Bloc Party
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Bloc Party are an English art rock/post-punk revival 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. There was a theory that the name is a play on block party, a name for an informal neighborhood 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."
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 are currently managed by Coalition, and represented by Simon White, formerly of Britpop band Menswe@r.
Bloc Party's own variation of spiky guitar rock draws on influences such as Sonic Youth, Pixies, Joy Division, Gang of Four, and XTC.
Releases
In 2003 they changed their name from Union to Bloc Party and in November 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 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 Records in April 2004.
Their critically acclaimed debut album, Silent Alarm, 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.
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. Whilst retaining the album's original tracklist, it 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 single ended up on a re-release of Silent Alarm, along with "Little Thoughts". Several other new tracks have also been debuted during their non-stop touring schedule.
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 recording their second album which is due for release in September 2006 and is to be produced by Jacknife Lee. In a recent interview, Kele Okereke revealed that the new album will be based around the theme of city life and will contain tracks titled 'Waiting For The 7.18', 'Uniform', 'Perfect Teens'(formerly Machine), 'England' (formerly Blue Moon) and 'Song For Clay' (formerly Merge On The Freeway). Whilst the band have also recorded 'Kreuzberg' and 'Cells Shaped Like Stars', they may not appear on the new album. Bassist Gordon Moakes also recently stated that the initial September release date may have been a bit optimistic but the boys are still working for a 2006 release.
To coincide with their new release, a rock biography written by acclaimed Turkish/Indian/Swiss/British author Zoran Lalvani is to be published in September and is already for sale on Amazon.
Discography
Albums
EPs
Singles
- "She's Hearing Voices" (February 2004)
- "Banquet" - (May 2004, #51 UK)
- "Little Thoughts" - (July 2004, #38 UK)
- "Helicopter" (October 2004, #26 UK)
- "Tulips" (January 2005)
- "So Here We Are" (January 2005, #5 UK)
- "Banquet" (April 2005, #13 UK, #34 US (Modern Rock Tracks))
- "The Pioneers" (July 2005, #18 UK)
- "Two More Years" (October 2005, #7 UK)
Trivia
- The song "Like Eating Glass" was featured in Tony Hawk's American Wasteland video gameCave, 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. and on the soundtrack for cry_wolf. Amazon.com, "Cry Wolf Soundtrack", http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AMJDN8/002-0894888-9880057?v=glance&n=5174 , 2006.
- A portion of "This Modern Love" was used in the first season finale of the TV show How I Met Your Mother and on the soundtrack for Wedding CrashersAmazon.com, "Wedding Crashers Soundtrack", http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009ML2VK/002-0894888-9880057?v=glance&n=5174 , 2006.
- A portion of "Helicopter" was used in an episode of the TV show Malcolm In The Middle and in the film Grandma's Boy Amazon.com, "Grandma's Boy soundtrack", http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CC1TSS/002-0894888-9880057?v=glance&n=5174 , 2006.
- The songs "Blue Light" [Engineer's Anti-Gravity Remix] and "Pioneers" were used in episodes from the third season of the television series The O.C. Music from the O.C, "Weekly Mix - Season 3", http://www.musicfromtheoc.com/weekly_mix_season3.html ,2006
- The song "Banquet" is featured on the playlist for the video game SSX on Tour.
- "Helicopter" is featured on the playlists for the video games FIFA 06 IGN.com, FIFA 06 Soundtrack Details, http://music.ign.com/articles/643/643093p1.html , 2006 and [[Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure]], as well as Project Gotham Racing 3 and Burnout Revenge.
Notes
External links
- [Official site]
- [] at MusicBrainz
- [Bloc Party performance on KCRW]
- [NPR All Songs Considered concert] at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.
- [Fabchannel.com - Watch a free video stream of the amazing Paradiso concert in Amsterdam]
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