Three Imaginary Girls - Bloc Party

Monday morning check-in

imaginary liz — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:04:36 +0000

Wow there was a lot to choose from this weekend, including just hanging out in your friend's back yard pondering how to make it to all the shows happening this summer (yay warm weather tour season!).

By the looks of Amelia Gyde's photos from Friday's Lonely Forest / New Faces show at Vera... that *might* have been the place to be Friday night. It also sounds like Bloc Party was stellar on Saturday night and last night, Redwood Plan tore it up at the Crocodile with Ida Maria.

What did you see / do this weekend?

Photo of the day: Bloc Party at the Showbox

imaginary liz — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:55:13 +0000

Thanks to torbes163 who added a slew of great photos from the Bloc Party show Saturday night to the Three Imaginary Girls Sparkly Indie Pop Flickr Pool.

Did you go to this show? Was it packed and glorious?

Erik Gonzalez's best o' 2008

Erik Gonzalez — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:57:04 +0000

It has now been 2.5 years since I moved out of Seattle for the Golden State. I've slowly drifted out of the NW music culture, so sometimes I wonder if I know what to say on TIG these days.

Combine that with the fact that I was so distracted from music for a lot of 2008, this year's "best of" lists were especially difficult. Heck, I don't even think I can make a Best of NW music list this year, not because there was insufficient music, but because I just missed so many of those important-but-not-well-known releases that make these lists. I did enjoy Fleet Foxes, Common Market, Colin Meloy live, Malkmus and the like, but really, that isn't a "Best of the NW" list but rather a list of albums I liked that happened to be from the NW.

That being said, I did get a last minute music revival for the year. Maybe it was the election being over (and the good guys winning), maybe it was finally getting a faculty position after many years of trying (lets just say Erik will be moving east in 2009), maybe 2008 just didn't mesh with me musically. Who knows? However, there was a lot of great music anyway, and here are my top 20 (for your praise or fist shaking). Feel free to read the full commentary.

NME Top 10, found yet again, this time subsumed by the evils of MTV2

Erik Gonzalez — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:25:18 +0000

After months of searching for the NME top 10, I did finally find it on the MTV2 website, or at least what it claims is the NME/MTV2 Top 10.

Best of 2007: Erik G's favorite albums

Erik Gonzalez — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:12:43 +0000

Sometimes I think it takes me waaay too long to come up with my Top 20 albums of a given year. There are a lot of internal debates and arguments that really have no right answer. Really, you reach a point where all the albums are good but how to rank them gets to be quite the challenge. This year was chock full of good music (not matter what the naysayers might groan). I counted something like 175+ albums worth mentioning in 2007, and that is only a tip of the iceberg when it comes to everything that was released in the year. However, I did whittle it down to 20... well, 22 if you count my 2 EP exception (EP's don't count as real albums).

If you're interested in some sub-lists, like my albums "with apologizes" (albums I didn't hear but should have) or "best imports" or "most disappointing" (hint, the band who made it rhymes with Milo Biley), check it out here.

So, here we go:

#21 The EP's - Two EP's made me happy this year, and really, they would be in the top 20, but it seems unfair to me to include EP's versus albums. They're both UK pop, and they're both brilliant in their own cute way.

Los Campesinos! Sticking Fingers Into Sockets (Thanks to igLiz for this band!)

Best of 2007: Erik G's favorite songs

Erik Gonzalez — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:28:01 +0000

OK, well, nobody likes to reflect and rank more than I do (I'm a scientist, I love to quantify), so here goes. I've got my favorite songs of 2007 - no, not best or most innovative, but rather the songs I liked ... lots and lots and lots. There is a little overlap from my forthcoming Best Albums, but also some curveballs. Enjoy!

Honorable Mention:

"Girls and Boys in Love" by the Rumble Strips
"Sons of Cain" by Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
"Jack the Ripper" by the Horrors (special note: If the Horrors had a brain and released the original fast demo version of this song on their debut Strange House, it would have been an easy top 10.)
"Ragoo" by Kings of Leon
"Heart It Races" by Architecture in Helsinki
"Geld Essen" by K.I.Z.

#10. "The Prayer" by Bloc Party from Weekend in the City - This song is one of the most interesting songs Bloc Party has recorded. Too bad the rest of the album (short of "Hunting for Witches") just wasn't as cool.

Exclusive songs benefiting Darfur relief projects

Mary for Certain — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:36:33 +0000

Here's a chance to get some exclusive songs from some of your favorite bands and help a great cause, the crisis in Darfur. The proceeds of the album are going to support various organizations trying to aid the people of Darfur

NME Hits for 10/29/07

Erik Gonzalez — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 01:37:08 +0000

I have to admit, it is a catchy song and look out for the hype machine for the Wombats to head west any time now.

"Pioneers" (M83 Remix) by Bloc Party

Erik Gonzalez — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:33:45 +0000

Remix albums are an odd entity. Most of the time they are, how do you say, completely, utterly, remarkably and fabulously unnecessary. How many "good" remix album can you think of off the top of your head? Not many. I remember enjoying things like Moby's Everything is Wrong: Remixed and Mixed double disc, but that was when I was just getting interested in electronic and everything sounded new. Aphex Twin has his infamous 26 Remixes for Cash, which pretty much sums up why anybody does a remix in the first place (if you are a remixer). On the flip side, bands with remix albums? Um ... er ... for some reason this morning all I think of as an example is Milli Vanilli. Now, that, in itself, is a perfect example of why remix albums are unnecessary and forgettable.

Oddly enough, Bloc Party released a fully remixed version of their great debut album Silent Alarm, and while no means a classic, it could be at least considered on the upper echelons of the remix ladder. "Pioneers" is adeptly remixed by M83 into an postmodern collage of sound, pretty much stripping away all of the melody and leaving basic sounds and chord changes, turning it into, well, an M83 song (or something like "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters"). I'm not sure if it really adds much to our understanding of Bloc Party, Silent Alarm or M83 but it isn't too insulting to the loyal fans who picked up the remix disc.

41M33ZHNA9L._SS500_.jpg

All we need is a remix!

Song of the UK, NME style

Erik Gonzalez — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:09:50 +0000

I've decided to undertake a project each week to run down the Top 10 songs on NME and try to listen to every song (and trust me, I've acquried all the songs legally, let me tell you) and try to post a link it on the web too!.

Quite possibly one of the worst ideas ever

Erik Gonzalez — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:21:17 +0000

Now I'm all for free music, but the latest idea in free MP3 distribution sounds horrifying. We7.com and V2 records (UK) is partnering to release free mp3s by Bloc Party, the Rakes and Cold War Kids, amongst others. Free you say? Yes, free, if by "free" you mean they will have a "micro-ad" grafted to the start of each track! There is a reference to being able to remove the ad "after a period of time". Sounds like a winner to me! (Ugh).

(Hat tip to NME for this one).

Bloc Party Bootlegs

imaginary liz — Thu, 31 May 2007 17:39:11 +0000

Seems that Vice Records has a slew of Bloc Party live sessions, covers, mash ups and the like sitting around, so they've made them available on their Vice MP3 blog to all of us sitting around waiting for 'official' MP3s to be leaked to the public.

Straight from the horse's mouth, Silversun Pickups to play FNX Best Music Poll in Boston

imaginary ash — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:04:08 +0000

Just got this on MySpace. SSPU = WOO! Some of the other bands (esp. Cinematics) = MOO.

Oasis "Most Stupidly Hip Band Ever"?

imaginary dana — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:29:47 +0000

Bloc Party to Oasis: you're the most over-rated and pernicious band of all time. Oh snap!

A Weekend in the City

Erik Gonzalez — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:19:15 +0000

7.6

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000M06K5C/wwwthreeimagi-20

blocparty07feb.jpg

It may be a life pressure we as normal people will never understand, but I wonder what it's like being a pop (in the good sense) band in the U.K.? I would imagine you would live in a world where you measure yourself against Coldplay, the seemingly bottomless hit machine that churns out anthem after anthem like U2 during its prime. What's a band that might not be as anthemic as Chris Martin and the boys to do?

Now imagine if said band were undeniably hook-prone — but not in the same lighter-waving majesty of "Clocks" or "The Scientist" — but more as a post-punk flag-bearer. The attrition rate for such bands is high, no matter how well-loved the debut might be (just ask Franz Ferdinand), and trying to grasp that brass ring just might lead you even further astray. This is where we run into Bloc Party. Their debut, Silent Alarm pretty much played like a disc full of singles, which may have been a curse as well as a blessing. On A Weekend in the City, Kele and the boys sound like they're trying to recreate the un-recreatable, and it works to much more variable results this time around.

The record starts off on a high note when Kele warbles like he has never before in the slow and sensual opening "Song for Clay (Disappear Here)," before it dives straight into a bombastic guitar and drum attack that is classic Bloc Party. Hearing Kele practically sneer out the lyrics, "East London is vampire/it sucks the joy right out of me" when juxtaposed by his intro to the song, show off the dynamism of the band. They keep it going into "Hunting for Witches," something like a more electrified brother of "Price of Gas," but still as captivating in its post-punk Duran Duran vibe.

If you want to hear the absolute apex of the album, and possibly of anything Bloc Party has ever recorded, look no further than "The Prayer." What can be written to capture a song like this that gets stuck in your head after hearing merely a 30 second garbled snippet on a BBC video feed? It not only captures the gritty Gang of Four feel of "Helicopter" or "Banquet" right from its thunderous opening drums and deep-seated humming, but it also adds an element of post-rave nihilism with Kele asking, "Is it so wrong to crave recognition?" Bloc Party has created a song that builds and relieves tensions like a novel, captivating the listener no matter how many times you've heard the song.

Bloc Party does have a gift crafting songs that can feel both sensitive and thundering. "Waiting for the 7.18" is a straight-up rock song with rushing guitars that mix perfectly with the delicate chimes and Kele's surprisingly tender lyrics like, "If I could do it again, I'd climb more trees/I'd pick and I'd eat more wild blackberries" — maybe not what you would expect from such a band. However, they can take it a little too far into Coldplay territory, with power ballad tracks such as "I Still Remember". It never sounds like a Bloc party song. Sure, it's sweet and romantic and the radio listeners will eat it up, but it just feels like a blatant attempt to write a pop hit (and comes out soulless). The same might be said for "Kreuzburg" and "SXRT," both nice enough songs, but a little too U2 for their own good. They should be playing songs like "On" and "Where is Home?" which can exist both as emotional journeys and have identities of their own (but what's with Kele's obsession with vampires these days?)

A Weekend in the City doesn't fully capture the same energy of Bloc Party's debut — it's more subdued and nuanced. They might not be able to make every song as infectious as they pulled off on Silent Alarm, but the release shows a maturity for the band that came with all the growing pains you might expect. That being said, when A Weekend in the City hits its stride, you realize that Bloc Party might be writing some of the most memorable pop songs out there today.

They might not be able to make every song as infectious as they pulled off on Silent Alarm, but the release shows a maturity for the band that came with all the growing pains you might expect.