How Gnarls Barkley Became The Biggest Band In The World (In 12 Hours)

noah | January 29, 2008 8:45 am
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Yesterday, a song from Gnarls Barkley’s forthcoming album The Odd Couple leaked, and late last night, the Daily Swarm wondered if it was a sign that the viral marketing for the duo’s next album, out in April, had already begun. This sounds like a job for our long-dormant feature Track Marks, in which we track the popularity of a blogger buzz band–especially since the hype cycle on this traveled so fast, and even made a pit stop at our inbox. So without further ado…

ARTIST: Gnarls Barkley HOMETOWN: The Internet Los Angeles ALBUM: The Odd Couple, out April 8

THE BUILD-UP: 12:18 p.m.: An e-mail from “best dj” (a Gmail account with no other identifiers) arrives in the Idolator tips inbox. Subject: NEW GNARLS. Body: A smiley face and an MP3 of “Run.” 12:29 p.m. Rolling Stone’s blog posts a mini-review of the album. There’s no song as indelible as “Crazy,” but that’s a tough act to follow. 12:30-ish p.m. I listen to the track. It sounds OK. It’s no “Crazy,” but what is, etc., etc. Also: Is this really a Gnarls song or is someone trying to play a trick on a gullible blogger? Is “best dj” Danger Mouse hiding behind an overly ego-inflated pseudonym? So many questions! THE DAM BREAK: 3:55 p.m. “best dj” writes again! Subject line: “link”; body: URL of Mission Freak post. 3:56 p.m. Mission Freak gets added to my already out-of-control RSS reader. 5:00-ish p.m.-onward. The Internet goes (predictably?) nuts. 7:10 p.m. RS announces that the album will be called The Odd Couple. 11:00 p.m. The Internet freakout continues, and The Daily Swarm posts its conspiracy theories. ODDS OF BACKLASH: Nil, unless someone finds out that one of the proprietors of Mission Freak is a friend of some marketing dude at Downtown Records–which might explain their being OK with posting the song, since most music-discovery blogs these days tend to shy away from leaks. (I hadn’t heard of the site before yesterday, but apparently it’s the blog offshoot for an annual arts festival in Iowa City. Wonder if they’re going to manage to snag a big-name headliner this year?) ARE THEY WORTHY? Yes, although I’m worried that Cee-Lo’s album-promotion duties will hinder his path toward becoming the next American Idol.

Justify My Love: New Gnarls Barkley! (Exclusive?!) [Mission Freak] New Gnarls Barkley: Has the viral marketing campaign begun? [The Daily Swarm]