Bloc Party

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Left to right: Tong, Moakes, Okereke, Lissack
Background information
Origin	East London/Essex, England
Genre(s)	Art rock Indie rock Post-punk revival
Years active	2003–present
Label(s)	Vice Records 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. In 2005, the band released their critically acclaimed debut album Silent Alarm. Their second studio album, A Weekend in the City was released on February 5, 2007 in the UK and February 6 in the US.

[edit] History

[edit] 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.

In 2003 they changed their name from Union to Bloc Party. The name is a play on block party,^[1] 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 went with it."^[2]

In November 2003, Bloc Party 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 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.

[edit] 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 second 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 "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.

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.

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.

[edit] 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.^[3] 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 was produced by Jacknife Lee. The first single, "The Prayer", was released on January 29. This single has been located on their MySpace since November 22, 2006. The next single, "I Still Remember", is their first American single. 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 band's first gig following the release of AWITC was on February 5 at Reading Hexagon. It was broadcasted live on BBC's Music Station 6 Music that night as well.

Bloc Party has been confirmed as one of the bands playing in the Live Earth concerts on July 7, 2007 and the Oxegen Festival that same weekend, as well as Glastonbury and the Reading and Leeds Festivals 2007

[edit] Musical style

Bloc Party's own variation of spiky guitar rock draws on influences such as The Cure, Gang of Four, The Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Pixies, Joy Division, and XTC, but the band says that some of these bands are just comparisons.

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 echo effects equipment is 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 bands, including Radiohead and U2.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

Silent Alarm (14 February 2005) Vice Records #3 UK; #30 Aus; #114 US

A Weekend in the City (5 February 2007) Vice Records #2 UK; #2 Aus; #12 US

[edit] Remix albums

Silent Alarm Remixed (29 August 2005) Vice Records #54 UK

[edit] EPs

Bloc Party EP (24 May 2004) V2

Little Thoughts EP (15 December 2004, Japan only) V2

Two More Years EP (26 October 2005, Japan only) V2

[edit] Singles

[edit] Trivia

• The band's live television début was "Helicopter" on the Later with Jools Holland show. In the US, their live television début was on the Late Show with David Letterman, playing "Banquet".
• 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 and so the band dropped out of the tour.^[4]
• Bloc Party's largest headlining show was played at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, California on August 3, 2006 with Mew, Two Gallants and Broken Social Scene opening.^[5]
• 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 good humour, and a joking "BOO" 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".

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Bloc Party MySpace
• Bloc Party at MusicBrainz
• Official Fan Site
• Review of 'A Weekend in the City'
• MSN video interview with Matt and Gordon shot on 15th January 2007
• Interview: Russell Lissack of Bloc Party
• Interview on Burningangel.com
• Video interview: Kele and Matt on stv.tv/music, Feb 2007
• A Weekend In The City 2007 at eMusic
• Interview on fender.co.uk
• I Still Remember Review