Bloc Party

Equally inspired by Sonic Youth, Joy Division, Gang of Four, and the Cure, East London art-punkers Bloc Party mix angular sonics with pop structures. Consisting of singer/guitarist Kele Okereke, guitarist Russell Lissack, bassist/singer Gordon Moakes, and drummer Matt Tong, the band was formerly known as Angel Range and Union before settling on Bloc Party. Okereke and Lissack met each other through mutual friends at the Reading Festival, and discovered that they had musical tastes as well as friends in common. Tong and Moakes soon joined their collaboration, and under the name Union, the quartet issued a demo in early 2003; later that year, they switched their name to Bloc Party.

The group's demo and concerts began to attract attention from both the press and their peers; Okereke sent a copy of the demo to Franz Ferdinand, who invited them to play at the Domino tenth anniversary bash in fall 2003. Early the following year, the band released one of the demo's tracks, "She's Hearing Voices," as a single on Trash Aesthetics. A few months later, Banquet/Staying Fat arrived on Moshi Moshi. That spring, Bloc Party signed to Wichita to release their full-length album in the U.K., and to Dim Mak for U.S. distribution. The band spent summer 2004 recording and touring. Late that summer, Bloc Party, which collected the band's first two singles, arrived in the States. Their debut album, Silent Alarm, appeared early in 2005 and was released by Vice Records in the States to widespread acclaim. Later that year, Silent Alarm Remixed capitalized on the band's burgeoning popularity, as did the 2006 EP Helicopter. A Weekend in the City, Bloc Party's second proper album, followed in 2007.

A Weekend in the City debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard Top 200, with 48,000 copies sold in the first week.  Compare that with Bloc Party’s debut, Silent Alarm, which sold around 12,000 in its first week, and you can see the amazing response American music fans are having to the band’s new record!

Elsewhere around the globe, the charts are all screaming “We Love Bloc Party,” with a No. 2 position in the band’s native UK, as well as hitting No. 2 in Japan, Australia and Ireland.  The album charted top 5 in Germany and Belgium, top 10 in France, Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong, top 20 in Holland, Sweden, Norway and Austria.

Their last Montreal appearance was one of the spring’s hottest tickets (and sold out in a few short days to many fans’ chagrin).  Known for their intense, and not to mention incredibly danceable performances, Bloc Party come as one of our proudest additions to the 2007 lineup! They will be on the Osheaga stage Sunday September 9th.

www.blocparty.com