the West, based on a classic Chinese novel. The video itself doesn't seem very Olympic-y until the Monkey character uses a spear to both pole vault and javelin. Visually, these guys are a lot easier to look at than the Gorillaz's Murdoc, and the music of the opera sounds like Steve Reich composing over an android orchestra. Plus, it's much better than those Morgan Freeman-narrated Visa commercials we're getting over here to promote the Olympics. Take a look at the full video here.

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Song Stories

“Satisfied”

Tom Waits | 2011

Only the genius of Tom Waits could combine the subject of mortality, a reoccurring theme in his work, with wordplay that name checks both Mick and Keith, whom he calls "Mr. Jagger" and "Mr. Richards," and the title of their magnum opus, "Satisfaction." And to show just how cool Waits really is, he even got Mr. Richards to play along, one of nine guest appearances the guitarist has made on three Waits albums. "This growling roadhouse stomp is a late-breaking response to the Stones' greatest hit," Rolling Stone said of the track.

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