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Danger Mouse (musician)

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This article is about the music producer. For the British cartoon series, see DangerMouse.
Danger Mouse

Brian Joseph Burton, better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American artist and producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he remixed The Beatles (more commonly known as The White Album) and rapper Jay-Z's The Black Album to create The Grey Album.

He has also produced St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley and the second Gorillaz album, 2005's Demon Days. These productions earned him a Grammy nomination for Producer of the Year. In addition, he worked with rapper MF DOOM as DANGERDOOM, and released one album, The Mouse and the Mask.

Biography

Brian Burton was born in White Plains, New York (though he did not live in the notorious White Plains Housing Projects); he spent much of his childhood in Spring Valley, New York and lived in Athens, Georgia for a long time where his electronica [more specifically, trip-hop] work was released under the name "Pelican City". He also remixed work by several local artists, including Neutral Milk Hotel[1] and DJ'd for Athens radio station WUOG-FM. From 1998 to 2003 Burton also created a series of remix CDs and records under the stage name Danger Mouse. He used to do sets in a mouse outfit because he was too shy to show his face, and took his name from the British cartoon series DangerMouse.

While in Athens, Burton took second place in a 1998 talent contest and was asked to open for a concert at the University of Georgia featuring OutKast and Goodie Mob. Afterwards, Burton approached Cee-Lo, a member of Goodie Mob, and gave him an instrumental demo tape. It would be several years before the pair made contact again, but the two would eventually collaborate as Gnarls Barkley.[2]

Burton moved to England for a couple of years, living in New Cross in London and working at the Wildflower pub near London Bridge. While he was in the U.K., he sent a demo to Lex Records, who signed him. Burton's first original releases under the name Danger Mouse were his collaborations with rapper Jemini, including the album Ghetto Pop Life, released in 2003 on Lex Records. While the Danger Mouse debut was well received by critics, he did not rise to fame until he created The Grey Album, mixing a cappella versions of Jay Z's The Black Album over beats crafted from samples of The Beatles' White Album. The remix album, originally created just for his friends, spread over the Internet and became very popular with both the general audience and critics, with Rolling Stone calling it "the ultimate remix record"[3] and Entertainment Weekly ranking it the best record of the year.[4] He discusses his feelings about any controversy the album may have created in the documentary Alternative Freedom. Danger Mouse was also named among the Men of the Year by GQ in 2004 and won a 2005 Wired Rave Award.[5]

The Grey Album also got the attention of Damon Albarn, who enlisted Danger Mouse to produce the Gorillaz' second studio album, Demon Days (much to the dismay[citation needed] of Gorillaz' record company EMI, which also holds the rights to The Beatles' records and had previously served cease and desist orders against Danger Mouse over the use of their material on The Grey Album). Demon Days earned Burton a Grammy Award nomination for Producer of the Year.

Danger Mouse's next project was The Mouse and the Mask, a collaboration with MF DOOM (as DANGERDOOM) about and for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. The two had previously collaborated on the Danger Mouse remix of Zero 7's "Somersault", on the Prince Po track "Social Distortion", and on Gorillaz' "November Has Come".

In 2006, Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo (as Gnarls Barkley) released their first album, St. Elsewhere, which included the international hit single "Crazy". "Crazy" became the first UK number-one single based solely on downloads.[6]

A collaborative album with Black Thought of The Roots is said to be in the works,[7] as well as another collaboration with Damon Albarn, on The Good, the Bad and the Queen, along with Clash bassist Paul Simonon, former Verve guitarist Simon Tong and Afrobeat pioneer and Africa 70 drummer Tony Allen. He also produced two tracks on The Rapture's 2006 album Pieces of the People We Love.

In August and September of 2006, Danger Mouse collaborated with British graffiti artist Banksy to replace 500 copies of Paris Hilton's album Paris in English music stores with altered album artwork and a 40 minute instrumental song containing various statements she had made.[8]

In the December 11th's episode of The Colbert Report Stephen Colbert name-dropped DangerMouse in requesting that he do a White Christmas Album, mashing up The Beatles' White Album with classic yuletide tunes. In response to this Keegan Grayson began a website where people may e-mail him mash-up tracks[9]

Upcoming releases include the eagerly anticipated second Gnarls Barkley album, a collaboration with Sparklehorse entitled either Sparklemouse or Danger Horse, and a follow-up to Ghetto Pop Life entitled "Kill Your Heroes." "KYH" was scheduled to be released in summer of 2006, but its release has been pushed back to a later date. His official website confirms that he is working with the UK group The Shortwave Set. He has also been working for the past year on a new album with Martina Topley-Bird, formerly Tricky's partner, who works regularly with Gorillaz. This album will probably appear either late this year or at the beginning of next. He was also working on an album with The Black Keys and Ike Turner. Turner's death was expected to cancel the album, but The Black Keys and Danger Mouse are releasing Attack & Release in April of 2008.

Philosophy

In an interview for the New York Times Magazine, Danger Mouse described himself as an auteur, basing his music production philosophy on the cinematic philosophy of directors like Woody Allen. "Woody Allen was an auteur: he did his Thing, and that particular Thing was completely his own," he said. "That's what I decided to do with music. I want to create a director's role within music, which is what I tried to do on this album (St. Elsewhere).... I have to be in control of the project I'm doing. I can create different kinds of musical worlds, but the artist needs the desire to go into that world.... Musically, there is no one who has the career I want. That's why I have to use film directors as a model."[10]

Discography

Danger Mouse

Pelican City

Promos (Rare and/or Out of Print)

  • Danger Mouse - Danger Mouse Promo: Volume 1 (1998)
  • Danger Mouse - Danger Mouse Promo: Volume 2 (1999)
  • Danger Mouse - Danger Mouse Promo: Volume 3 (2000)
  • Danger Mouse - Danger Mouse Promo: Volume 4 (2000)
  • Danger Mouse - Danger Mouse Promo: Remix EP 12" White (2001)
  • Danger Mouse - Danger Mouse Promo: Remix EP 12" Red (2002)
  • Danger Mouse - Danger Mouse Promo: Remix EP 12" Yellow (2003)

Contributions

References

  1. ^ "How's this for mash-up: Danger Mouse meets Cee-Lo". Chicago Tribune. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "The D.J. Auteur". New York Times Magazine. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ ""DJ Makes Jay-Z Meet Beatles"". Rolling Stone. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ ""Records of the year"". Entertainment Weekly. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "The 2005 Wired Rave Awards". Wired. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ ""Crazy song makes musical history"". BBC News. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ ""Danger Mouse - The man behind Gnarls Barkley"" (Real audio stream). Lamacq Live on BBC Radio 1 . {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  8. ^ ""Danger Mouse, Banksy Burn Paris"". Spin. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ ""Stephen Colbert's White Christmas Album"". Keegan Grayson. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ "The D.J. Auteur". New York Times Magazine. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
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