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Bloc Party

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Bloc Party

Bloc Party are an English indie rock band. In February 2005, the band released their critically acclaimed debut album Silent Alarm, which the magazine NME later made their Album of the Year.[1] Bloc Party's second studio album, A Weekend in the City was released on February 5, 2007 in the UK and February 6 in the US.

History

Formation and rising popularity (1998–2004)

Bloc Party have been together since 2002, with names such as Superheroes of BMX, The Angel Range, Diet, and Union, before settling on Bloc Party in September 2003. Band members Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack have formed the fulcrum of these various incarnations, and were subsequently joined by bassist Gordon Moakes who answered an advert in the NME, and most recently drummer Matt Tong. Lissack and singer/guitarist Kele Okereke first met in 1998 in Essex, where Lissack had grown up and Okereke attended school. Lissack attended Bancroft's School and Okereke attended Ilford County High School until 16 then Trinity School for sixth form. They bumped into each other again in 1999 at the Reading Festival and soon after formed the band Union. Some of the songs Bloc Party created and played while being called Union include Rivulet, American Kids, Chinese Burn, An Act Of Contrition, and a very raw version of Compliments. Out of those songs the only one was released, Compliments, in a much more developed state.

In 2003 they changed their name from Union to Bloc Party. The name is a play on block party,[2] a name for an informal neighbourhood festival, which might hire a local band as entertainment. The band has said that the name was not intended to be an allusion to the Soviet Bloc or the Canadian political party Bloc Québécois. However, the band's bassist, Gordon Moakes, said on the group's official Internet forum that it was more a merging of the eastern "Blocs" and the western "parties", in the political sense. Moakes notes that the name was not driven by politics, but rather it "looked, sounded, seemed fine so we went with it."[3]

In November 2003, Bloc Party had their track "The Marshals Are Dead" featured on a compilation CD called The New Cross released by Angular Recording Corporation. Soon after they released their debut single "She's Hearing Voices" on the then fledgling record label Trash Aesthetics.

The band got their break after Okereke went to a Franz Ferdinand concert in 2003, and was able to thrust a copy of the single into the hands of both Franz lead singer Alex Kapranos and Radio One DJ Steve Lamacq. Lamacq subsequently played the song on his radio show, labeling the track "genius", and invited them to record a live session for the show. The buzz generated off the back of the single sparked some A&R interest, leading to another single "Banquet", this time released by the label Moshi Moshi, and to the eventual signing with indie label Wichita Recordings in April 2004.

Silent Alarm (2004–2006)

Their debut album Silent Alarm, released in February 2005, was met with critical acclaim and broke sales records, being voted by NME critics as the 2005 album of the year and reaching #3 on UK album charts (selling platinum in the UK). The debut single from the album "So Here We Are" made the top 5 on UK charts. Further singles "Banquet" (which reached #13 in NME's "Top 50 singles of 2005"), "Helicopter" (which featured on the FIFA 06, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Burnout Revenge game soundtracks and which will appear as a co-op encore for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock) and "Pioneers" (July 2005), whilst failing to repeat this success, managed to make dents in the UK top 20. The animated video for the single "Pioneers" was number one in the NME video charts for 4 weeks and was made for a tiny budget in four weeks by the Shoreditch based Mini Vegas design agency.

File:DSCF0088.JPG
Bloc Party’s Lissack and Okereke on stage in Cardiff in October 2005

The band were met with good reviews from critics in the U.S.A and they toured there heavily in the 18 months that followed. In Spring 2006 they capped it all with sold out shows in both Los Angeles and Berkeley. The album went on to sell more than 350,000 copies in North America and over a million worldwide.

Bloc Party became one of the most popular new bands of 2005, and the established electronic group The Chemical Brothers soon collaborated with Okereke for "Believe", a track on the Brothers' Push the Button album.

An album of remixes of tracks from Silent Alarm was released at the end of August in the UK. This remix album, Silent Alarm Remixed, retained the album's original track list and includes remixes from the likes of Ladytron, M83, Death from Above 1979, Four Tet and Mogwai.

During July, they recorded two new tracks (titles were given of "Hero" and "Two More Years") with Silent Alarm producer Paul Epworth. The latter, "Two More Years" was released on October 3 to coincide with their October 2005 UK tour. The songs were released as an EP titled Two More Years, accompanied with a re-release of Silent Alarm, which included "Two More Years" itself along with former single "Little Thoughts". The single format of "Two More Years" contained a remix of "Banquet" done by The Streets, for which a video was also recorded.

The band also contributed the track "The Present" to the Help: a Day in the Life compilation, the profits of which benefits the War Child charity.

The single "Banquet" was sampled in 2006 by DJ Green Lantern for a track with Apathy, Tak (of rap duo Styles of Beyond) and Mike Shinoda. The track, entitled "Bloc Party", appears on Green Lantern's Fort Minor: We Major mixtape.

A Weekend in the City (2006–present)

The band released their second album, called A Weekend in the City on February 5, 2007 in the UK and February 6 in the United States. The album debuted at #12 in the Billboard 200 with 48,000 copies sold.[4] It became available via the UK's iTunes store a day ahead of schedule, on February 4, and reached the #2 spot in the Official UK Chart. The album also climbed all the way to #2 on CMJ's Top 200 college radio chart. The album was produced by Jacknife Lee. The first single, "The Prayer", was released on January 29. This single had been located on their MySpace since November 22, 2006. In the build up to the release of the album, Zane Lowe aired a live set from Maida Vale featuring a mix of old songs and new ones on his evening radio show on BBC Radio 1 on January 30, 2007. On February 1, 2007, A Weekend in the City was made available to listen to for free through the band's official MySpace page.

The next single, "I Still Remember", is their first American single. The band released their third single "Hunting for Witches" with an accompaning video clip in August 2007. In October 2007 it was announced that Bloc Party would release a new single, Flux, on November 12 - ahead of their end of year gigs. The track was also produced by Jacknife Lee and can therefore be assumed to be a continuation of the sound of their last album.[5] Flux was first aired on the radio, on Radio 1 on the 4th of October 2007. The band also played the song live on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on the same day.

The band's first gig following the release of AWITC was on February 5 at Reading Hexagon. It was broadcast live on BBC's Music Station 6 Music that night as well. On May 20, 2007, Bloc Party headlined on the 'in new music we trust' stage at the Radio 1 Big Weekend at Preston. Bloc Party played at the UK leg of Live Earth on July 7, 2007 at Wembley Stadium and T in the Park and Oxegen 07 that same weekend, as well as Glastonbury and the Reading and Leeds Festivals 2007. Bloc Party have announced a tour of Australia and New Zealand in August 2007, with a special appearance at the Splendour in the Grass Festival on August 5. On September 17, 2007 they recorded a set for the PBS show Austin City Limits, a day after playing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. In December 2007 they will play shows at Glasgow's SECC, Manchester Central and London's Alexandra Palace (2 nights), and will be supported by Foals, The Rakes and The Cribs.[6][7]

Musical style

Bloc Party's own variation of spiky guitar rock draws on influences such as The Cure, Les Savy Fav, Blur, The Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Pixies, Joy Division, Mogwai and Gang of Four, but the band says that some of these bands are just comparisons. Particular parallels were made between Bloc Party and Gang of Four upon their arrival on the music scene, yet the band claimed they had never heard of Gang of Four until they were touted as their musical successors.

The drumming on Bloc Party songs is often influenced by the London dance and R&B scene whilst the guitar demonstrates typical indie sharpness with alternative panned chords and fast chord picking. To achieve their unique guitar style, BOSS Delay Pedals are implemented and is particularly apparent on the track "Like Eating Glass".

The musical style of A Weekend in the City is more varied, however, drawing influence particularly from more expansive sounding artists, including Radiohead and Björk.

Tours

  • The band was on tour with Panic! at the Disco in November-December, 2006. However, they dropped out early in the tour after drummer Matt Tong was admitted to hospital when his lung collapsed during a show in Atlanta on November 9, 2006. Although he quickly recovered, he was advised to rest, so the band dropped out of the tour.[8]
  • Bloc Party's largest headlining show was played at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California on August 4, 2006 with Mew, Two Gallants and Broken Social Scene opening.[9]
  • Lead singer Kele embarrassed himself while playing at the Oxegen festival in Ireland in 2005. He declared to the Irish crowd that he was "glad to be back in the UK". The comment was met with playful boos from the crowd.
  • During their Toronto show on March 25th, 2007, lead singer of Broken Social Scene Kevin Drew came out on stage to sing vocals for the track "So Here We Are".
  • The band performed at the T in the Park concert in Scotland on 6 July, 2007, followed the next day with a performance at the Live Earth event in London, followed the next day their second ever performance at Oxegen at Punchestown Racecourse, Ireland. During the performance at Oxegen, Kele Okereke slipped and fell on-stage, after which Moakes declared "I always knew Ireland would be a good place for a trip".
  • At their third from headlining slot on the main stage at Leeds Festival 2007, Kele Okereke declared to the crowd that he had "drew blood" towards the end of their set. He went on to declare in their final song that he "doesn't want to be the only one to have drew blood" by the end of the song". At Reading Festival 2007 Kele Okereke dedicated the song "This Modern Love" to anyone that was young and in a band, whilst Gordon Moakes dedicated "So Here We Are" to "anyone who lives in Tilehurst" (a suburb of Reading, and also the place the bassist used to live). Kele also proclaimed the song to be "about drinking in fields", inducing cheers from the crowd.
  • On September 26th, 2007 Bloc Party played their new single "Flux" at the Madison Theater in Covington, KY. The song featured Gordon Moakes playing a Korg synth and was the first time the new single "Flux" was played live.

Discography

Studio albums

Remix albums

EPs

Singles

Year Song UK Singles Chart IRE Singles Chart ARIA Singles U.S. Modern Rock Album
2004 "She's Hearing Voices" - - - - Bloc Party EP
"Banquet/Staying Fat" 51 - - -
"Little Thoughts" 38 - - - Little Thoughts EP
"Helicopter" 26 - - -
2005 "Tulips" 126 - - -
"So Here We Are" 5 - - - Silent Alarm
"Banquet" 13 - - 34
"The Pioneers" 18 - - -
"Two More Years" 7 - - - Two More Years EP
2007 "The Prayer" 4 18 20 - A Weekend in the City
"I Still Remember" 20 - - 24
"Hunting for Witches" 22 - 7 -
"Flux" - - - - A Weekend in the City (Digital re-release)

Compilations

Help: A Day in the Life includes track 'The Present'

Wedding Crashers Soundtrack includes track 'This Modern Love'

References

  1. ^ "NME Albums of the Year". NME.com.
  2. ^ G, Chris (2004-05-10). "Interview: Bloc Party". SoundsXP. Retrieved 2006-12-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Band Review". FasterLouder.com.
  4. ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003545534
  5. ^ http://www.nme.com/news/bloc-party/31542
  6. ^ http://www.myspace.com/foals
  7. ^ http://www.myspace.com/thecribs
  8. ^ "14/11/2006 - BLOC PARTY FORCED TO CANCEL TOUR WITH PANIC! AT THE DISCO". www.blocparty.com. Retrieved 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  9. ^ Tucker, Nathan (2006-08-08). "Fan review...Berkeley Greek Theatre, 05.08.06". www.blocparty.net. Retrieved 2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
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