More Mercury...yl To coincide with the first play of 'Mercury', BlocParty.com has been relaunched. Head over there to stream the new song, and watch the accompanying, slightly-creepy, video here(or below).
And here's a behind-the-scenes video of Kele's appearance on BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe show earlier tonight...
These two videos were filmed in late 2004, on Bloc Party's first ever US tour around toilet-sized venues. They were professionally recorded for Bloc Party's US record label at the time, Dim Mak, but never saw the light of day. No rare songs unfortunately, but it's a pretty good opportunity to see early Bloc at their best. Download them both below!
In January 2006, experimental folk band, Tunng, released their cover of 'The Pioneers' - a haunting, atmospheric take on the original track which was featured in The O.C. (Season 3, Episode 24 - The Man of the Year, fact fans). Download it here (courtesy of Visions and Revisions).
Below is a video of Tunng performing the cover at their recent gig in Milano...check out the maraca action.
Bloc Party Vcasts #9 and #10 (Blocumentaries part deux!)
As promised, here's the remaining two Blocumentaries - episodes 9 and 10 of the Bloc Party Vcasts, recorded at the December Glasgow and Manchester gigs respectively. Enjoy!
Here's episodes 11 and 12 of the Bloc Party Vcasts, which this time take the form of Blocumentaries, recorded by two fans during the band's arena tour last December. These episodes were filmed at the London Alexandra Palace dates...check back soon for the Glasgow and Manchester videos!
BBC 6 Music caught up with Kele and Matt backstage at London's Alexandra Palace last night as they wrapped up 2007 with their final gig of the year, tongues planted firmly in cheeks...
Leeds Cockpit, 10.12.07 Lucky NME lottery winners were last night treated to the first live outing for recent b-side 'Atonement', plus rare plays of 'The Marshals Are Dead' and 'Skeleton'. If it's any consolation, anyone who wasn't there can watch videos of the three tracks below!
You can catch Bloc Party at an enormodome near you over the next four days, and then the band take a very well-earned Christmas break.
[Setlist]
Song For Clay (Disappear Here) / Positive Tension / Hunting For Witches / Waiting For The 7.18 / Banquet / This Modern Love / The Prayer / Atonement / The Marshals Are Dead / Uniform / So Here We Are / Like Eating Glass
Flux / Little Thoughts / She's Hearing Voices / Helicopter Skeleton / Two More Years
[Videos]
[Atonement!]
[The Marshals Are Dead!]
[Skeleton!]
Thanks to Neil for the photos and Nettie for the videos!
Just a reminder that you can get your mitts on 'Flux' across a multitude of formats right now...scroll down a couple posts for full details. Also, stick the NME CD in your computer for a special website chock-full of Bloc Party freebies. Non-UK fans...look out for the full NME article uploaded onto BlocParty.net in the next day or two.
Critical reaction to 'Flux' has been mostlypositiveso far(small exception) and the remix of Where Is Home? (on the 12" vinyl) by dubstep's man-of-the-moment, Burial, is one of the most original and accomplished Bloc remixes to date (download it here). 'Flux' is also the first multi-lingual Bloc Party song...Kele has re-recorded his vocals in German and French (for the full Eurodance effect?) and residents of those countries can download the results on the German and French iTunes!
In non-Flux news, a new remix of 'Hunting For Witches' is currently tearingup the blogosphere. It's by a duo called Villains and you can download it below...
Watch the brand new video for 'Flux' on NME.com now! It's a gloriously lo-fi sci-fi romp featuring miniature armies, big rubbery alien lifeforms destroying a cardboard city for no apparent reason, and a blossoming romance between two humanoids. Ace Norton...you are a genius.
The video was filmed over two days in Boston with American performance troupe Kaiju Big Battel. Some of the Kaiju (Japanese for 'strange beast') characters in the video are The Grudyin, Unibouzo, Vegetius, Giii the Space Pirate and Steam-Powered Tentacle Boulder (the newest Kaiju Hero).
Hot off the press...according to this very short bulletin on Video Static, Bloc Party have just booked a shoot with video director Ace Norton...also confirmed on the director's personal website. The track they're shooting is titled 'Flux', so it looks like Bloc Party are already setting their sights on releasing new material, with just the three singles lifted from 'A Weekend In The City' so far. There's no official news of a brand new single yet, but BLOG PARTY will keep you posted!
P.S. Bloc Party played a brand new song at Covington's Madison Theater a couple nights ago, featuring Gordy on synths...please send in your setlists if you were there!
Edit: The new song played in Covington last Wednesday was indeed 'Flux'...and, yup, there's already a decent quality recording up on YouTube!
Song For Clay (Disappear Here) / Positive Tension / Blue Light / Hunting For Witches / Waiting For The 7.18 / Banquet / I Still Remember / This Modern Love / The Prayer / Uniform / So Here We Are / Like Eating Glass / She's Hearing Voices / Helicopter
[Videos]
'Banquet'
'The Prayer'
Thanks to Shoegazzzer for the awesome vids...lots more here!
Download a video recording (or the audio rip) of Bloc Party's triumphant Saturday evening set at Reading Festival 2007! Two of the tracks on the setlist unfortunately weren't recorded ('The Prayer' and 'So Here We Are'), but all of the other tracks are awesome quality.
Links removed at the request of the management...sorry!
[Download - Bloc Party @ Reading Festival 2007 - full set]
Full audio (52.3 MB)
Full video (62.8 MB)
[Download - Bloc Party @ Reading Festival 2007 - individual audio tracks]
01. Song For Clay (Disappear Here) 02. Positive Tension 03. Hunting For Witches 04. Waiting For The 7.18 05. Banquet 06. This Modern Love 07. Like Eating Glass 08. She's Hearing Voices 09. Helicopter
Kele quote:
"This is the third time we've played Reading and we've always been successful here so it's got a special place in our hearts. I met Russell our guitar player over there and we decided to be in a band."
[Setlist]
Song For Clay (Disappear Here) / Positive Tension / Hunting For Witches / Waiting For The 7.18 / Banquet / This Modern Love / The Prayer (not on bootleg) / So Here We Are (not on bootleg) / Like Eating Glass / She's Hearing Voices / Helicopter
Speaking to NME.com yesterday at the Reading Festival, Gordy has confirmed that Bloc Party are already working on new material for the third album! They spent the past week rehearsing a dozen new tracks in London and will head into the studio tomorrow to do some preliminary recording with Jacknife Lee, producer of 'A Weekend In The City'. There's talk of a brand new single this year, but this will depend on how much progress they make next week. Either way, the band are definitely eager to keep their creative output ticking over.
Watch the interview below:
And here's an interview with Kele, also from the Reading Festival:
And finally, click here to read Matt's Reading Festival blog for Guardian Unlimited.
Download...She's Hearing Voices (Live at Hurricane)
Download a high quality video of 'She's Hearing Voices', recorded at Germany's Hurricane Festival in June earlier this year. It's worth downloading just for Kele's performance...he charges around the stage, eyeballs the camera and gets swamped by fans before finally collapsing in a heap on the stage as the song reaches its climax.
Tomorrow, Bloc Party drive to Brighton for a very special one-off fanclub gig at Concorde 2! It'll be their smallest show since the club tour in early 2006 (not counting radio sessions), so BLOG PARTY would love to hear from any lucky attendees. Send in your setlists, reports, videos and photos to the usual address. Get ready to hear some rare b-sides (fancy shouting for 'Cain Said To Abel', anyone?) and if Bloc Party do play 'Skeleton', expect the roof to be well and truly lifted!
Two years after making their debut at the festival, Bloc Party tore up Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage on Friday afternoon in front of a packed field-cum-mudbath! Listen to a backstage interview here and watch the highlights on the BBC media player (plus a couple extra songs here).
[Setlist]
Song For Clay (Disappear Here) / Positive Tension / Hunting For Witches / Banquet / This Modern Love / The Prayer / Like Eating Glass / Uniform / So Here We Are / Helicopter
Bloc Party headlined Live 105's BFD (Big Fun Day? Bouncing Fudge Dragon?) in Mountain View, California a couple weeks ago, and the whole set has been filmed and Youtubed for your viewing pleasure. Watch 'Waiting For The 7.18' below, or click the links to watch all of the videos on YouTube. You can also download an audio interview to hear Kele and Matt's views on the 'Uniform' lyrics and the throwing of gaffa-taped socks!
Bloc Party have gone back to basics for their latest video with a performance piece for 'Hunting For Witches', the new single out on July 9th in the UK. The minimalist approach has been used before (see the original 'Banquet' video), but this video has left some fans slightly disappointed, especially those who were hoping for some kind of witch-hunting, broomstick-racing sci-fi romp. Maybe they blew their budget on the first two videos?
Either way, this is still stylishly done (the slow-mo bit at 2:32 is impossibly cool) and the quality of the song speaks for itself. See the video below...
A special edition of the Bloc Party Vcasts featuring the winning entrants of the 'I Still Remember' make-a-video competition: Cong San, Adam Barnett and Mike Rose.
I Still Remember / Positive Tension / Hunting For Witches / Waiting For The 7.18 / Banquet / This Modern Love / The Prayer / Uniform / So Here We Are / Like Eating Glass
Sunday / The Once And Future King (!) / She's Hearing Voices / Helicopter
Yup, 'The Once And Future King', a new song which has so far only been released on the Target version of 'A Weekend In The City', got its first live airing! Download the proof here(video recorded by jinx - link updated). In fact, this is the first time any of the new b-sides have been played live, so count yourself lucky, New Jerseyans!
Also, check out videos of a live performance and an interview recorded at the 101.7 WFNX Best Music Poll 2007 in Boston on 06.06.07. (Note the hint of a Marshals b-sides tour!)
Later...with Jools Holland, 25.05.07 As promised, here's the videos of Bloc Party's performance on Later...with Jools Holland a couple days ago. They performed three tracks - 'Hunting For Witches', 'Waiting For The 7.18' and 'The Prayer'. Enjoy!
Bloc Party headlined the 'In New Music We Trust' stage at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Preston last night, blasting out a crowd-pleasing set in front of a packed tent, despite the timing clash with fellow indie heavyweights the Kaiser Chiefs. You can watch the highlights of their set here!
[Setlist] Song For Clay (Disappear Here) / Positive Tension / Hunting For Witches / Banquet / This Modern Love / The Prayer / I Still Remember / So Here We Are / Like Eating Glass / She's Hearing Voices / Helicopter
FaceCulture spoke to Gordy and Matt just before Bloc Party's gig in Utrecht, Holland at the end of April. Click here to see them talk about the songwriting process, the natural tempo of Bloc Party, 'A Weekend in the City', Kele's vision and lyrics, success in the US and Holland, the Arctic Monkeys, their fans and, erm, 'Lick My Love Pump'!
You can also view Gordy's 2005 FaceCulture interview here.
The final episode in this series of six Bloc Party Vcasts, this time on the road in the UK and backstage in Exeter (edit: oops, it's probably not actually the final Vcast, so stay tuned for the next episode!)
Make your own video for 'I Still Remember' Calling every budding Michel Gondry...Bloc Party are inviting fans to make their own video for 'I Still Remember', the new single released on Monday 9th April.
Winners' clips will be edited together to create an exclusive new video and will also get a pair of tickets to the UK gig of their choice on the band's upcoming sold out tour.