Danger Mouse

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

Danger Mouse
Danger Mouse dressed as The Tin Man at a live concert
Background information
Birth name	Brian Burton
Born	July 29, 1977 (1977-07-29) (age 34)
Origin	White Plains, New York, United States
Genres	Hip hop, alternative rock, neo-psychedelia, electronica, neo-soul, alternative hip hop, indie rock, folk rock, ambient
Occupations	Music Producer, Artist, Musician
Instruments	Piano/keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, drums, Percussion, synthesiser
Years active	1998–present
Labels	Capitol/EMI Records
Associated acts	Beck, The Black Keys, Broken Bells, Cee Lo Green, Danger Doom, Gnarls Barkley, The Good, the Bad and the Queen, Gorillaz, Jemini, Joker's Daughter, MF Doom, Sparklehorse, Jack White
Website	dangermousesite.com

Brian Joseph Burton (born July 29, 1977),^[1] better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American musician, songwriter and producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from The Beatles' White Album.

He formed Gnarls Barkley with Cee Lo Green and produced their albums St. Elsewhere and The Odd Couple. He produced the second Gorillaz album, 2005's Demon Days, as well as Beck's 2008 record, Modern Guilt and an album with Joker's Daughter in 2007. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the Producer of the Year category five times (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011), and won the award in 2011. In addition, Burton worked with rapper MF Doom as Danger Doom and released the album The Mouse and the Mask and the EP Occult Hymn.

In 2009 he collaborated with James Mercer of the indie rock band The Shins to form Broken Bells. The group's first album was released on March 9, 2010.

Danger Mouse was listed as one of Esquire magazine's seventy-five most influential people of the 21st century. In 2010 he began producing an album for U2.^[2]

Early life

Brian Burton was born in White Plains, New York. He spent much of his childhood in Spring Valley, New York. Burton also lived in Athens, Georgia for a while, where his trip-hop work was released under the name "Pelican City".^{[citation needed]} He also remixed work by several local artists, including Neutral Milk Hotel^{[dead link][3]} and DJ'd for University of Georgia 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 performed in a mouse outfit because he was too shy to show his face, and took his name from the British cartoon series Danger Mouse.

Music career

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 Green, 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.^[4]

2001–2004

Burton moved to Britain for a couple of years, living in New Cross in London and working at the Rose^[5] pub near London Bridge. While there, he sent a demo to Lex Records, which 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^[6] and Entertainment Weekly ranking it the best record of that year.^[7] He discussed 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.^[8]

2004–2007

The Grey Album also got the attention of Damon Albarn, who enlisted Danger Mouse to produce the Gorillaz' second studio album, Demon Days. Demon Days earned Burton a Grammy Award nomination for Producer of the Year.

Danger Mouse collaborated with MF Doom who together are known as DANGERDOOM.

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". A year later, DANGERDOOM released a follow-up EP called Occult Hymn. The 7-track EP featured new songs as well as remixes of tracks from The Mouse & The Mask and was released exclusively as a free download on Adult Swim's site.

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.^[9] He also produced two tracks on The Rapture's 2006 album Pieces of the People We Love. In the Autumn of 2006, Sparklehorse released their fourth album, 'Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain', a collaboration with Danger Mouse and Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips. In August and September 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.^[10]

2007–present

In January 2007, Danger Mouse produced 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.

In March 2008, The Odd Couple, the second album of his and Cee-lo's Gnarls Barkley project, was released. In May 2008, an album with Martina Topley-Bird, titled The Blue God, was released. Martina collaborated on "All Alone", one song on the Danger Mouse produced Gorillaz second LP, Demon Days. Also released in May 2008 was Replica Sun Machine, an album with the band The Shortwave Set, including a collaboration with Van Dyke Parks and the Velvet Underground's John Cale, according to British music magazine New Musical Express.

Upcoming releases include 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 an undetermined date. A collaborative album with Black Thought of The Roots is said to be in the works.^[11] 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 released Attack & Release in April 2008. Some songs must have been recorded by Turner, however, as a posthumous Danger Mouse produced album has been mentioned, as well as another collaboration with MF Doom.^[12]

Danger Mouse also produced Beck's album Modern Guilt, which was released in July 2008.^[13] In April 2009, he and Helena Costas released an album as Joker's Daughter titled The Last Laugh. Danger Mouse was also listed as one of Esquire's 75 most influential people of the 21st century.

Since 2005, Danger Mouse (as a producer as well as an artist with Gnarls Barkley) has been nominated for 11 Grammy Awards: Producer of the Year (2005, 2006 and 2008), Record of Year (2006), Album of Year (2006), Best Alternative Album (2006 and 2008), Best Urban Alternative Performance (2006), Best Short Form Music Video (2007 and 2008) and Best Pop Performance (2008) He won two Grammy Awards in 2006 for Best Alternative Album and Best Urban Alternative Performance.

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse were due to release an album in the summer of 2009 entitled Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present: Dark Night of the Soul (together with a 100+ photo book with photographs by David Lynch).^[14][14][15] Due to a dispute with EMI the album was not released officially until 12 July 2010 .^[16] However, the BBC reported that Danger Mouse planned to release a full illustrated jewel case with a blank CD-R included in it.^[14][15][17] The CD-R was to be labeled:

"For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will."^[14][15][17]

On November 8, 2009, Paste Magazine named Danger Mouse the "Best Producer of the Decade (2000-2009)."^[18]

Together with James Mercer, Danger Mouse (billed by his real name, Brian Burton) formed Broken Bells. The project was first announced on Tuesday, September 29, 2009.^[19] 21 December 2009 the band informed fans in an e-mail message of the release of their debut single "The High Road", which was made available as a free download on their official site.^[20] The self-titled debut album was released in the U.S. on March 9, 2010.

In 2010 Danger Mouse began producing an album with the band U2, set to be released in early 2011. U2's frontman, Bono, said, "We have about 12 songs with him. At the moment that looks like the album we will put out next because it's just happening so easily."^[21]

Since 2005, Danger Mouse has been composing a spaghetti western album with composer Daniele Luppi. Jack White and Norah Jones do the main vocals on the album. Instrumentation was done mainly by musicians who played on the original Ennio Morricone scores. Danger Mouse does not play any instruments on the album. The style of the album reflects much of Danger Mouse's work since 2005, such as segments of Beck's "Modern Guilt", aspects of "Dark Night of the Soul", and songs like "Mongrel Heart" off of the self-titled Broken Bells album. The album is titled Rome and was released on May 16, 2011.^[22]

On February 13, 2011, Danger Mouse won a Grammy for Best Producer for his work on the Black Keys' Brothers, Broken Bells selftitled, and the Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse album Dark Night of the Soul.

Philosophy

In an interview for the New York Times magazine, Danger Mouse was compared to a film 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 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."^[4]

Awards

• 2004 Entertainment Weekly Album of the year (Danger Mouse - The Grey Album)
• 2004 GQ Magazine "Men of the Year"
• 2005 Wired Magazine Rave Award (Music)
• 2005 Grammy Nomination (Danger Mouse - Producer of the Year)
• 2005 Q Magazine (Best Producer)
• 2006 Grammy Award - Best Alternative Album (Gnarls Barkley -St. Elsewhere)
• 2006 Grammy Award - Best Urban/Alternative Performance (Gnarls Barkley - Crazy)
• 2006 Entertainment Weekly Album of the Year (Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere)
• 2006 Grammy Nomination (Danger Mouse - Producer of the Year)
• 2006 Q Magazine (Song of the Year - Gnarls Barkley "Crazy" )
• 2008 Rolling Stone Magazine Best Producer in Rock
• 2009 Esquire Magazine 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century
• 2009 Grammy Nomination (Danger Mouse - Producer of the Year)
• 2009 GQ Magazine Album of the Year (Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul)
• 2009 Paste Magazine "Producer of the Decade"
• 2010 Grammy Nomination - Best Alternative Album (Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple)
• 2010 Rolling Stone Magazine - Song of the Decade (Gnarls Barkley - Crazy)
• 2011 Grammy Award (Danger Mouse - Producer of the Year)
• 2011 Grammy Nomination - Best Alternative Album (Broken Bells - Broken Bells)

Discography

Danger Mouse albums

See also: Gnarls Barkley Discography, Danger Doom Discography, and Broken Bells Discography

• Danger Mouse and Jemini – Ghetto Pop Life (2003)
• Danger Mouse – The Grey Album (2004)
• Gorillaz – Demon Days (2005)
• Danger Doom – The Mouse & The Mask (2005)
• Danger Doom - Occult Hymn (2006)
• The Rapture – Pieces of the People We Love (2006)
• Sparklehorse – Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain (2006)
• Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere (2006)
• The Good, the Bad & the Queen (2007)
• The Black Keys – Attack & Release (2008)
• Gnarls Barkley – The Odd Couple (2008)
• The Shortwave Set – Replica Sun Machine (2008)
• Martina Topley-Bird – The Blue God (2008)
• Beck – Modern Guilt (2008)
• Joker's Daughter – The Last Laugh (2009)
• Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present: Dark Night of the Soul (2010)
• Broken Bells – Broken Bells (2010)
• The Black Keys – Brothers "Tighten Up" (2010)
• Broken Bells – Meyrin Fields (2011)
• Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi – Rome (2011) (UK chart peak: #20)
• The Black Keys - El Camino (2011)

Solo singles

Year	Single	Peak chart		Album
		US Alt.	US Rock
2011	"Two Against One" (featuring Jack White)	20	33	Rome
	"Black" (featuring Norah Jones)	—	—
	"Two Against One" / "Problem Queen"[23]	—	—

Pelican City

• The Chilling Effect (1999)
• Rhode Island (2000)
• Pelican City vs. Scanner – EP (2002)

Promos

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

Contributions

• Verve Remixed 3 (2005) – Dinah Washington – "Baby, Did You Hear?" (Danger Mouse remix)
• The Now Sound Redesigned – "To a Black Boy" by Danger Mouse (with Murs)

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

References

1. ^ Happy Birthday Danger Mouse, MTV News
2. ^ "U2 recording album with Danger Mouse". Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/25/u2-new-album-danger-mouse. Retrieved February 20, 2011. 
3. ^ "How's this for mash-up: Danger Mouse meets Cee-Lo". Chicago Tribune. http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-0608040339aug04,1,5222194.story?coll=chi-ent_music-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true. Retrieved August 23, 2006. ^{[dead link]}
4. ^ ^{a b} Klosterman, Chuck (June 18, 2006). "The D.J. Auteur". New York Times Magazine. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/magazine/18barkley.html?ex=1308283200&en=d69638926b798ed5&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss. Retrieved June 20, 2006. 
5. ^ "A game of cat and danger mouse". Creative Loafing Atlanta. http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A14551. Retrieved March 1, 2008. 
6. ^ "DJ Makes Jay-Z Meet Beatles". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/5937152. Retrieved April 13, 2006. 
7. ^ "Records of the year". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on April 4, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060404124823/http://www.dangermousesite.com/news_weekly_best.html. Retrieved April 13, 2006. 
8. ^ "The 2005 Wired Rave Awards". Wired. http://wired-vig.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/rave.html?pg=6. Retrieved April 13, 2006. 
9. ^ "Crazy song makes musical history". BBC News. April 2, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4870150.stm. Retrieved April 2, 2006. 
10. ^ "Danger Mouse, Banksy Burn Paris". Spin. http://www.spin.com/features/news/2006/09/060905_paris/. Retrieved September 8, 2006. 
11. ^ "Danger Mouse - The man behind Gnarls Barkley" (Real audio stream). Lamacq Live on BBC Radio 1 . http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/media/audio/documentaries/060404_dangermouse_au_nb.ram. Retrieved April 13, 2006. 
12. ^ "Danger Mouse + Beck = DangerBeck « Burnt Orange Juice". Burntorangejuice.com. http://burntorangejuice.com/2008/03/11/danger-mouse-beck-dangerbeck/. Retrieved 2010-09-21. 
13. ^ "Danger Mouse Producing New Beck Album". Pitchfork Media. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/49154-danger-mouse-producing-new-beck-album. Retrieved March 6, 2008. 
14. ^ ^{a b c d} "Dark Night of the Soul". http://www.dnots.com/. Retrieved 2009-05-15. 
15. ^ ^{a b c} "Exclusive First Listen: Danger Mouse And Sparklehorse Team Up With David Lynch". NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104129585. Retrieved 2009-05-15. 
16. ^ "Danger Mouse on Mark Linkous and Dark Night of the Soul". London: The Guardian. July 7, 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/jul/07/danger-mouse-mark-linkous. 
17. ^ ^{a b} "Danger Mouse to Release Blank CD". BBC. May 16, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8053471.stm. Retrieved May 19, 2009. 
18. ^ Burke, Chase. "The 10 Best Producers of the Decade (2000-2009) :: Blogs :: List of the Day :: Paste". Pastemagazine.com. http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2009/11/the-best-producers-of-the-decade.html?p=2. Retrieved 2010-09-21. 
19. ^ Adams, Sean (2008-09-29). "The Shins' James Mercer + Danger Mouse = Broken Bells! Greatest News Of the Year". Drowned in Sound. http://drownedinsound.com/news/4137986-the-shins-james-mercer-danger-mouse-broken-bells-greatest-news-of-the-year. Retrieved 2010-01-09. 
20. ^ "Danger Mouse/Shins new band Broken Bells give away new song". NME. 2008-12-21. http://www.nme.com/news/broken-bells/48981. Retrieved 2010-01-09. 
21. ^ "U2's New Album 'Happening So Easily' with Danger Mouse at Helm, Says Bono". Spinner. 2010-10-22. http://www.spinner.com/2010/10/22/u2-album-danger-mouse/. Retrieved 2011-05-09. 
22. ^ "Danger Mouse's Jack White-starring 'Rome' album out in May | News". Nme.Com. 2011-02-10. http://www.nme.com/news/danger-mouse/54917. Retrieved 2011-05-09. 
23. ^ Praxis Media. "Radio1 Rodos Greece ::: UK Forthcoming Singles ::: Charts, DJ Promos, Dance, Lyrics, Free Mp3 Samples Downloads". Radio1.gr. http://www.radio1.gr/music/forthcoming_uk_singles.htm. Retrieved 2011-05-09. 

Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi join the Virgin Red Room for a sunglasses-clad interview.

External links

• Official website
• Danger Mouse Breaks Down The Grey Album
• EFF: Grey Tuesday: A Quick Overview of the Legal Terrain
• Illegal-art.org: The Grey Album Download
• Cease and desist letter from EMI #1
• Conversation with Danger Mouse and Jason Bentley – June 21, 2006

Persondata
Name	Mouse, Danger
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Date of birth	July 29, 1977
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Date of death
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