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"musically they are crap" - wow, how informative! If you're going to "review" a band, please make it known that perhaps, at one moment in your life you were semi-literate.
So, if you want it from the horse's mouth, here's an interview with a member of the band.
Bloc Party Interview
BLOC PARTY, SO HERE THEY ARE (an interview with Gordy)
Now, at the beginning of 2005, it’s hard to determine what the most exiting thing about Bloc Party. On one side, you have a band as fresh, sharp and raw as a smack across the face from a hefty salmon, who, despite the assertive lyrical statements of “I’m on Fire!” and “I can give you life/I can take it away” appear utterly vulnerable. The other side in this unequal equation is the cause of that vulnerability, an unprecedented amount of attention from press, TV, radio and the public. So here they are, and there’s nothing much they can to about it but hold it down. Grabbing a lamppost in the gale force shouting of a media determined to transplant boys with guitars out of the basement clubs and on to the pages of ‘Heat’.
This new age of celebrity perhaps comes from the evolution of the traditional celeb, whose every action is run through a succession of PR filters before it reaches the hungry press. Rock stars in their twenties are a whole different thing altogether. There have very few minders to stop them going out getting b****xed and throwing kebabs at photographers. Their drug use is displayed openly and almost with humour, not like the murky cover-ups of Hollywood starlets. The link between media-management-band is blurred. In fact, for this very article, I was tossed Gordy’s cell phone number to call whenever I liked on a given day. That doesn’t happen with even the most unheard of boy band.
The outcome of this may be a media losing interest with the antics of smack-taking, guitar-smashing, guerrilla-gigging and model-f**king twenty-two year olds. Or, it maybe the advent of a PR bastion usually reserved for pop artist and the rest of the celebrity ladder, A to D list.
It was The Libertines who slowly kick-started this public relations revolution, along with the phenomenon of guerrilla gigging. The attention given to this band and their affiliates has been so intense that some have begun to even question their very existence, relating their presence to a Baudrillard media simulation in the meta-narrative of rock and roll. They are, of course real in flesh and blood, but now, not in many other terms.
Fortunately for Bloc Party, they have one advantage for their survival in the near future. Their music screams louder and with more clarity than any battle cry of ‘THE NEXT FRANZ FERDINAND’. A beautifully curious collection of rhythms, riffs and yelps, Bloc Party, despite what you may read, are not particularly in tune with the Zeitgeist of The Killers and The Bravery (notice the very American obviousness of trend hijacking). Their noise is less populist than Kaiser Chiefs, far more constructed than The Libertines and with none of Franz Ferdinand’s irony. What emerges is a purity, perhaps not seen with such impact since Oasis. I for one certainly do not remember a band whose very existence (along, of course with their music) is having such an impact on the music media.
Most importantly, it remains still remains a joy and on some level, a relief to discover that behind all the s**t, Bloc Party make beautiful music.
It must be a busy day for you (today, the album, Silent Alarm is released)
Yeah. We’ve done a couple of radio things, and a TV piece, which goes out tonight. I think this will be the last thing we do today.
Are you worried about where the album will chart?
Not worried, I never was particularly worried. We’ve done what we hoped to do, but I heard that maybe it’s heading for top three, which is, well, y’know.
This last short while of your gigs, single releases, album recording, interviews and never-ending press. You’ve come under such scrutiny. Why do you think all of that happened?
I don’t know. It’s a bit scary when you put it like that. I could understand it if it happened before. I think the press kind of seize on things when there’s something in the air. I think the Franz Ferdinand thing has something to do with it. Like, I think Franz Ferdinand came as a surprise to people. Now people say it could happen again. I’m not the best person to speculate on the reasons. The more we’re asked to speculate, the less real it becomes, and the less control we will have over what happens.
People talk about the cycle of music, and how guitar music is in resurgence again. It’s difficult to say. Then, you begin to wonder, are we actually a product of a trend or not? My opinion is there’s probably been a gap for a band to really be taken to heart. That hasn’t happened of late, they’ve been more throwaway.
Are you frightened of a backlash?
It’s more a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’. The most important opinion of us is the people who listen to our music and buy our music. I suppose, it will be interesting to see what, creatively the outcome will be. None of us want to come under pressure and make an angry record. At the same time, we want to be kept on our toes.
Could you sum up your personal experience of being in your position at this moment?
What you’re really asking is what it’s like. What is it like? Em, it’s kind of a bit, well, for want of avoiding cliché, the rollercoaster. You find moments of complete rush. Like, last night, at the NME awards. The night was a bit of the scene congratulating itself but playing the song we did in front of such influential people, I came off stage and my heart was really pumping. Excitement like that is scary.
What is your best memory from the NME tour?
I think what I came out of that tour with was making a bunch of friends. My new best friend is Ricky from Kaiser Chiefs. We had to share a dressing room. We were the bottom two bands so, there wasn’t always a room for everyone. We found we got quite used to it. I think when you’re in a band, the more success you get, the more you’re handled with kid gloves, so it was nice to have those moments of camaraderie I suppose.
When everyone wants a piece of you, how do you make sure there is something left for yourself?
That’s a really good question. I think you purposely keep something back. We talk about what we’ve done, we don’t talk in great detail about stuff we do away from it. We are really busy with it, and you keep it in perspective. We aren’t the kind of band who will be falling out of trendy bars, because then, you’re life becomes public property. We see that it’s important to see that distinction.
We’re mostly concerned with getting on with what we’ve been doing and creating music free of distraction. You can do it, sustain a personal life and family. Any artist should be able to work and relax and carry on a normal existence. I think like, you know, if you take modern artists and painters, these aren’t people that are followed around. The ideal is to be judged on your work and nothing else, not on the parties you go to or the people you hang out with it.
I suppose Pete Doherty is a good example of how that can be screwed up…
It’s a real shame, depending on who much you think of The Libertines as a band. The sad thing is, he potentially was one of the more human faces of the rock scene. He was looking to make it more honest and raw. But, maybe he got to close to that, maybe that was his problem. I think he got to exposed to it. He has become a shadow of what a musician should be celebrated for. It’s a real shame. Somebody is to blame. I’m going to say any names, but someone is, including himself. It’s quite sad really.
What’s your favourite song on the album?
It tends to change, which I suppose is a good thing. It used to be ‘Positive Tension’, but I always come back to ‘This Modern Love’. It seems to be one of the purest. We all love playing that song.
If it all ended tomorrow, what memory from this experience would you take with you?
I think there’s a lot. I remember how it feels to get played on radio, the real schoolboy excitement. I think going on stage at the Reading festival in front of 5,000 people…I suppose you’ll have to wait for the autobiography.
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