Bloc Party is 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. 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.
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Contents
- 1 History
- 1.1 Formation
and rising popularity (1998–2004)
- 1.2 Silent
Alarm (2004–2006)
- 1.3 A
Weekend in the City (2006–present)
- 2 Musical
style
- 3 Use
of music in film
- 4 Use
of music in television
- 5 Tours
- 6 Discography
- 6.1 Studio
albums
- 6.2 Remix
albums
- 6.3 EPs
- 6.4 Singles
- 6.5 Compilations
- 7 References
- 8 External
links
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History
Formation and rising popularity
(1998–2004)
Bloc Party has 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,
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."
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 "Adam Horne", 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 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 "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 "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
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 at The Greek Theatre 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)
Bloc Party’s Okereke and Tong on stage at the St Gallen Open Air
festival in June 2007
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.
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.
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.
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 the Oxegen Festival
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.
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.
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, and Mogwai, Gang of Four, 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 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 Bjork.
Use of music in film
- Bloc Party provided quite a lot of the music for the film This
Revolution[1],
a film about a news cameraman investigating the black bloc anarchists
at a protest march in the United States.
- "This Modern Love" is featured on the trailer for the movie
He Was A Quiet Man.
Use of music in television
- "Positive Tension" was featured in the episode "The O.C.
Confidential", Second Season of hit TV series "The O.C."; and
in Season One, Episode Six of Channel 4's "Skins".
- "Blue Light (Engineers Anti-Gravity Remix)" was featured in
the episode "The Aftermath", Third Season of hit TV series "The O.C.".
This was the season's premiere.
- "The Pioneers" was featured in "The Man of the Year", Third
Season of hit TV series "The O.C.".
- "I Still Remember" was featured in the episode "The Shake
Up", In the Fourth Season of hit TV series "The O.C.".
- "Kreuzberg" was featured in the episode "The Night Moves",
in the Fourth Season of the hit TV series "The O.C". This
was the one before the series finale.
- The track "SRXT" was featured on the episode "The Other
Side of This Life (Part 2)" of Grey's Anatomy.
- "So Here We Are" was featured in a commercial for the car
company Saturn
- "The Prayer" was featured in a commercial for the TV series
Smallville
- British television broadcaster ITV has recently used the
songs "This Modern Love", "I Still Remember", "Waiting for the 7:18"
and "SRXT" in a number of their advertisements.
- 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".
- "This Modern Love" was used at the end of the episode "Come
On" of How I Met Your Mother.
- "Banquet" was used during the Entourage
episode "Dominated" and used for the promotional video for Channel 4's
new game show "Win My Wage" that replaced "Deal
or No Deal".
- "The Prayer" was featured in the episode "The Prophet" of Kyle XY.
- The band performed "The Prayer" outdoors on the show "Last
Call with Carson Daily" in the summer of 2007.
- The song "Kreuzberg" was used in the episode Partners in the TV series "Drive".
- The M83 remix of "Pioneers" was used on Top Gear (current format)
when James May reviewed the new Honda Civic.
- "Tulips" was featured in the 1x14 episode, "Mars vs. Mars",
of the critically acclaimed show, Veronica Mars.
- The song "Hunting for witches" was used by RTE, Ireland's main
TV network in an ad for its programming about the Arts
- "Banquet" was featured on MTV's "Cribs" for background
music when Tony
Hawk was giving a tour of his house, as well as when Robbie
Williams showed viewers around his California home.
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.
- 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.
- 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".
Discography
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
Remix albums
- Silent
Alarm Remixed
(29
August 2005)
Vice Records
#54 UK
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
Singles
| Year |
Song |
UK
Singles Chart |
IRE Singles Chart |
ARIA Singles |
U.S.
Modern Rock |
Album |
| 2004 |
"She's Hearing Voices" |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Bloc Party EP |
| 2004 |
"Banquet" |
51 |
- |
- |
- |
Bloc Party EP |
| 2004 |
"Little Thoughts" |
38 |
- |
- |
- |
Little Thoughts
EP/Silent Alarm (Re-Release) |
| 2004 |
"Helicopter" |
26 |
- |
- |
- |
Little Thoughts EP/Silent Alarm |
| 2005 |
"Tulips" |
126 |
- |
- |
- |
Little Thoughts
EP/Silent Alarm (Re-Release) |
| 2005 |
"So Here We Are" |
5 |
- |
- |
- |
Silent Alarm |
| 2005 |
"Banquet" (Reissue) |
13 |
- |
- |
34 |
Silent Alarm |
| 2005 |
"The Pioneers" |
18 |
- |
- |
- |
Silent Alarm |
| 2005 |
"Two More Years" |
7 |
- |
- |
- |
Silent Alarm
(Re-release) |
| 2007 |
"The Prayer" |
4 |
18 |
20 |
- |
A Weekend in the City |
| 2007 |
"I Still Remember" |
20 |
- |
- |
24 |
A Weekend in the City |
| 2007 |
"Hunting for Witches" |
22 |
- |
- |
|
A Weekend in the City |
| 2007 |
"Song For Clay
(Disappear Here)" |
- |
- |
- |
- |
A Weekend in the City |
Compilations
Help: A Day in the Life
includes track 'The Present'
References
External links
| v • d • e 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" | "Two
More Years" | "The Prayer" | "I Still Remember" | "Hunting
for Witches" |
