Oh, Bloc Party. It’s been only five years since the entirety of pop culture media were praising the boys from London as the next great saviors of rock and roll. Debut LP Silent Alarm and the singles that surrounded it were entirely deserving of every blog post, magazine interview and New York Times spotlight they received as it remains one of the very best rock albums of the past decade, immediately drawing comparisons to Gang of Four, Joy Division, Blur, The Cure and Franz Ferdinand.
It’s no secret, of course, that Bloc Party’s next two albums, while commercially successful, were largely disappointing. Outside of a few catchy singles, both A Weekend In The City and Intimacy were largely, well, not very good. It wasn’t all that shocking that the band went on hiatus after a month of touring the UK this past October. So what are a bunch of popular young musicians supposed to do when they take a break from working together? Side projects, of course!
Bloc Party founders Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack already have their projects set for release in the near future. Kele (who as a solo artist goes by his first name only) has teamed up with electronic producer Hudson Mohawke and Alex XXXChange (better known as the DJ to MC Spank Rock) for his solo debut The Boxer set to release at the summer solstice of this year. Lead single “Tenderoni” will be released in June and no music has been heard from the project yet, but considering who is involved (and that the one promo photo features Kele cradling an Akai drum machine), it’s a fair assumption that the production will be a largely electronic affair with an emphasis on rhythmic vocals.
Far more interesting, in my opinion, is Lissack’s long-running Pin Me Down, a power-pop two-piece that originated at Bloc Party’s very first show in New York City. Russell bonded with Milena Mepris from opening band Black Moustache and the two have been swapping tracks over the internet ever since. Their debut single “Cryptic” was released by Kitsuné in 2008 and their full-length self-titled LP is due later this month. Through songs released on their MySpace page over the past three years, Pin Me Down have proven to be utterly danceable and thoroughly rocking, combining Russell’s trademark new-grunge guitar melodies with Milena’s pop siren leads (she’s also written songs for Shakira and Alice Smith).
Bloc Party bassist Gordon Moakes has also formed a new band, Young Legionnaire, with members of The Automatic and La Roux, but not much has been heard from them yet.
Still we are all ever so enamored because of Bloc Party’s debut that we continue to anticipate what will come next. Lissack was quoted in an interview with NME about Pin Me Down that “we’re probably going to pick up again with Bloc Party later this year. I mean, we wrote a lot of new material on the last tour.” I wouldn’t be surprised to hear a couple of new Bloc Party tracks early next year. Whether they’ll be worth the wait is anybody’s guess. Personally, I’ll be happy with more Pin Me Down.
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