British Rock? Bloc Party!
Author: Bret Robson

Since their latest album, A Weekend In The City, was released
in February, Essex indie-rock superstars, Bloc Party, have
enjoyed a year of major highs. They have followed up their
success with a wide-ranging tour, performing at high-profile
gigs such as Live Aid, Glastonbury, Reading/Leeds, SXSW, and the
Austin City Limits music festival.

For a band that's only been together for five years and
released just two full-length albums, Bloc Party have managed to
create a significant amount of fuss in the music press.
Leveraging all the distribution and marketing tools available,
the band made up of Kele Okereke (vocals/guitar), Russell
Lissack (guitar), Gordon Moakes (bass), and Matt Tong (drums),
have managed to place their songs in prominent video games,
commercials, re-mix discs, movie, and television soundtracks.
This exposure and viral marketing tactics appears to have paid
off.

Silent Alarm, their 2005 debut CD, was met with considerable
critical acclaim and was voted by NME as 2005's Album Of The
Year. It went platinum in the UK, peaking at number 3 in the
album charts. Bloc Party made inroads in the American market as
well, with a 4-5 star rating in Rolling Stone Magazine and
hitting a respectable (for a previously unknown indie rock
outfit) number 114 on the Billboard album charts, ultimately
pushing worldwide sales for Silent Alarm past the one million
mark.

Music journalists initially tended to lump Bloc Party in with
other British new-wave inspired dance rock outfits like Franz
Ferdinand, but soon agrees there was something more to them.
Spin magazine had this to say about front man Okereke: "there's
something so engaging about the urgent songwriting of Kele
Okereke, the band's irrepressible front man that hints at
longevity beyond this particular British invasion. With his
piercing emotional explorations and edgy political banter,
Okereke possesses more charisma in one of his floppy dreadlocks
than any number of feuding indie-rock singers put together."

There was a remix of Silent Alarm in 2005, as well as several
EPs exclusive to Japan, but in February 2007 Bloc Party was back
with a sophomore release that proved they weren't going to go
down as one-hit wonders.

A Weekend In The City made it to number 2 in the UK album
charts and in the first week of sales, 48,000 disc sales notched
them the number 12 spot on the American Billboard album charts –
a significant improvement from the peak of 114 on their first
outing!

Taking the band in a new direction, the new CD makes it more
difficult to draw direct comparisons to previous bands (Gang of
Four, The Cure and Blur were frequently brought up after the
release of their first album), and shows a band more comfortable
with itself, growing into its potential.

There were concerns that early leaks of the new album might
impact sales - a copy made its way onto file-sharing networks
three months before its official release - and the band took the
unusual step of posting samples of the entire album on their
MySpace site.

Expect to hear more from Bloc Party, and if you get the
opportunity to catch them in concert during this tour, don't
miss it.

Discography (Original Releases Only)
2004: Bloc Party (EP)
2005: Silent Alarm (#3 UK)
2007: A Weekend In The City (#2 UK)

Forthcoming UK Dates
27/10 London Roundhouse
03/11 Dublin Big Top @ Phoenix Park
12/12 Glasgow SECC
13/12 Manchester G-MEX
14/12 London Alexandra Palace
15/12 London Alexandra Palace


About The Author: This article was written by Bret Robson for
http://www.Viagogo.co.uk, a leading European ticket hub. Viagogo
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