AKA: Slowboat to Hades

Phase 2 of Gorillaz lasted from 2004 to 2008 and is named after their second studio album, Demon Days. The name Slowboat to Hades comes from the DVD released for Phase 2 in 2006.

Pre-Phase 2

Following Gorillaz' fight, 2D entertained himself in L.A. by befriending celebrities and moving in with Britt Ekland. 2D decided to go back to England because he no longer liked Ekland. He got a job working at the fairground his father worked at. During this time, 2D's ego grew, and he even gained some maturity. 2D's stockholm syndrome for Murdoc started to fade, too. 2D saw himself as the pop star he was, and he was very popular with the ladies. In fact, he had several blue-haired children (whom he refuses to pay child support for).

When Murdoc stormed off at the end of phase 1, he went to Mexico to catch a break, However, he was caught using fake cheques at a brothel and arrested (you might find it fun to keep track of how many times Murdoc gets arrested throughout the Gorillaz backstory). In the La Mesa State Prison, Murdoc befriended some fellow inmates and a raven named Cortez.

Wanting to discover more about her past as a result of her nightmares, Noodle went to Japan to discover what happened in her life before joining Gorillaz. Noodle searched for a year, until she finally felt like giving up and entered a sushi restaurant. When she entered, she heard the words "ocean bacon," and suddenly she remembered. She found Mr. Kyuzo, who had said the phrase. Mr. Kyuzo was Noodle's mentor when she was younger, and he told her everything that happened in her past. It turns out that as a child, Noodle was part of a program created by the Japanese government to become a super-strong soldier (explaining her exquisite martial arts skills). However, the government deemed the children of the program too dangerous to continue training, so all of them were eliminated, except for Noodle.

Mr. Kyuzo allowed Noodle to live, recognizing her talent which was greater than the rest of the children. Each of the kids had one special talent, and Noodle's was music. She could play any instrument flawlessly. Mr. Kyuzo erased Noodle's memory, but the words "ocean bacon" would be the words that could bring her memories back. Mr. Kyuzo sent Noodle to Kong Studios in a FedEx crate when he saw Murdoc's advertisement in NME magazine for a guitarist. Noodle also discovered that she was fluent in English (previously, she had a difficult time communicating with the rest of the band because she only knew Japanese)! Feeling satisfied, Noodle went back to Kong Studios with her pet Mike the Monkey to pursue her destiny: music. Upon returning to Kong, Noodle found that the building was infested with zombies, which she defeated. Noodle wrote virtually the entirety of Demon Days herself.

During Gorillaz' split, Russel stayed in L.A. like 2D, though Russ did not have as nice as a time as him. The Grim Reaper haunted Russel more and more, until eventually the reaper exorcised Del from Russel (though his eyes still remain white, and Del isn't gone forever from Gorillaz)! Russ then met Ike Turner, and he let Russ stay at his place.

2004

Noodle succesfully cleared the zombies out of Kong Studios, and contacted her bandmates to get Gorillaz back together. 2D and Russel came back fine, but Murdoc had to escape prison first, and then he flew back to England. Noodle unveiled the project she had been working on: the album Demon Days. Danger Mouse would produce the album with the help of Damon Albarn.

On the 8th of December, Gorillaz released the music video for their song Rockit on their website. This song was part of Gorillaz' "Reject False Icons" campaign, which encouraged music fans to not idolize celebrities. On the Gorillaz website, G-fans could print out stickers reading "Reject False Icons" and stick them over pictures of celebrities.

Gorillaz also hosted a talent contest in the end of 2004, titled Search for a Star. They announced the winner in September 2005.

2005

On the 9th of May. Gorillaz released the single that would become their most popular song, Feel Good Inc. (feat. De La Soul). Today, the Feel Good Inc. music video has over 1 billion views on YouTube. The release of the single replaced Clint Eastwood as Gorillaz' most polular/mainstream song. Feel Good Inc. gained popularity after Apple featured it in an iPod commercial. Ironically, Feel Good Inc. sends anti-consumerist messages.

Gorillaz released Demon Days in Japan on the 11th of May, and released the album to the UK on 23rd May. The album is renowned for being one of the most popular and successful albums of the 2000s, not to mention its equally iconic album cover. The band started a tour called Demon Detour, and it went well except for the fact that their tour bus got shot at every night. Growing frustrated of these attacks, Murdoc called upon Jimmy Manson, the tour manager, to stop the shootings, which ceased the very next day.

On the 29th of August, Gorillaz released the single Dare, featuring Shaun Ryder (and Roses Gabor as the voice of Noodle). It was the first Gorillaz track to reach #1 on the UK Singles Chart, with a music video that Noodle filmed secretly by herself.

Gorillaz released the single Dirty Harry (feat. Bootie Brown) on the 21st of November.

On Christmas Day, Murdoc delivered his own version of the Queen's Christmas speech.

The next day, an episode of MTV Cribs aired featuring Gorillaz. In the episode, Murdoc takes the viewer on a tour of Kong Studios.

2006

Gorillaz had several events in 2006, including a performance at the Grammys, a performance at the BRIT Awards, and an exhibition at the Design Museum.

At this time, Jimmy Manson contacted Murdoc and revealed his backstory. Manson had been following aGorillaz for a while, and he originally wanted to be their guitarist, but couldn't because Gorillaz had already found Noodle. Manson hatched a plan to kill Gorillaz for money, and he was actually the person behind the Demon Detour shootings. He proposed to Murdoc that in Demon Days' final music video, the one for El Mañana, Noodle would stay on the floating island from the Feel Good Inc. video while helicopters shot at her. The band and Jamie Hewlett reluctantly agreed to this idea, because Noodle would have a parachute, and Murdoc said the bullets would be fake. But in reality, Manson planned to hide inside the island's windmill and shoot Noodle with his gun.

In the music video for El Mañana, fans were unable to tell if Noodle was acting or if she was actually scared from all the bullets being shot at her. Though, Manson never actually shot Noodle with his gun. Murdoc actually trolled him, and locked him inside the windmill. The island came crashing down, killing Jimmy Manson. After the crew filmed music video, panic ensued ad Noodle was nowhere to be found. Murdoc lied to the public that she was fine and in the Maldives, but in actuality, Noodle was presumed dead. Her absence filled the band with immense guilt, but especially Murdoc. He did admit that the helicopters and bullets used in the video were real, and not fake like he previously said.

In October, Gorillaz published a book titled Rise of the Ogre. The book tells the backstories of the band's members, and how the band formed. Rise of the Ogre also had an audiobook with the members reading it.

2007

Gorillaz released the B-sides/remix album D-Sides on 19th November.

2008

A documentary covering the creation of Gorillaz and its first two albums released in 2008, titled Bananaz. Ceri Levy directed the film, and Murdoc sent a drunken voicemail to him angry that Bananaz featured too much of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett and not enough of him.