Gnarls Barkley

About Gnarls Barkley:

“You are the best. You are the worst. You are average. Your love is a
part of you. You try to give it away because you cannot bear its
radiance, but you cannot separate it from yourself. To understand your
fellow humans, you must understand why you give them your love. You
must realize that hate is but a crime-ridden subdivision of love. You
must reclaim what you never lost. You must take leave of your sanity,
and yet be fully responsible for your actions.” -Gnarls Barkley, in a
letter to the legendary rock critic Lester Bangs

So who is Gnarls Barkley? Diligent pen pal to Bangs, soul giant Isaac
Hayes, and Violent Femmes ringleader Gordon Gano? Well-kept romantic
consort to pop stars Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson? English teacher to
synth-rock legends Kraftwerk? Croupier at a mysterious annual gathering
in the Bay Area that allegedly draws members of the Wu-Tang Clan and
Britian's Stuckist art collective? It seems that, in the music world,
Gnarls Barkley is always nearby yet impossible to find. The membership
rolls of both the Atlanta hip hop collective Dungeon Family and Athens,
Georgia’s psychedelic enclave Elephant Six list Barkley as an
affiliate, but mention him to either group and they’ll shoot each other
frightened looks and start talking basketball. The rumors fly hard in
every direction and remain defiantly unverifiable.

Clinton Jacks works as a cook in a Waffle House restaurant near the
South Carolina coast. “One night back in the year 2000,” he recollects,
“I saw Danger Mouse come in here. Cee-Lo was with him. And they had
this other dude with them, dressed up like H.R. Pufnstuf. Danger Mouse
and Cee-Lo ate big meals, but H.R. Pufnstuf only wanted hash browns.
Then they left, Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo, but H.R. Pufnstuf stayed
around for hours. He must’ve had twenty cups of coffee. I went in the
bathroom, and when I came out, he was gone. But he left a $500 tip on
the table. And he left a little note that said, ‘Compliments to the
chef. Gnarls Barkley.’”

Danger Mouse, a/k/a Brian Burton, produced the infamous Grey Album, a
full-length blend of the Beatles’ music and Jay-Z’s raps that became a
cult classic after it was suppressed by EMI. He recently garnered a
Grammy nomination for Producer of the Year for his work with the
“virtual band” Gorillaz. Having recorded with enigmatic rapper MF DOOM,
not to mention a cast of voices from “Adult Swim”, Danger Mouse is no
stranger to outsized characters. He admits that he helped out with St.
Elsewhere, the first album credited to Gnarls Barkley. “A lot of people

ask me about him,” says Danger Mouse when the topic arises. “He found
one of my Pelican City records, which was this downtempo experimental
stuff I did in college, and I started getting letters from him. He’s
not [Blur frontman and Gorillaz co-creator] Damon Albarn – I can blow
that myth out of the water for you. A lot of people think he lives in
South Carolina. Personally, I think you’d be more likely to find him in
Europe.”

From beneath his shroud, Burton's spiritual adviser, the usually silent
“Dr. President”, murmurs something unintelligible and then…”Not that I
know where he is.”

Cee-Lo Green, a/k/a Thomas Calloway, is a Dungeon Family alumnus, once-
and-future member of Goodie Mob and a wildly eclectic solo artist. His
music is steeped in the gospel and blues traditions of the Southeast,
merging timeless soul with experimental funk and hip hop. He confirms
reports that his dramatic voice and soul-rummaging lyrics appear on
portions of St. Elsewhere. “Yes, I believe that I sang on at least some
of the Gnarls Barkley record,” he says. “But we are not the same
person. I am Cee-Lo. I am a humble trumpet, and the wind of God blows
through me. You might consider Gnarls the spit valve on the trumpet,
were you inclined to consider him at all.” As he walked away, Cee-Lo
could be heard to mutter, “You want to know who he is? He’s the dude
who owes me thirty-five dollars, that’s who he is.”

Does St. Elsewhere shed light on this mysterious personage, or does it
further obscure him? It’s a complex record, to be sure. It employs the
full spectra of pop music and human emotion. The warm, breezy single
“Crazy” and the spry finger-snapper “Smiley Faces” recall "Songs In The
Key Of Life" and “Good Vibrations” in equal measure. “On Line,” a
lament for the lonely and ambitious, could be a tricked-out G-funk
holdover. Often dark and unpredictable, St. Elsewhere nevertheless
retains its sense of joy throughout. Even Cee-Lo’s darker moments, his
introspection on “Necromancer”, and the chilling “Just A Thought,” on
which our hero fights off suicidal ideation, flourish in their lush,
funky surroundings. It constantly shifts its shape and never sacrifices
momentum. And it contains a mess of contradictory clues about just who
Gnarls Barkley actually is.

“I’ve made him my life’s work,” says Milton Pawley, a Los Angeles music
writer widely considered the world’s leading Barkley scholar. “And even
with all the evidence I’ve gathered, I’m still not sure he really
exists. Maybe Gnarls Barkley isn’t a person. Maybe he’s out there in
the wind. Maybe he’s inside of all of us. Like ‘Bob’ from Twin Peaks,
only more funky and less evil.”

Perhaps Gnarls Barkley will never fully reveal himself. But if St.
Elsewhere is any indication, his music bears Marvin Gaye’s depth of
feeling, Jeff Buckley’s emotive theatrics, and wild courage not seen
since Prince’s prime. Behold the most exciting debut of 2006. A
psychedelic soul masterpiece. Gnarls Barkley may not be easily located,
but he won’t be a stranger.

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