You thought it was surreal, a virtual rock band topping the charts worldwide and blowing up iPods locally. Now it gets even more-uh surrealer thanks to the launch on Thursday of limited edition skateboard decks from the Gorillaz and NYC skate powerhouse 5boro.
Inspired by the title song from the group's second album Demon Days and the popular comic book Tank Girl , the decks were designed by Gorillaz leader and chief art director Jamie Hewlett and 5Boro's creative director Mark Nardelli and retails for about 90 bucks.
Of the fewer than 400 boards produced, only 100 will available for purchase on the official Gorillaz.com website, while the rest will be strategically placed in 10 specific retailers in the US markets... and in the hands of online contest winners.
Of the two styles offered the one with the four portraits of the Gorrilaz crew is most interesting. You can hang that one up on your wall to get that Brady Bunch mugshot feel. The other one is more in the tradition of typical skatedecks: just a graphic, some images of the Gorillaz Demons and the 5boro logo and graphics. You can bang around town on that one. Or the other way round.
Last time we Googled Gorillaz and 5boro, about a dozen sites returned with the decks as prizes. If you fail to win one, there's always ebay.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
excellent Cacy, thanks. Unfortunately, links to pics in blogger don't show up, but I found it elsewhere
2 - Aaman
Crappy marketing gimmicks
3 - Eric Olsen
who, us?
4 - Aaman
No - the Gorillaz
5 - Eric Olsen
at least the art is cool, and skateboarding is pretty cool, so there is a cool factor
6 - Bryan McKay
Seeing as how the entire "band" in itself is sort of a gimmick, I can spare them the occasional marketing gimmick as well. The skateboards do look pretty cool, and I've always admired their artwork and videos. The music isn't too bad either - not the most inspiring act around, but still decently interesting most of the time.