Bloc Party

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Background information
Origin England Essex, England
Genre(s) Post-punk revival
Indie rock
Years active 1998–present
Label(s) Wichita
V2
Website http://www.blocparty.com/
Members
Kele Okereke-Vocals Guitar
Russell Lissack-Guitar
Gordon Moakes-Bass
Matt Tong-Drums
Former members
David Searston
Mat Coleman
James Chorley

Bloc Party are an English indie rock band. The band has been around in various guises since 2002, with names such as Superheroes of BMX, The Angel Range, Diet, and Union, before settling on Bloc Party in September 2003. The name is a play on block party, 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; the absence of a 'k' is purely for aesthetics.

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 [the band] went with it."

Contents

[edit] The band

Band members Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack have formed the fulcrum of these various incarnations, and were subsequently joined by bassist Gordon Moakes, and most recently drummer Matt Tong. Lissack and singer/guitarist Kele Okereke met in 1998 in Essex, where Lissack had grown up and Okereke attended school. Lissack attended Bancroft's School and Okereke attended Trinity for sixth form. They bumped into each other again in 1999 at the Reading Festival and soon after formed the band Union.

The band is currently managed by Coalition, and represented by Simon White, formerly of Britpop band Menswe@r.

It may seem Bloc Party's own variation of spiky guitar rock draws on influences such as The Cure, Sonic Youth, Pixies, Joy Division, Gang of Four and XTC, but they say that some of these bands are just comparisons. Russell had never heard of Gang Of Four before they came out with Silent Alarm.

[edit] Releases

In 2003 they changed their name from Union to Bloc Party and in November had their track "The Marshalls 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 Trash Aesthetics 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.

Their critically acclaimed debut album Silent Alarm, which was released in February 2005 and recently voted by NME critics as the 2005 album of the year, went to #3 on UK album charts (selling platinum in the UK), with the single "So Here We Are" making the top 5. 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 "The Pioneers" (July 2005), whilst failing to repeat this success, managed to make dents in the UK top 20. The animated video for the single "The 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.

Bloc Party’s Lissack and Okereke on stage in Cardiff in October 2005
Enlarge
Bloc Party’s Lissack and Okereke on stage in Cardiff in October 2005

Even though the band was met with good reviews from critics in America, Bloc Party failed to break through to the pop or rock charts in the US, largely remaining an underground phenomenon.

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 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 tracklist 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.

British tabloid newspaper The Sun reported that the band would be teaming up with Kaiser Chiefs for a Christmas single. The article reported it would be a cover of "All I Want for Christmas Is You". However, this later turned out to be untrue.

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.

The band is currently putting the finishing touches to their second album, to be called A Weekend In The City, produced by Jacknife Lee. The album is due for release on February 5, 2007 in the UK and February 6 in the United States. The first single, "The Prayer", will be released on January 29 and was released on their Myspace page on November 22, 2006. The cover art will be A Modern Project by Rut Blees Luxemburg. The full album was leaked in November 2006 onto many torrent websites, three months before scheduled release. However, so far A Weekend In The City has been mostly highly acclaimed by web-critics and fans alike, who have warmed to the new direction the album has taken, which draws from many contrasting genres, uncommon of a sophomore effort.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Silent Alarm
(14 February 2005)
V2 Records
#3 UK
Silent Alarm Remixed
(29 August 2005)
V2 Records
#54 UK
A Weekend in the City
(5 February 2007)
V2 Records

[edit] EPs

Bloc Party EP
(24 May 2004)
V2
Little Thoughts EP
(15 December 2004, Japanese only)
V2
Two More Years EP
(26 October 2005, Japanese only)
V2

[edit] Singles

From Bloc Party EP

From Little Thoughts EP

  • "Little Thoughts" - (July 2004, #38 UK)
  • "Helicopter" (October 2004, #26 UK)
  • "Tulips" (January 2005)

From Silent Alarm

  • "So Here We Are" (January 2005, #25 UK)
  • "Banquet" (April 2005, #13 UK, #34 US Modern Rock Tracks
  • "The Pioneers" (July 2005, #18 UK)

From Silent Alarm Re-Release

  • "Two More Years" (October 2005, #7 UK)

From A Weekend in the City

[edit] Trivia

  • The band's current US Tour with Panic! At the Disco has been finished early after drummer Matt Tong was admitted to hospital when his lung collapsed during a show in Atlanta on November 9th, 2006. Although he's on the way to recovery, he was advised to rest and so the remaining tour dates were cancelled.
  • Bloc Party's largest headlining show was played at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California on August 4, 2006 with Broken Social Scene and Mew opening.[1]
  • The song "So Here We Are" was used in the BBC's 2005 Wimbledon coverage and in a Saturn ad campaign in 2006
  • The song "Like Eating Glass" was featured in Tony Hawk's American Wasteland [2] and on the soundtrack for Cry_Wolf. [3]
  • A portion of "This Modern Love" was used in the first season finale of the TV show How I Met Your Mother [4] and on the soundtrack for Wedding Crashers[5].
  • A portion of "Helicopter" was used in an episode of the TV show Malcolm In The Middle, in the film Grandma's Boy, and in a fantasy football preview on CBS[6]. Full versions of the song featured on the playlists for FIFA 06[7], Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Burnout Revenge.
  • The song "Pioneers" [M83 Remix] was featured on an episode of Top Gear.
  • The songs "Blue Light" [Engineer's Anti-Gravity Remix] and "Pioneers" (both the original and a cover version by the band, Tunng) [8] were used in episodes from the third season of the television series The O.C.
  • The song "Banquet" is featured on the playlist for the video games SSX on Tour and Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix and appeared in The O.C.. "Banquet" can also be heard on The 4400 during a second season episode. This song also is played in the HBO series Entourage in Season 3, Episode 3.
  • The song "Banquet" is often times used on MTV and VH1 as a background to a video or picture montage
  • The song "Positive Tension" was used in a season two episode of The O.C.
  • "Positive Tension" was used in an episode of CSI: NY
  • "Banquet" was used in an episode of CSI:NY
  • "This Modern Love" was featured in DVS shoe company's skate video Skate More
  • "Like Eating Glass" was used in BBC programme, Countryfile.
  • The song "Tulips" was used in an episode of "Veronica Mars".

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.blocparty.net/2006/08/fan-reviewberkeley-greek-theatre.html
  2. ^ Cave, S: "Activision announces complete song line-up for Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, About.com http://skateboard.about.com/od/games/a/THAWMusic.htm , 2005.
  3. ^ Amazon.com, "Cry Wolf Soundtrack", http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AMJDN8/002-0894888-9880057?v=glance&n=5174 , 2006.
  4. ^ TV.com, How I Met Your Mother episode guide, http://www.tv.com/how-i-met-your-mother/come-on/episode/663908/summary.html?tag=ep_list;title;21, 2006
  5. ^ Amazon.com, "Wedding Crashers Soundtrack", http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009ML2VK/002-0894888-9880057?v=glance&n=5174 , 2006
  6. ^ Amazon.com, "Grandma's Boy soundtrack", http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CC1TSS/002-0894888-9880057?v=glance&n=5174 , 2006
  7. ^ IGN.com, FIFA 06 Soundtrack Details, http://music.ign.com/articles/643/643093p1.html , 2006
  8. ^ Music from the O.C, "Weekly Mix - Season 3", http://www.musicfromtheoc.com/weekly_mix_season3.html ,2006

[edit] External links

Interviews

Bloc Party
Russell Lissack | Gordon Moakes | Kele Okereke | Matt Tong
David Searston | Mat Coleman | James Chorley
Discography
Studio albums: Silent Alarm | A Weekend in the City
EPs: Bloc Party EP | Little Thoughts EP | Two More Years EP
Remix albums: Silent Alarm Remixed
Singles: "She's Hearing Voices" | "Little Thoughts" | "Helicopter" | "Tulips" | "So Here We Are" | "Banquet" | "The Pioneers" | "The Prayer"
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