Bloc Party, A Wake up Call

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7月30日

Bloc Party, A Wake up Call

I remember when I first heard them. Banquet had just been released and I was forever hanging around New Cross. It was such an exciting time. The Libertines were breaking through. Arcadia seemed real. Intelligence and counterculture were in. Posing and the belief that if a song was " guitar based " it was "alternative " were out.

Suddenly instead of Oasis and Fred Durst, bands were referencing Morrissey, Robert Smith, New order... Gang of Four. The likes of Starsailer and Travis seemed forever consigned to some distant unrecognisable past. British rock wasn’t plagued by dozens of bands trying to write the next " wonderwall. " Nu metal (unforgivable for its excess) and Emo (think: banality, introversion, an inability to move beyond writing about getting dumped) were in decline. And even those bands that insisted on referencing Oasis and Britpop (The Ordinary Boys, Kasabian) they still did, but they were subversive with it....

In short: Things just seemed so much better, and alright, it took a while for Radio One and everyone else to catch on, but that’s not the point, and not the reason why I am writing either..

Skip to the present and fast-forward to page 31 of this week’s Nme, and Keele Okereke of Bloc Party had this to say:

NME: You seem to be reluctant to talk about your opinions full stop...

Keele: Ive never been that sort of person. i recently went to see Greenday and was really disappointed. They seem to be riding this public sentiment of anti-Americanism. It’s just the emptiest of soundbites - its something we've always been conscious of trying to avoid.

NME: When were you last angry?

Keele: When you are confronted by how blinkered and stupid Western Teenagers are. That makes me angry. Ive always got time for people when they stop and ask me questions. It’s when people don't say anything that I get thrown. How are you supposed to act when someone comes up to you and cant stop saying 'oh my God' over and over? I can’t imagine anything worse then being Coldplay size.

There’s just so much to be disappointed with there. For to long punk and by extension " indie " have been plagued by the belief that as soon as you hit the top 10 you have 'sold out,' that playing Wembley is a crime, and that if you ever make it to Top of the Pops, well heck - you cant have been '4 Real' and Keele (someone who really should know better) seems unable to escape from this.

David Bowie, The Manics, The Cure - all of these are example of artists who never stepped back from their artistic vision but became huge. For them, selling records was just an extension of being good, and that’s something that today’s bands should take note of.

To me Bloc party represent everything that I love about music: Art school, Sensitive, Radical - but most of all their ability to reinvent, to not just regurgitate, but to take what’s come before them and to assimilate it into something 'new' without giving into pretentiousness. And if lots of people " get it " then that’s got to be a good thing...

Keele however seems unable to get to grips with that.

The "stupid blinkered teens" that he refers to are just like he was at 14, young and looking for inspiration... surely he must realise that by having a go at people who these kids look up to, he is in effect alienating new (and present) fans, and just creating another pointless feud.

But more then that. Greenday simply don’t deserve to be put down.

Looking at things from a uk-centric perspective it’s easy to loose sight of just how much of a risk Greenday took with their last album. At a time when America was divided and at a time when all people expected of Greenday were songs about masturbation and television they decided to make their " London Calling " - It was a move that many mocked them for, but its' also one for which they should be applauded.

It simply wasn’t the case that by 'riding a wave of anti Americanism' Green day were set to hit the big time again. It just wasn’t as straight forward at that. Look at Sum 41. They tried to be political but failed to take their audience with them.

Greenday however HAVE.

And ok, their lyrics may not be " deep " but that’s not the point, they steer people in the right direction and helped make politics " cool " - and NO that isn’t a bad thing. They reached people who wouldnt normaly care, and if that means that even a few people get turned onto the likes of N.Chomsky and that the inaccessible is now within reach - Greenday have done their bit....

And that is exactly what the current wave of new British bands need to do. “ Do their bit ” To be about more then just a collection of chord changes and poses. There is no point in preaching to the converted, and by being afraid of success, and intimidated by those who have made it – Bloc party look set to be the very thing they always claimed to be opposed to – a band forever obsessed with image, with being cool, with having the “right” kind of fans…. Not able to move beyond subculture and into meaning something more..

The entire scene just seems on the verge of implosion, the Pete Dorethy led 'urch revolution' (nme circa 2003) has descended into cocaine and farce, Hope of the States proved unable to deliver, The Ordinary Boys have gone all ska... and Franz, well their lack of revolutionary bite means they are unlikely to achieve anything worthwhile….

So come on Bloc party, a nation and its hopes depend on you.

下午 11:49 | 發佈至您的部落格 | Music Rant

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	Sheraazzz 撰寫： kele replied ! http://www.repeatfanzine.co.uk/Rants/Bloc%20Party.htm and then click on the message boards link 8 月 22 日
	Sheraazzz 撰寫： Since this has been up on Repeat as well, i thought id transfer over some of the comments made there, the quotes are what people have said: “ Green Day seem to be milking the anti-bush message in a blunt form. They are one of the most predictable sounding bands of the past however many years ” Sheraz: Since when has being blunt been a bad thing? I don’t see anyone on here having a go at “Repeat” (the manics song, not the zine!). It just seems a bit snobby? It’s a 3 minute pop song, you cant right a thesis, but what you can do is create a mood, a backdrop for action, and greenday did that and I don’t see what the problem is? There is of course a place for intellect in rock, but I think people underestimate how of putting it can be. What’s the point in writing the most detailed, metaphor packed, hard hitting lyric, if it just alienates your listeners? Im reminded here of the classic ‘ broadsheet ’ vs ‘ tabloids ’ debate. The point being that both are necessary. If you just have the tabloids, then people get frustrated at the lack of depth. But if you take the tabloids away, then to large a percentage of people find themselves without anything they feel they can take on, they go from being partially informed, to being out of the system, with no stepping stone to the more detailed analysis. What I am saying is that just because something is popular and accessible that doesn’t mean you should react against it - Greenday maybe the tabloids of rock, but their heart is in the right place.. “ im sure he s not shy of selling records but its obvious he’s uncomfortable with some of the attention that being successful brings - which is fair enough. ” Sheraz: I’m not sure if I agree. If you acknowledge that selling records in high numbers and celebrity are linked, then isn’t a rejection of the later, also a rejection of the former? And anyway – why do celebrity and attention have to be seen as bad things? Its true that the attention of the music press can be negative… but isn’t it better to be aware of that, and to try and use what is there to your advantage? Keele could have done that – but instead choose to criticise other bands and aspects of his fan base… I don’t think he had any right to criticise Sean over what he choose to include in the article. Yes in the quote highlighted at the beginning of this thread, Keele says that he spent a lot of time talking about ‘ positive things ’ – but I fail to see the merits to that argument? If I were an nme journo, and had a choice between writing another generic pro bloc party article, or instead, based on things that had been said (not things that had been fabricated) exposing an aspect to the band that the readership hadn’t been exposed to before, I know what I would have chosen... The point I am trying to make is that the music press isn’t exactly the most unpredictable of things – it only operates based on what you give it to work with, in other words if you’d rather the nme piece focussed on ‘ your heroes and musical influences ’ don’t get into a fight with Art Brute, and start having a go at Greenday.. of course their may be more to this, and like I said in my last post, I have no idea of the specifics of the conversation the two of them had, but I don’t think I have made any radical leaps here ? And as for more general points regarding celebrity, I agree that people don’t get into a band to have their faces all over vogue and hello! or to have people constantly intruding into their personal life. I don’t see why anyone would want to bring that on themselves and I can understand that argument to an extent, but Keele’s problem didn’t seem to be so much based around that anyway, it was with the ‘ kind of fan ‘ that increased popularity would bring, the kind of OC watching ‘ oh my god ’ screaming fanatical teen, and that just struck me as snobby. And like I argued in my ‘rant’ – its self limiting in the extreme. 8 月 20 日
	Sheraazzz 撰寫： By all means disagree with what I have said, but I would prefer for debate on this site to be slightly less aggressive in tone (and it is possible to do that without taking away from your points). I stand by what I have said. In my article, I only commented on things that Keele had said, not Sean’s commentary. Whether he was provoked into it or not – he still had a go at Greenday, and he specifically talked about his disgust about ever being ‘ Coldplay size’. Sean didn’t force Keele to say any of that. Keele choose to say those things – and I think the conclusions I have drawn as a result still stand. I can understand what you are saying to some extent, but come on, just because Keele is unhappy with the situation that doesn’t mean that he is right? I don’t have a recording of the entire interview, so I have no idea of the specifics of the conversation the two of them had, but I’ve always assumed (having followed nme’s coverage of bloc party from their initial Steve Lamaque ‘She’s hearing voices’ session to the present) that the nme and bloc party have a really tight relationship. Of the top of my head (last weeks issue aside) I can’t think of a single negative feature or review that the nme have given them. So for Keele to go into it and automatically be in defensive mode didn’t seem to make sense. If you accuse me of blind faith in the nme, then its also fair for me to accuse you of lacking objectivity when it comes to Keele. And for the record – nme journo’s really don’t get paid much at all! 8 月 16 日
	Andrew 撰寫： And so once again you refuse to apprortion ANY of the blame on the magazine itself. Your steadfast refusal to do so in light of the clear and painfully obvious misrepresentation of Kele's mood and feelings is somewhat worrying. I think the fact that Kele was so unhappy with what was printed (and let's face it it wasn't a long article) pretty much does respond to the fears you wrote about, as he feels his words were twisted. I don't think that Kele - or anyone else for that matter - can choose to get wound up over a situation. Either you are or you aren't, its not a conscious decision as you would have us to believe. In addition, i fail to see what is wrong about letting your past experiences shape your expectations for the future. It is only natural for Kele to feel a sense of trepidation about conducting an interview with a journalist he clearly doesn't trust after having been let down in the past. He cannot simpy just hope for the best and think that all journalists are nice and happy people who go around with halo's on their head and live in fairy land with candy houses and fluffy clouds in the sky which drop money from them. This is the real world sheraz. Kele's rebuttal and yes it was a rebuttal (hint- not in inverted commas) demonstrates his disapointment with the article as a whole and paints a very sorry picture of its author. Quite where your blind faith towards this Sean O Connell arises from i dont know. Is he a personal friend? What reason do we have to believe that he isnt simply another hard-nosed hack who will do anything to get a page 5 story? The only thing that his article revealed is what an over-paid lazy conniving two-faced little shit he is. 8 月 16 日
	Sheraazzz 撰寫： Thanks for the link. I've now read the thread on the bloc party forum, but irrespective of whether he was 'lead down a certain path' Keele still choose to say those things, notice, how even in his 'rebuttal' Keele didn’t retract his statements about Greenday or about becoming 'Coldplay Size.' Which were the main points I took on in my article. I agree that its annoying being asked the same questions, but the nme is a different audience to Q, so of course its still relevant for those clichéd questions (which its readers haven’t heard the answers yet to) to be asked. But Keele choose to get wound up about that - and let his reaction to his treatment at the hands of Q taint his expectations going into the nme interview. He claims to be happy, and to love his job, and I’m sure that he does; but I don’t think that Sean O Connell would deliberately try and create some kind of Bloc Party backlash; it just isn’t constant with the magazines portrayal of the band. Sean O Connell was right to ask the questions that he did. To often bands get away with portraying this pop star like image of themselves - all pre packaged and flawless, and immune to critisism. But what Sean's article has revealed, is that behind the music, their are some issues that need to be tackled, if bloc party are to have a long and healthy future - and I don’t see that as something which he should have held against him. 8 月 16 日
	Andrew. 撰寫： Just to blow your whole 'oh no keles lost it' thing out of the water. http://www.blocparty.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7864 Blame the NME. Great site by the way can i be your friend? : ) 8 月 16 日

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