March 4, 2005

Bloc Party = Gang Of Four + Noam Chomsky + Benetton

Remember last spring when Bloc Party was the hippest thing on your iPod? Before NME crowned them "the band of 2005, no contest ... as vital as The Clash in '77"? Before Entertainment Weekly said essentially the same thing? And P-Fork gave their debut an 8.9?

Well now Newsweek's mathematicians have blown the band's cover once and for all:

Will the backlash start before the album's even out (3/22)? Or has it started already?

Posted at 12:59 PM
Tags: Bloc Party | Gang Of Four

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32 Comments

Stereogum, it's a terrible shame you had to drink the Bloc Party kool aid too. 'Banquet's interesting but, for the most part, listening to 'Silent Alarm' is like eating glass...

And "Bush-bashing lyrics" = Chomsky. Huh? That's a joke, right? If not, then it's certainly ironic. Just take a look at all these people yakking about Bloc Party. Maybe 'Manufacturing Consent' had a point, after all...

Posted by: James at 03/04/05 3:22 PM | Reply
Score = -1

you're busy posting about the possible bloc party backlash when there's another britney spears letter out there? AND IN IT SHE TALKS ABOUT KABBALAH! why are you not covering this? i'm disappointed in you.

http://www.britneyspears.com/letters.php

Posted by: eatsdirt at 03/04/05 3:26 PM | Reply
Score = -1

I guess Newsweek finally managed to get some Spy magazines from eBay.

But I'm confused. Shouldn't there be some operational sign before gang of four? Are we supposed to multiply what's in brackets by Go4?

Posted by: Wisco at 03/04/05 4:00 PM | Reply
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since when was newsweek hip? way to make bloc party accesible to old people. Now students everywhere will have to endure their parents speeches... "oh yeah, I've heard of bloc party! they're like the clash, right?! oh yeah! and racially diverse!"
I shudder to think what the other reprecussions will be.

ugh. stick to what you know newsweek. don't ruin it for the rest of us.

Posted by: Walter at 03/04/05 4:26 PM | Reply
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Isn't this happening all the time now? I've been reading on discussion boards about how overplayed and overappreciated M.I.A. is and her (unremixed) album hasn't even been released yet. Why do people get so upset about music becoming popular? And can't you save it until after their first album has been officially released? Personally, I'm looking forward to the Bloc Party returning to Toronto.

Posted by: pageblank at 03/04/05 4:29 PM | Reply
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worst.band.ever.

Posted by: kelly at 03/04/05 4:34 PM | Reply
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why backlash? because other people like them? if you only liked them in the first place because (you thought that) other people didn't, then backlash away, because you're an idiot.

Posted by: handsome_b at 03/04/05 4:40 PM | Reply
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i don't think the real issue is whether or not other a lot of people know about a band or not. . . it's more the issue that generally when a band "blows up" they eventually start to suck, being driven by PR (idiots) and record sales rather than great jams for the sake of it. i think that's the real reason for the groans, moans, feelings of dread, and of course. . . the backlash.

Posted by: sucka pants at 03/04/05 4:53 PM | Reply
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Best. Band. Ever.

Just to balance out Kelly's earlier comment.

I'm just waiting for the "Gimme Fiction" backlash, 'cos, you know, God forbid people actually wait for albums to get released anymore before being "over it". It's a sad commentary on the state of things when record's are already obsolete by the time they hit store shelves.

Posted by: michael at 03/04/05 5:17 PM | Reply
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"Wanna impress your hipster friends? Invite them to the Party."

Geez. So bad. Why not any Bloc puns? Like, "Wanna impress your hipster friends? See if they Stack up?" Okay, bad, but just as good.

Posted by: Coren at 03/04/05 5:29 PM | Reply
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Its just annoying because if you download these albums you have them WAAAAY in advance (Bloc Party leaked in like November if I remember?) and by the time the release dates comes, you've overplayed them, there is media saturation, and people you think are losers tell you to listen to the album -- this unforunately leads to backlash.

For the record though, no matter what, M.I.A. will always be my sweetheart.

Posted by: Aziz at 03/04/05 6:09 PM | Reply
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am i wrong, or was the thing that was so great about popular music pre-clear channel, etc. -- i'm talking during those heady, unmass-media days of the '60s -- was that there was a sort of collective excitement about a given band (beatles, dylan) and an agreement, of sorts, that this music mattered? sure, just like anyone else who's already downloaded, say, gimme fiction, i get off on the feeling of hearing stuff before everyone else. but i also recognize that the most thrilling thing -- the way a song can really matter -- is if it the tune is popular, if affects a lot of people, if it becomes a shared experience. unfortunately, nowadays that often means low quality hackery (with notable expections, mostly in the realm of hip-hop) -- and much of the best stuff is still pretty obscure. we can bemoan the shittiness of knickelback, for example, but there's no reason to knock a dorky news mag for helping to open its readers' ears to something a little more worthwhile.

Posted by: michael at 03/04/05 6:11 PM | Reply
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well said, michael.

i think many of us can remember back to the overly hyped strokes media blitz in 2001-2002 and definitely don't want another band shoved down our throats while chucking merits aside. however i think BP is decent and why not steal some of the press from the arcade fire. fuck it. another band is going to grab our fancy in three months anyway.

Posted by: sergeant fun at 03/04/05 9:56 PM | Reply
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Ted Nugent is already working on a mash-up remix of track 11 luna and snakeskin cowboys, I'll keep you posted

Posted by: Yale Bloor at 03/04/05 10:50 PM | Reply
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I'm of the same opinion. If Bloc Party somehow amanges to get played ad nauseum on mainstream radio or score a TRL appearance...well, I'd rather America be all into Bloc Party than Sum 41 or Good Charlotte or Black Eyed Peas. Honestly, wouldn't we all consider that a big step up?

To pull a quote from Nick Hornby's "Songbook":

"Sometimes it's hard to remember that a lot of people liking what you do doesn't necessarily mean that what you do is of no value whatsoever. Indeed, sometimes it might even suggest the opposite."

There will always be backlash. It's way of protecting our sense of individuality. We're comfortable, up to a certain point, with going along and agreeing with other people about ceratin ideas and opinions, and then every once in a while, we need to sort of re-establish our own opinions, our own sense of self. So we reject the common viewpoint. But rememebr, backlashers of the world, just how gratifying it feels when you connect with others who share your contrarian view. Ultimately, being part of a group, any group, feels pretty darn satisfying.

Posted by: telemachus at 03/05/05 12:34 AM | Reply
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This is one band I don't mind sharing with everyone else. If they're going to turn red states blue, then that's just fine with me. It's amazing how many of their songs are in my iPod right now apart from Silent Alarm.

Posted by: volume-addict at 03/05/05 3:25 AM | Reply
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could the be recieveing all of this hype because they actually are, hmmmm.... good?

Posted by: joeymarchy at 03/05/05 11:27 AM | Reply
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To Wisco, who was confused about the missing operational sign in front of Go4 -- I think it's a really lame attempt to have that little tape image appear as a superscript "to the power of" numeric ("the power of 4"). So you are supposed to take the sum in the brackets and then take it to the 4th power (multiplied by itself 4 times).

Yet more evidence that Newsweek is gearing this to the oldsters who remember before you could just, um, use a calculator.

P.S. I still like Bloc Party, so there.

Posted by: The15MinuteHipster at 03/05/05 12:05 PM | Reply
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i've hardly heard them and they're already fucking pissing me off. i also hate that bright eyes guy for being on the cover of every newspaper's arts and entertainment section.

Posted by: jakob at 03/05/05 1:41 PM | Reply
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don't hate connor for getting lots of press, hate him for that utterly retarded vignette that opens his new album.

Posted by: josh at 03/05/05 3:04 PM | Reply
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the album really worth buying that day is the louis xiv album.. oh man!

Posted by: andy at 03/09/05 12:06 AM | Reply
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I don't understand why something has to be unknown to be cool. I mean if you really want to go the unknown route, then make your own fucking music, and play it for no one but yourself. That being said. There is something about hype that does take away from the mystery of a new band. It spoils it in a way. Makes it average. But if you are mature enough to seperate yourself from what the rest of the crowd is doing, then you can access the true artistic meaning of the piece, at which point you are paying attention to the music, not the hype.

Posted by: Mitch McAlister at 03/15/05 1:37 PM | Reply
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you're all pretentious fucks.

Posted by: coner at 04/08/05 12:35 AM | Reply
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bloc party is brilliant. well, if you discount the ucb tag.

Posted by: brendan at 05/22/05 5:03 AM | Reply
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