Video: Bloc Party, “One More Chance”
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
One of the main reasons Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm worked as well as it did was its unabashed earnestness. It felt like they put every single thing they had into that record. Which may have been true since subsequent albums were crushed by their own absurd emotional weight, constant reminders of how restrained and refined Silent Alarm was in retrospect. “One More Chance,” their newest single, moves further away from Silent Alarm (bad choice), but still keeps those anthemic adolescent choruses (good choice). It could be that they’re now angling for the high school crowd, or that may have been the idea all along. Either way, my 16-year-old self is jamming the shit out of this and not feeling at all weird about the lyrics “give me one more chance to love you.”
Audio: Bloc Party, “Mercury”
- story THE FADER
Sometimes we give an artist his/her/their first cover thinking he/she/them will be the biggest artists in the world someday, sometimes we just think they are great right at that particular moment. To wit, the above split of Kano and Bloc Party from F29. Now we’re not saying they both couldn’t make spectacular comebacks and recapture what made us put them on in the first place, but Kano has a lot of ground to recover and this new Bloc Party single, “Mercury”, debuted on Zane Lowe’s BBC1 show today, isn’t exactly vintage BP. Still, at least they aren’t resting on their post-punk/nu wave/disco-punk (or whatever people were calling it in 2006) laurels, and hey, who doesn’t love them some astrology?
Stream: Bloc Party, “Mercury”
Eastern Bloc
- story THE FADER
Our cover boys have made it through to the Beast Coast leg of their tour, bringing the rock AND the controversy. After last night’s gig in Boston (described by our various sources as “drunken”, “fun” and “drunkenly fun” – here’s some pics), they had to cancel tonight’s gig in Philly because Kele’s voice was strained.
Various Philadelphian youngsters tried to call bullshit on said postponment – “THEY DISSED US TO GO ON LETTERMAN, YO!” – but that emminently TiVo-able late night performance was actually filmed this past Monday, sleuthers.
As far as we know, the dudes are genuinely taking a day to stave off complete and utter exhaustion. Which is fine by us, seeing how two sure-to-be-epic, BEEN-sold-the-fuck-out NYC dates are on deck for Thursday the 7th and Friday the 8th. Rest up, partiers.
Party All The Time
- story THE FADER
As Bloc Party preps for a big next week with the release of their debut Silent Alarm, four shows at SXSW and, um, being on the next cover of our magazine, we are treated to…another video for “Banquet”?
We thought the first one was fine, even if it being shot on digital didn’t quite give it the Corbijn-esque aesthetic it was going for. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not complaining, it just seems like kind of a weird move and a weird second single for the album, seeing that it was their second single…back in 2004.
Ain’t No Party Like A Bloc Party…
- story THE FADER
It wasn’t enough to just come to town and burn it down – Bloc Party decided to stick around and DJ throughout the week. Following a gig by their pals the Futureheads last night, BP (and producer Paul Epworth) decamped to a subterranean Broome St location and hit the CD decks, spinning Sonic Youth’s “Dirty Boots” and McLusky’s “Lightsaber Cocksucking Blues” after starting the set off with some good ol’ fashioned Swedish psychedelia (glad you were feeling that Ta Det Lungt CD-R, fellas). Then Arthur Baker came in…
Weekenders
- story THE FADER
Besides giving you another reason to buy that new car you wanted, Presidents’ Day weekend also means you party hard Sunday night and not have to crawl into work all twisted on Monday. That, as they say, is what’s up.
NYC folks can see Bloc Party’s only US performance before their April tour at the ever-raucous Motherfucker party on Sunday night. Fire for shiz.
