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Comment by Mediterraneo10 | Hacker News Reader

Several other musicians have done the same through mask wearing. Gene Simmons of Kiss was probably rarely recognized in public before, much later in life, he started appearing in television programs without his makeup.

MF Doom, Sia, the list goes on.

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I remember reading a wonderful article of a guy running a recording studio and being excited because Kiss is coming to record there.

Then 4 normal looking guys show up and he's like "Oh right, they don't dress up like that all the time".

DOOM (all caps when you spell the name) even had other people play sets for him because the mask worked so well (according to rumor and REALLY convincing video w/audio)

I believe it's more than just rumor - https://pitchfork.com/news/hannibal-buress-was-an-mf-doom-im...

I've seen some "MF DOOM" sets that were clearly not him under the mask.

This was parodied in The Good Place when an obvious parody of Deadmau5 payed others to wear his mask on stage since the audience couldn't tell anyway.

Deadmau5 himself has parodied it live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7tI1E6kp0o

I'm having trouble finding the article now, but he said that later in his life he had lost quite a bit of weight so when he did do his performances himself, people didn't believe it was him and got mad.

Gorrilaz don't even both with that, just animation

Damon Albarn was already famous by then.

It took me some time to discover that Gorillaz was his band.

That's a great proof of talent, isn't it?

His talent for obfuscation, you mean?

Gorillaz definitely benefited at bootstrap from being "the new project by Damon Albarn of Blur".

No, I mean people being drawn to the music, not the famous name (even if the famous name helped promote the band)

I wonder if this is a 2021 view of Gorillaz possibly being more famous than Blur at this point. Though, for sure there were plenty of contemporary Gorlillaz fans who didn't know anything about Blur.

Gorillaz have always been more popular than Blur in the US at least, where their only hit was Song 2.

And Song 2 broke only because of the infamous FIFA game, I guess... although they actually recorded that album in the US.

In Europe (UK but also elsewhere) Blur made it big with "Girls & Boys" (#1 in UK, massive hit). The chorus was an absolute meme where I lived.

Not necessarily. I got into Gorillaz when “Clint Eastwood” was popular here in the US. Had never heard of Blur. Didn’t even learn about Blur until years and years and years later, when I realized Damon Albarn had done something before Gorillaz and looked them up.

Gorillaz are a virtual band. The humans are just their avatars.

Not everyone who wears mask ends up sticking with the anonymity though, I can imagine the pull of fame can be irresistible for some. Deadmau5 for example. Others have managed staying hidden just by not appearing anywhere, like Burial.

Pretty sure burial once tweeted a selfie to say he was taking a break from music to play diablo or something

Best way to announce a tour break ever.

Tour break? I don't think he's ever played live. Maybe anonymously. Kode9 sometimes plays his new songs but that's it.

I have no idea, I’ve only heard songs, no sets. Good to know!

It was Dark Souls 2 but yeah, it was kinda hilarious, since it was basically the first time we ever heard directly from him or got an "official" selfie in almost a decade of him making music, and it was just to say "I'm not sure if I will have many new tunes for a while because I need to play that game a lot", even though he already had the reputation of not putting anything out for long stretches of time. It was so bizarre.

It is hypothesized that Burial made a little guest appearance at a James Blake boiler room set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8idi7PcsbU

It definitely looks like him, but who knows.

For reference, it's the guy in the black hoodie on the right side for the first third or so. Also his song plays at around 6m in, and you can see him rolling a join a bit later, hah.

i'd always imagined burial was a side gig for kieran hebden / fourtet .. got ridiculed by everyone i mentioned it to in confidence .. they were right

Had to google Burial.

My hipster inspection is way out of date.

He is pretty "famous" in the underground dubstep scene (and by dubstep, I mean the original UK 2-step music, not whatever it became in the 2010's. He's always been enigmatic and hidden until that one post out of nowhere, releasing music through his friend/record company Hyberdub.

Semi-related, but one of my favorite satire posts of all time: https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/celebrity/jk-rowling-rec...

Next time you find yourself alone on a gloomy drizzly night, throw on Untrue and walk through the streets for a unique experience.

Can't forget The Residents[1] - they were/are instantly recognizable (as eyeballs in tophats, that is) but had a rotating crew inside the masks.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Residents#Identity

Taken to the extreme I've heard the Blue Man Group is more a franchise than theatre group which recruits the the personnel for their shows locally.

bucket head: A guitarist with a bucket mask.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckethead

Who's this guitar playing sonzabitch?"

Is a question common asked

On his head a bucket of chicken bones

On his face a plastic mask He's the bastard son of a preacher-man

On the town he left a stain They made him live in a chicken house To try and hide the shame

He was born in a coop, raised in a cage

Children fear him, critics rage

He's half alive, he's half dead

Folks just call him Buckethead!

The Unknown Comic on The Gong Show, with a paper lunch bag over his head.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unknown_Comic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BBZVQ4zBcU&ab_channel=RBArc...

Sia was face on during most her first years

she did some amazing work with zero-7.

Honestly I can't fathom her solo career, the zero seven era was so brilliant. I'm happy she gets some wide recognition, wealth and comfort, but musically she is off now. Her gamut is trimmed it's all loud and no subtlety.

Holy cow, I didn't know until your comment and I subsequently looked her up on Wikipedia that she's the vocals on "Destiny"!

Enjoy the others man, worth your time and ears

Good idea to make it anonymous, that way you can swap out your friends when you get sick and tired of performing.

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