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Indie rock band Bloc Party will play for...water? The vivacious London-based rockers have teamed up with a new charity project called Twestival (the cleverly-worded combination to signify a Twitter festival) through the micro-blogging website Twitter in order to aid the Charity: Water organization, which works to bring clean and safe water to communities in developing countries without it.
Bloc Party is lending songs for free download to Twestival as part of a free online streaming at Twestival.fm between Feb. 5 and Feb. 19, joining other big-name bands like Mystery Jets, the Rakes, Imogen Heap, Erol Alkan, the Young Punx and David Usher, all of whom will offer some of their songs for the public to download for free. The goal of Twestival is to raise $20,000 for Charity: Water from the website when people log on to download music, taking the Radiohead-style of a ‘pay what you want' method to raise money for the charity.
Bloc Party may be giving away their music for free right now, but that doesn't mean this indie rock band's music isn't worth anything. The London-based quartet consisting of singer/guitarist Kele Okereke, guitarist Russel Lissack, bassist/singer Gordon Moakes and drummer Matt Tong has been a sheer delight from inception, first getting started making music under the name Angel Range and Union in the early 2000s after Okereke and Lissack met at the Reading Festival and soon thereafter teamed up with Tong and Moakes. After releasing a demo and changing their moniker to Bloc Party, the freewheeling artists began attracting attention both in England and across the pond. Bloc Party's demo was picked up by fellow rockers Franz Ferdinand and led to the fledgling band playing an opening gig for Ferdinand in 2003, and Bloc Party's momentum skyrocketed from there.
In 2003 Bloc Party released the single “She's Hearing Voices” and the band quickly made the jump to the U.S. after that, playing a number of live shows for fans with Bloc Party tickets while making their name known across the globe. In 2004 the talented music-makers released their debut album Silent Alarm and started heating up the indie realm, their smoldering music paving the way for international success. Silent Alarm claimed a number three spot on the Heatseekers chart and even made it to the Billboard 200 and independent charts in the same run, also sparking hit singles like “Banquet” that started climbing the charts, as well. The band's sophomore release A Weekend in the City was released in 2007 and scored even bigger on the worldwide indie scene, following a post-punk pattern with smash singles “Hunting for Witches” and “I Still Remember” that propelled the album to the number one slot on the independent charts.
Since 2007, Bloc Party has been banging beats around the U.S. and the U.K. in a wild string of live performances, taking to the road for several concerts while continuing to draw in fans from successive albums like 2008's Intimacy, another worldwide hit. It's never too late to catch these jet-setting rockers in concert, so look for tickets to a live show from http://www.stubhub.com/bloc-party-tickets to see the Bloc Party fire for yourself.
By the late ‘90s, the influence of grunge had worn its welcome. Rap-rock, hard rock and pop were the top sellers on the charts. But that period didn't stay long, either—by the early ‘00s, indie-rock was reaching the mainstream through catchy hooks and a more scratchy, dancey sound. While The Strokes, The Killers and Franz Ferdinand opened the door to this trend, eventually bands more influenced by the post-punk period of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s (Gang of Four in particular, but also Joy Division, Wire, and Sonic Youth). Maximo Park, Interpol, and The Futureheads were counted among the many devotees that would develop a skronky brand of dance-rock, but of the entire revival, few had the substance and chops of Bloc Party.
The band formed in London with Kele Okereke on vocals and guitar, Russell Lissack on guitar, Gordon Moakes on bass, and Matt Tong on drums. It was their single “Banquet” that launched their star, drawing in raving music journalists were desperate to hear more, especially after a dance-club ready remix was offered on an EP. They were not disappointed. In 2005, the band released their first full-length album, Silent Alarm, receiving critical acclaim in both the United States and their native United Kingdom.
Many of their songs took an explicit political stance, in particular the abrasive “Helicopter,” which took aim at the Bush administration and the War on Terror: “Stop being so American/There's a time and there's a place/So James Dean/So blue jeans/He's gonna save the world/He's gonna.../Are you hoping for a miracle?” Other songs served as beautiful, heart-aching ballads, such as “This Modern Love,” with its sad lyrics about being afraid to fall headlong into love (“What are you holding out for?/What's always in the way?/Why so damn absent-minded?/Why so scared of romance?/This modern love breaks me/This modern love wastes me”).
Their follow-up, A Weekend in the City, offered up more focus, more depth, and more sadness with songs like “Waiting for the 7:18.” It was clear the band was evolving, adding more electronic fiddling on songs like “Hunting for Witches,” marrying the scratchy guitar-work the band had become known for with samples. Their lyrics were still powerful, commenting on the paranoia after the London tubeway bombings (“1990s, optimistic as a teen/But now its terror, airplanes crash into towers/The Daily Mail says "the enemy is among us!/"Taking our women and taking our jobs"/All reasonable thought is being drowned out/By the non-stop baying, baying for blood”).
With their third record, the band has transitioned from the guitar and drums-based post-punk that opened the new decade to the electronic/rock fusion that it seems to be closing out with. With deep bursts of horns and synthesizers playing through their new single, “Mercury,” it's clear the band is sliding farther from conventional rock and toward electronica, though their feet are still firmly ensconced in the rock camp.
If you haven't heard their new music, get a hold of their new record, Intimacy. Better yet, hear it live by getting Bloc Party tickets.