Monday, July 31, 2006
  Exclusive: Kele reveals the tracks on the new album

Speaking exclusively to BlocParty.net, Kele has named the songs which are set to appear on the second Bloc album! The recording of the album has just been completed, with Kele writing and re-writing lyrics right up to the point of recording them. Rather than working on all the songs that they'd written, Bloc Party decided to concentrate on the select few which they were particularly confident about.

Here then are the 13 songs which have been completed and which will be gracing your CD players and iPods in the (hopefully) not too distant future:

'A Prayer To The Lord'
'England' (formerly 'Blue Moon')
'Hunting For Witches' (woop!)
'It Started In An Afternoon'
'Kreuzberg'
'On' (formerly 'Wet')
'Seroxat'
'Song For Clay (Disappear Here)'
'Sunday'
'Uniform' (the album centrepiece?)
'Waiting For The 7:18'
'We Were Lovers' (formerly 'Cells Shaped Like Stars')
'Where Is Home?' (formerly 'Perfect Teens')

Not all of these songs will appear on the album...the band will decide which ones to omit after the tracks have been mixed. Any songs left off are likely to appear as b-sides at some point in the future though. Check back for more updates!

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  Fan review...McCarren Park Pool, 29.07.06

Gig: 29.07.06 - Brooklyn, New York - McCarren Park Pool
Reviewer: Heather from Seattle

Photo: Brooklyn Vegan

The show was very unique, with the stage set up on the edge of an oversized, abandoned swimming pool. It was very crowded and quite a large-scale production. The sound was great and there were no technical glitches that I noticed (as opposed to the NJ show from two nights earlier). Nearly every song was drowned out by the crowd singing along. The new tracks sounded tight and the band's enthusiasm was contagious. My favourite line of the evening came from Kele (as per usual): "The sign says 'No Diving'. Know what I say? Fuck that shit." Then, he jumped off the massive stage to come down into the crowd for a moment.


At the encore, the group came back to the stage armed with large squirt guns. They proceeded to cool off the crowd by squirting all of us. After the encore finished, all four of them jumped down into the crowd to hand out the setlists and shake hands. Jumping back up on stage, they waved goodbye and Russell proceeded to squirt a topless Matt. It was a superb ending to the show.
Setlist: Waiting For The 7:18 / Positive Tension / Banquet / Blue Light / She's Hearing Voices / Hunting for Witches / This Modern Love / Like Eating Glass / Little Thoughts / Helicopter [encore] So Here We Are / Price of Gasoline / Compliments / The Pioneers

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  Fan review...Bank of America Pavilion, 28.07.06

Gig: 28.07.06 - Boston, Massachusetts - Bank of America Pavilion
Reviewer: Derek Davies (originally posted on GWFAS)

Anyone who's been reading
this website for any time at all can pretty much immediately discern that my favourite band is far and away Bloc Party, and for this reason I already knew Bloc's show in Boston two nights ago would be one of my all-time favorites before it even happened. However, it was a longer journey than usual to get to the venue, as we had to take the ferry over to the mainland from Martha's Vineyard before driving about an hour to Boston to get to the Bank of America Pavilion, which proved to be my favourite large-scale venue I've ever attended and a pretty great environment for Bloc Party's anthemic, fist-pumping angular guitar-rock. With me were my favorite trio of indie girls, the always-lovely Merry, India, and Lizzy, and despite a glaring lack of testosterone outside of that which was supplied by me (which is to say, not much), we had a fucking splendid time.

As anticipated, the band did not disappoint, ripping through every track I'd wanted to hear from 'Silent Alarm' as well as two amazing tracks from their upcoming and as-yet-untitled sophomore album, 'Waiting For The 7.18' and the incredible 'Uniform'. While I'm extremely upset I didn't get to hear 'Hunting For Witches' (another new track that's seen some exposure in live settings) as the audiences the next two nights in New Jersey and Brooklyn did, I'll settle for what was, with the exception of the inclusion of 'Tulips' over 'Little Thoughts', essentially the perfect Bloc Party setlist. Kele and co. even hooked us up with 'Two More Years', the exclusion of which from the band's Intonation setlist last month nearly reduced Lizzy and I to inconsolable messes at the time, as well as set-closer 'The Pioneers', another phenomenal track we missed out on last time around.


More and more, Kele is proving himself to be one of the most intelligent and charismatic frontmen in indie rock, and at no point was this more apparent than when a surely-inebriated prototypically-surly Bostonian in a Red Sox jersey jumped up on the corner of a stage and started clapping and drunkenly-dancing in front of the audience during 'Price of Gasoline' in the encore. Rather than letting the security guards take care of the man, Kele walked over and put his arm around him while still singing, and brought him over to the mic to share lead vocals on the chorus with him, before leaving the man to take over vocals on his own. When the guy had difficulty keeping up with the words, Kele gently led him over to Gordy's mic to take over on the much more simplistic backing vocals (just grunting "ugh" every other second or so). Afterwards Kele took the man aside and they shared a laugh about something before the certainly overwhelmed fan returned to the audience. It was certainly interesting to see Okereke, who wrote such a scathingly-anti-American song as 'Helicopter' (with it's "stop being so American" lyrics), embrace a fan so obnoxious and stereotypically-American as this dude was in his drunken grandeur, but this sequence of events was a true testament to his charisma and ability to work a crowd as a rock and roll frontman.

Bloc Party is in a very exciting place right now as a band, and their next album should elevate them to an entire new level of popularity and critical acclaim. With 'Silent Alarm' the band garnered nearly unanimous critical praise but also gained a lot of haters who called the group Gang of Four knock-offs and accused them of being just another run-of-the-mill guitar rock band trying to cash in on the dance rock fad. However, with their new album Bloc are trying to shake such accusations ("dance punk will not be a noose around our neck", Kele said in a recent interview) and have traded in their danceable, angular guitar riffs for much a much more languorous, morose sound like that first hinted at on 'Two More Years'. In fact, with the exception of possibly 'Hunting For Witches', there's nary a single track that's 100% danceable the entire way through, as the lion's share of the songs are either much slower-paced, moody affairs all the way through or follow the formula established by 'So Here We Are', in which the song starts out slow and builds to furious climax before it's completion, as can be seen in both 'Waiting For The 7.18' and 'Uniform'.

Setlist: Waiting For The 7:18 / Positive Tension / Banquet / Blue Light / She's Hearing Voices / Uniform / This Modern Love / Like Eating Glass / So Here We Are / Helicopter [encore] Two More Years / Price of Gasoline / Tulips / The Pioneers

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Sunday, July 30, 2006
  Fan review...The Stone Pony, 27.07.06

Gig: 27.07.06 - Asbury Park, New Jersey - The Stone Pony
Reviewer: Markus from Delaware (the guy yelling "Skeleton" at the top of his lungs between each song)
Photos: Heather from Seattle
Bloc Party at The Stone Pony did what they do best: churn out bangers. I arrived and was surprised to find an outdoor venue, but my ticket did say "rain or shine" so I wasn't worried. Mew was accessible but I wish I could have heard their album before the show. Bloc went on after an intro from a local D.J.

'Waiting...' was the first one, and was different from the demo I have of the song from the spring. Mostly effects on their new equipment (Kele's Gretsch is beautiful), the rhythm was clear and direct. They ran through a few favourites like 'Banquet', 'She's Hearing Voices', and 'Positive Tension', but then...oh man. I've heard all the demos circulating the net recently but nothing can do justice to 'Hunting For Witches' live, which I believe has been reworked slightly. I think the people around me, who I'm sure haven't heard the song before, actually really got into it. Kele prefaced it with "be nice", but no need when the song was so excitingly frantic and dug so deep. Best song of the show.

Bloc Party dedicated 'Blue Light' to some fans they met before the show. 'This Modern Love' connected well with a lot of people. They went off for the first encore of what is usually two. It started raining lightly, but no worries. I was loving it and the Bloc didn't seem to care. They gave us 'Tulips' and 'Price of Gasoline' before they were forced offstage, despite an angry crowd. For the record though it really did seem like they were pulled from us rather than them just not wanting to play in the rain. A sad end to what was looking like the best show I've ever seen from them (this is my fourth).
Other funny things from the show:

Great show that should have been twice the length. I didn't even get 'The Pioneers'! Even when the crowd screamed "rain or shine" for five minutes upon them being pulled, no success. Oh well. Next time hopefully there will be a new album out and I'll get to see them indoors.

Setlist:

Waiting For The 7:18 / Positive Tension / Banquet / Blue Light / She's Hearing Voices / Hunting For Witches / This Modern Love / Like Eating Glass / So Here We Are / Helicopter [encore] Tulips / Price of Gasoline [thunderstorm stopped play!]

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Thursday, July 27, 2006
  Good Weather For Airstrikes

This U.S. blog are currently offering up Bloc Party's set at last summer's Leeds Festival...follow the white rabbit.

Incidentally,
GWFAS is BLOG PARTY's favourite blog...it's always a very enjoyable read and, unlike a lot of blogs who are all talk and no action, offers up copious amounts of mp3s and videos to feast upon. Other recent posts include a download of the complete Phones (Paul Epworth) remixography and a preview of upcoming indie flick, 'The Science Of Sleep' (directed by the genius that is Michel Gondry).

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Wednesday, July 26, 2006
  Unofficial Compliments video



This unofficial video was made for a media degree major project at Cumbria Institute of the Arts. It took around a month to make, which included about 3 weeks of animation, 2 days live action shooting and 5 days editing. According to Tom Forde (the director), it is a representation of a man being consumed by modern living.

Directed by Tom Forde
Produced by Gavin Blackburn
Art directed by Aaron Cornish
Edited by Mike Ball


I reckon the video fits perfectly with the song...I love the way the lights flicker in time with the electronic whirrs and clicks in the intro.

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  Give me a U, give me an S, give me an A

Bloc Party return to the U.S. again tomorrow for a series of summer shows. With the second album all but completed, American fans should be treated to the premier performances of some brand new tracks.

Anyone who's going to any of the dates...please send your setlists/photos/recordings/reviews/broken drumsticks to BLOG PARTY. (Especially recordings!)

Also, keep an eye on the Bloc Party Myspace page for a rolling tour diary containing fan photos and reviews.

P.S. The new look blocparty.net is now online...head over there now to take a look!

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Saturday, July 15, 2006
  Introducing...Mew

For some of you, Mew probably need no introduction, but here's a little article for the uninitiated. Mew will be supporting Bloc Party on their upcoming U.S. tour.
Sean Richardson writes...

Mew are a Danish band, who I had heard of but didn't actually know a great deal about. The only band from Denmark I'd heard of in recent years were Aqua - maybe not the best representative of Danish music (ok, The Raveonettes are a pretty cool little Danish band but for the purpose of this piece, we'll just say we forgot about them!).

Now thankfully, one lazy Friday evening, I stayed up so late that I ended up watching one of those 15 minute '4Play' programmes on Channel Four (a UK T.V. channel), which happened to feature Mew. I was intrigued, especially after hearing the gravelly voice of guest vocalist J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. juxtaposed with the ethereal beauty of lead singer's Jonas Bierre on the beautiful 'Why Are You Looking So Grave?'.

So eventually, after sparing myself a little money, I bought Mew's most recent and only second full album, 'And The Glass Handed Kites'. After one listen I was one happy chappy – it really is a special album, from the apocalyptic instrumental opener 'Circuitry of the Wolf', through the beauty of the epic sounding singles 'Special' and 'The Zookeeper's Boy', to the Dark Side of the Moon-esque 'White Lips Kissed'.

As with any album you discover to be great and deeply satisfying, I remembered why I loved music so much. And for those wondering what type of sound a band from Denmark called Mew creates…well, attempting to compare, there's a nice helping of Sigur Ros, a splash of Spiritualized, a spoonful of Mercury Rev and a dash or two of Pink Floyd.

Well I think I better spare myself some more pennies to buy previous album 'Frengers'. Better than Aqua then. Better than most I reckon. Bloc are in good company…

S. Richardson

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Wednesday, July 05, 2006
  'Something Glorious' interviews Kele

SomethingGlorious.com, a blog inspired by a song well known around this neck of the woods, managed to secure an exclusive interview with Kele just before Bloc Party's headlining appearance at Chicago's Intonation Festival last month.

As is usually the case with independent blogs, the interview is both insightful and original, focusing on the music and giving Kele plenty of time to lay out his vision for album number two. Read it here. This interview also adds weight to the growing movement that suspects Kele of working for Amerie's record company, after Mr. Okereke delivers yet another speech on the merits of '1 Thing'. (Note: the movement currently consists of me, my Dad and the bloke from across the road who smells of wee. To sign up, contact i_believe_in_the_amerie_conspiracy@gullible.com).


Also, there's an interview with Kele and Matt in the current issue of 'Relevant' magazine, kindly transcribed for your reading pleasure.

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Tuesday, July 04, 2006
  To tide you over...a new 'Uniform' recording

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