Something seems a little out of place. We really shouldn’t be here. I know it. Danger Mouse knows it. And a pajama-clad Cee-Lo knows it. Just ask the cocktail waitress who’s silently judging Cee-Lo’s manager, curtly asking for a hotel room key before allowing us one step further onto a penthouse patio full of suits and ultra-smooth $15 martinis. Of course, as soon as we show proof of residence, she’s quick to fill our drink order. Just some tap water, thanks. Oh, and a Diet Coke for Danger Mouse. Hiding underneath simple shades and an oversized sweatshirt, he’s still recovering from the night before, an afterparty attended by-as Cee-Lo states proudly-actor Efren Ramirez who played Pedro in Napoleon Dynamite.
“That was a highlight of this tour, for sure,” the gregarious singer smiles, struggling to speak through strained, scratchy vocal chords. “My homeboy said he was bringing him out. I was like, ‘Whatever, man,’ but there he was.”
As we sit around a pool overlooking the entire Meatpacking District of New York City- far away from the chattering masses and clanging glasses of two adjoining bar areas- I congratulate the pair on the continued success of St. Elsewhere, a heat-seeker of an album recently certified platinum due to the Herculean strength of “Crazy,” this year’s “Hey Ya!” and the most consistently butchered single since “Louie Louie,” “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and that granddaddy of revered sides, “Yesterday.” To give you an idea of its pop music resonance, Billy Idol, Nelly Furtado, Ray LaMontagne and The Raconteurs have all covered “Crazy” in some capacity.
“Billy Idol, man,” says Cee-Lo, still in awe. “I can’t remember any song being covered as much as ‘Crazy.’”
And it hasn’t gotten too annoying yet, although I did hear “Crazy” playing in the background during some crime-time drama. To which Mom commented, “I wish you had listened to pleasant music like that when you were growing up.”
Riiight. At any rate, it’s been reassuring to witness a decent single rule the airwaves and record store shelves for the past six months. Not to mention amusing to watch Gnarls Barkley’s stage-swallowing 13-piece band perform Pink Floyd’s stoner classic “Breathe” dressed as characters from the Wizard of Oz (the group’s Coachella debut) or Gladiator (opening number, “We Are the Champions”), all costumes seemingly lifted off the hangers of a Hollywood back lot.
Turning to Danger Mouse, I have to stop all the “you guys rule” speak for a second and ask one thing: This is all a little odd, isn’t it-the sight of you two reclining here with non-alcoholic drinks in hand, next to a rooftop pool meant for deep pockets and B-list celebrities? Sure, Cee-Lo wrote the Pussycat Dolls’ Velveeta pop hit “Don’t Cha” while Danger Mouse surpassed Dan the Automator in helping cartoon band Gorillaz move millions, but neither one fits the jetsetter role they’ve been thrust into.
“We have been on a lot of planes lately, so I guess you could call it that,” says Danger Mouse, laughing slightly. “But just so you know, this (he points to the panoramic skyline) doesn’t represent us. This is our tour. We are out here losing money ourselves.” Although it’s unclear how much money anyone is losing or pocketing from Gnarls Barkley’s touring this year, Danger Mouse has a point. While it may have appeared like a major-label marketing scheme (Gnarls’ “indie label,” Downtown, is actually an Atlantic subsidiary), the meticulous marketing campaign behind the duo’s debut has been the very definition of do-it-yourself to an absurd degree.
Some examples: The bio writer who reeled in the press with an ingenious and intriguing “Who is Gnarls Barkley?” angle? That’d be Emerson Dameron, a college friend of Danger Mouse who likely still calls him Burton for short. Frequenters of www.gnarlsbarkley.com will also known him as A.B. Vidal, the blogging “Chief Executive of St. Elsewhere.” As for the Behind the Music-by-way-of-Forrest Gump video for “Smiley Faces,” the aforementioned concert costuming, and press photos featuring infamous movie poses (Pulp Fiction, A Clockwork Orange, Napoleon Dynamite), they’re all carefully planned joint agreements between the group and Jeff Antebi, the founder-creative director of Waxploitation, a management company and occasional record label. Every Gnarls Barkley decision is given the final go-ahead by Antebi-Danger’s manager since his Ghetto Pop Life days with Jemini the Gifted One-rather than the label or Atlantic’s publicist.
“It’s a big deal for either of us to commit to a project as long as we have with this one, so we take it all seriously, right down to the art and the videos,” explains Danger Mouse. “We have control of everything, 100 percent. It’s such a personal record, so we didn’t want to look like an idiot in any way.”
“Sometimes the best thing a label can do with their artists is to let them be free to not just make the album, but also guide everything else,” adds Antebi via e-mail a few weeks later. “Where a label might see ‘marketing,’ a band is simply taking the music and extending it as a broader vision. It’s organic because the music and the vision have the same source.”
When I pry him for further details as to the how and the why of the costumes, the photos and the “Who is Gnarls Barkley?” bent, Antebi deletes certain questions from the e-mail, explaining that he “didn’t have good answers.”
Danger Mouse has a more blatant response: “My favorite thing to say is, ‘I can’t talk about that.’”
Danger’s zipped lips thankfully loosen as time wears on. But before that can happen. . .
“It’s freezing,” proclaims Cee-Lo, as he looks around the pool with a “Why the fuck are we talking here?” expression. “Shit. Let’s go to my room. I don’t care. Sheee-it.”
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