Damon Albarn News

Cartoon band Gorillaz has a busy autumn in store, with plans to release a series of EPs, a book and a DVD.

"Rise of the Ogres," the group's literary premiere, will be released November 2 through Penguin Books. The volume reveals the band's biography through interviews as well as a number of "photos" from visuals creator Jamie Hewlett.

"It starts right back from our childhoods, and how I put this band together piece by piece. It basically tells the story of how we, Gorillaz, came to rule the world," frontman Murdoc Nicalls told Billboard.com via e-mail.

The group (an amalgamation of personalities portrayed byBlur's Damon Albarn, Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori, Hewlett and a smattering of musical collaborators) managed to round up anecdotes and cameos by De La soul, Ike Turner, Dennis Hopper, Madonna and Shaun Ryder, but failed to secure a blurb from non-collaborator Keith Richards.

"Here's a funny thing, right," Murdoc said. "We tried to get a quote off the man for a TV advert a while back, but, when asked, he just went, 'Er ... Who the f*** are Gorillaz?' So this time round we asked if we could use that quote for the book. (But) we never got any of his team to sign off on it, so we missed out."

The EPs -- "DARE," "Dirty Harry," "Feel Good Inc." and "El Manana" -- will be released exclusively via iTunes on October 24, November 7, December 2 and December 5, respectively. Each contains live and video versions of their songs, as well as previously unreleased material.

Due October 31 via Virgin, the DVD "Phase Two -- Slowboat to Hades" rounds up videos, short films and live performances.

"I think we work well in any medium. I mean, the really obvious thing would for us to do the Gorillaz-type film. We've talked about it for so long," Murdoc said. "Or we might skip that and just appear in people's head, as kind of digital dreamy holograms -- a whole new telepathic technology. Sexy, huh?"

Reuters/Billboard