Stay Down Champion Stay Down
Blood, sweat and b-side love. I am officially back on the Bloc.
Setlist:
"One Month Off"Next stop: Indio, CA.
"Trojan Horse"
"Hunting for Witches"
"Positive Tension"
"Signs"
"Waiting for the 7.18"
"Song for Clay (Disappear Here)"
"Banquet"
"Ion Square"
"The Once and Future King"
"Mercury"
"So Here We Are"
"The Prayer"
"Sunday"
"Halo"
"Flux"
"Helicopter"
"Ares"
"This Modern Love"
It's bold, for sure, but I wish I could be more excited about this. "Mercury" is not a very good song and, unfortunately, it's on the tracklist. I hope to be pleasantly surprised. The album is called Intimacy and the physical release is out on October 28th.
01. Ares
02. Mercury
03. Halo
04. Biko
05. Trojan Horse
06. Signs
07. One Month Off
08. Zephyrus
09. Better Than Heaven
10. Ion Square
[Pre-order]
[More @ Flickr]
Great show. But, probably the last time I grab a ticket for just this band. We've said it before numerous times on this blog: why doesn't this band explore their catalogue more? "Version 2.0", "Staying Fat", "The Once and Future King", "Two More Years" all come to mind. They are an extremely talented band that puts on a very solid-worth the price of admission show, but there is nothing above or beyond the main set, break, encore, and out. Give me a cover. Give me a B-side. Give me something. Anything. I left fulfilled but thinking about the likes of The National, Arcade Fire, and TV On The Radio. Bands who - every time I have caught them - come out with guns blazing and never let up.
"Flux" is flat live (disappointingly so), but "Mercury" (which I didn't like on first listen) had a great energy to it (but I'm pretty sure I was the only person in the audience singing/dancing to it - ahhh, L.A.). "Positive Tension" perhaps, the greatest song this band has ever crafted was nowhere to be found.
UPDATE: Apparently their San Fran show was ill. Three encores.
Setlist:
"Hunting for Witches"
"Like Eating Glass"
"Waiting for the 7.18"
"Price of Gasoline"
"Song for Clay (Disappear Here)"
"So Here We Are"
"The Prayer"
"Uniform"
"Mercury"
"This Modern Love"
"Banquet"
"Sunday"
Intro > "Flux"
"She's Hearing Voices"
"Helicopter"
Bloc Party have a new song called "Flux" which they are planning to perform on tonight's Late Night With Conan O'Brien show. Also appearing on tonight's show: Snoop Dogg. Looking forward to hearing it.
1.
The new Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP Is Is is full of old songs that never made it to albums for whatever reason. And it's excellent. I still haven't tracked down their performance from Letterman, but I heard they played "Down Boy". Pitchfork has a great review of Is Is and a continuing onslaught of videos from the EP.
2.
Sebastien Grainger continues to work on his solo album which appears to be slated for 2008. Everything I am hearing from his MySpace page rocks. Life after Death From Above 1979 isn't perfect, but solo work is better than nothing.
3.
The new Ataxia album is suberb. John Frusciante continues to blow my mind. Another solo slbum of his (dubbed Solo X by fans) is slated for release towards the end of this year. Production quality is expected to lean towards the polished, synthed-out stylings of Shadows Collide With People. We can also expect a sequel to A Sphere In the Heart of Silence.
MP3: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Down Boy"
MP3: Ataxia - "Hands"
MP3: John Frusciante - "Penetrate Time (Lou Bergs)"
MP3: Sebastien Grainger & Les Montagnes - "Are There Ways to Come Home?"
[Photo Credit: Mark Cowan]
I have caught them before. So when push came to shove it wasn't that hard of a pill to swallow. That, and, well, it was my own damn fault. I spent the weekend in Tallahassee helping a friend out with a short film he was shooting for the Graduate Film Conservatory at Florida State. To say that it was a blast would be a gross understatement. I was on cloud nine from the time I stepped off of my plane in Jacksonville, until I got in the car to head back to Jacksonville on Sunday morning. Fucking exhausted and working on three hours sleep, I began my journey back to J-ville at around 9:30 AM. It's about a 2.5 hour ride, but I rocked my coffee, plugged in my iPod and began rolling through another listen of The National's Boxer.
If you're doing the math out there, you are probably wondering why I flew into Jacksonville instead of Tallahassee. For starters, it was kind of a last minute thing, I just finished my job here in DC and I start grad school in LA next fall. Everything was fairly hectic leading up to the end of my days at work and I didn't grab my ticket until late. Me being a veteran of Southwest I chose to rock out to Jacksonville, because it was cheaper, worked towards my Rapid Rewards and I would have to rent a car even if a flew to Tallahassee.
So there I am, "Brainy" creaping across the airwaves, when I make my fatal decision. I head West on I-10 instead of East, towards Jacksonville. No big deal. But, I don't notice it until I am about 80 miles in. Luckily I was on the phone with the First Lady when I realized my mistake. After yelling out "Fuck" about 10 times and U-turning at the nearest exit I had two choices: Go 120 miles an hour for the next 2 hours and hope of making it on time. Or resign myself to a later flight, which had a changeover in Nashville and still provided a window of opportunity to catch all of Bloc Party due to the fact that the Noisettes and the Maccabees were opening.
Plan B begins, I get on the later flight and all is well and good. I'm too tired to be pissed and there is too much road ahead of me to let my own doing unravel me. The iPod car jack shits the bed. I'm left to the radio. I can't buy a break. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is followed by "Only Wanna Be With You". Fucking Hootie. The perfect mix of yesterday's hits and today's favorites is melting my fucking skull. I drive by exit signs to Tallahassee and ponder, for a moment, driving back to set. The worst case scenario is missing the show and missing the shoot. The 'Hass was a sure bet, but there are very few opportunities that the First Lady and I have like this: Pearl Jam, Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, Birdmonster, TV on the Radio, etc. I seize every chance I get to take in a show with her. And she was pumped for Bloc Party. And I'm doing the best that I can. To get there.
The good news at 4:00PM Nashville Standard Time was that I was gripping and ripping a pulled pork sandwich from Whitt's Barbecue. The bad news was that the flight was pushed back. Then it was on time. Then it was pushed back. It was of no solace to me that Steve McNair reacted the same way I did every time an obstacle appeared. He was on my flight with his family and was going largely unnoticed in the airport of the city he used to play quarterback for. The city he helped bring within a yard of a Super Bowl Championship. But I'm sure he preferred it that way. The worst part? The plane was right there. The crew was ready to fly. When I finally boarded around 7:15 EST, I felt like a slow motion version of Kevin Dyson stretching that ball out. My Bloc Party is his Super Bowl ring. The light at the end of the tunnel dims. Time is running out.
Boxer sinks in at cruising altitude. I forget when exactly we landed at BWI, but I grabbed my shit and sprinted towards the Lot A Shuttle. Everyone else was late for a connecting flight and as I run a rather large lady sees me running and yells "Are you on the flight to Norfolk?". I don't think she heard the "No, ma'am" through my heavy breathing. The shuttle was closing it's doors as I got there. Timing could not have been better. Things are looking up. I find my car quickly and I am out of the lot in record time. The Noisettes are on stage. The First Lady is in her seat. The word is that Bloc Party gets on in 45 minutes. Doable. And then the Baltimore Washington Parkway - the last domino I needed to fall perfectly - rears it's Jekyll head and morphs before my eyes into the Baltimore Washington Parking lot. I slug my way through a traffic jam that costs me, easily, 40 minutes. All the while, the First Lady is shaking her money-maker wishing I was there and texting me the setlist. Alright, it wasn't a perfect setlist, but it was close enough. I knew that "absentminded" was "Positive Tension"...we're good like that.
When I finally burst into the District they've finished the initial set. By the time I was running past the White House (after locating her car and grabbing my ticket out of her glove compartment) I figured I had about a song left. I ran anyway. I didn't need the ticket and I definitely drew some odd looks from people that were sitting outside smoking (why is this fucktard running to this show when it will end in a song?), I burst in and find entrance #3 and there is the First Lady perfectly outlined in front of Bloc Party's lights as the boys rip through "Sunday". I thought this was it. Big hugs, a big kiss and we start dancing. But they aren't done. "Helicopter". And later, "The Pioneers". A moral victory of sorts.
Looking at the setlist the following morning was salt on my wounds. I missed a great set. They are building an incredible catalog that will only get bigger and better as the years go by. My one hang-up is that they have so many ridiculous B-sides...but they rarely play them. I look forward to the day that this band brings the pain in the same way Pearl Jam does: so many songs, you never know what you're going to get, but you know they are going to dip into everything. Here are my Top Five Bloc Party Rarities/B-Sides I Want to Hear Live. Eventually. Next time.
MP3: Bloc Party - "Staying Fat"
MP3: Bloc Party - "The Once & Future King"
MP3: Bloc Party - "Version 2.0"
MP3: Bloc Party - "Two More Years"
MP3: Bloc Party - "Secrets"
The whole story of how I only caught the last 2 and a half songs after the commercial break:
"Song For Clay"
"Positive Tension"
"Blue Light"
"Hunting For Witches"
"Waiting For The 7.18"
"Banquet"
"I Still Remember"
"This Modern Love"
"The Prayer"
"Uniform"
"So Here We Are"
"Like Eating Glass"
***
"SRXT"
"She's Hearing Voices"
"Sunday"
"Helicopter"
***
"The Pioneers"
I don't know about you, but I think $30 is a small price to pay to catch Bloc Party, Social D, Interpol, QOTSA, Kaiser Chiefs, Cold War Kids and Silversun Pickups. Of course Sum 41 is on that bill, too. Pitchfork has their jokes (don't they always?), but let's be honest, this is a solid bill at a solid price. Shoreline Ampitheatre is a great venue, as well. But, maybe that's just me getting nostalgiac...
This is probably just as much a review of United Palace Theatre as it is a recap of Bloc Party as I'm sure most fans have seen them live at some time or another. InMyTree finally convinced me to bring a camera, which I did, and now I just need to figure out how to upload the photos. Not surprisingly, they look like shit. UPDATED: Added a few photos; thanks for the direction, InMyTree.
As for United Palace, there is no doubt that this is a beautiful old venue/church but it sure as hell doesn't look like the rendered photos on their site. Because it's a church, there obviously aren't any bars so the beer situation is brutal. One packed serving area below and one above. Not ideal. I believe this was also the first Bowery concert at the venue and it showed. The band encouraged people to move forward (the stage setup was about 10 feet from the first row), security wasn't having it. The band won, security finally relented. Plaster falling from the ceiling onto the stage, lights coming on at the wrong time, etc. Not to mention a packed subway platform afterwards of drunk people. It reminded me of leaving Shea stadium or a Nats game. Fortunately, the subway is empty at that time so getting on isn't a problem. Don't expect to find cabs in Washington Heights. As for the sound, I was right smack dab in the middle, 12th row from the stage and to my untrained ears, had absolutely no complaints about the sound. The potential is definitely there.
I missed Sebastian Grainger (DFA1979) but did manage to catch most of Albert Hammond Jr.'s set. I haven't heard any of his recorded songs but he really does sound very much like the Strokes. It was pretty innocuous but entertaining. Bloc Party took the stage at 9:50 and for a little while seemed a bit uncertain of their surroundings. There's no disguising the fact that this is one of my favorite bands so it's out of love if I'm a little harsh. Maybe it was the venue (seated venues are never ideal unless it's the Garden) or the incessant touring but the show was just "ok." These guys have some of the best b-sides this side of Pearl Jam but the setlist was completely by the book, an even split of Silent Alarm and A Weekend in the City. Can I get some "Two More Years" or something? My last gripe, they only played for an hour and twenty minutes. I may be a bit spoiled by now but bring your band to NYC, charge $45 for a ticket, and I'm going to expect a little bit more.
I should mention that the songs they DID play sounded excellent. Silent Alarm has so many hits and they all still sound incredible. In a live setting, I can definitely hear the difference in direction with the new songs (I actually really like the new album). Not a bad thing, by any stretch, they just need a little bit more seasoning. "Songs for Clay" and "waiting for the 7.18" are among the best songs they've ever written. The line of the night came from Gordon while encouraging the crowd to move up and get loose said, "this is not a Snow Patrol concert."
Tentative Setlist:
"Song for Clay (Disappear Here)"
"Positive Tension"
"Blue Light"
"Hunting for Witches"
"Waiting for the 7.18"
"Banquet"
"Where Is Home"
"This Modern Love"
"The Prayer"
"Uniform"
"So Here We Are"
"I Still Remember"
"Like Eating Glass"
-----------------------
"She's Hearing Voices"
"SRXT"
"Helicopter"
"Little Thoughts" and/or "Luno" could have been in there too, I'm not sure.
Random pic of venue:
Albert Hammond Jr.:
Bloc Party:
I was just reading Coolfer's chart recap for this week and this particular line really caught me off guard:
Silversun Pickups' Carnavas (Dangerbird) has now sold 106,000 units in ten weeks of release. They've got big numbers in Los Angeles, San Diego, the Bay Area and Seattle. In comparison, the latest Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album has done 40,000 in eight weeks, and Bloc Party's latest has sold 95,000 in seven weeks.This is amazing to me and really says a lot about how far SSPU has come in such little time. There are few indie bands out there that have worked as hard as these guys (and girl) to get into the minds and ears of the masses. I guess it remains to be seen whether this leads to any sort of long tail longevity and a dedicated fan base because I've definitely noticed the hipster crew is starting to jump ship. I, for one, am happy for them but I also expected a bit more from Bloc Party.
From P4K, who has the complete tour including dates in Europe and Australia:
03-27 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis *Bloc Party tickets for DAR go on-sale this Saturday. Ticketbastard is currently calling them "Block Party". Noisettes and The Maccabees will open up.
03-28 Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre *
03-30 New York, NY - United Palace Theatre *
03-31 New York, NY - United Palace Theatre *
05-27 Pompano Beach, FL - Pompano Beach Amphitheatre
05-28 Tampa, FL - USF Sun Dome
05-29 Orlando, FL - UCF Arena
05-31 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle
06-01 Myrtle Beach, SC - House of Blues
06-03 Washington, DC - DAR Constitution Hall
06-05 Philadelphia, PA - Tower Theatre
06-06 Boston, MA - WFNX Radio Show
06-07 Asbury Park, NJ - Convention Hall
06-09 San Francisco, CA - Live 105 Radio Show
06-11 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theatre
06-12 Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
06-13 Las Vegas, NV - Palms Casino Hotel
06-16 San Diego, CA - Concerts in the Park
08-25 Reading, England - Reading Festival
08-26 Leeds, England - Leeds Festival
* with Albert Hammond Jr., Sebastien Grainger
Go here. It is their show from Carling Academy in Bristol on February 7. You can play any song from the set or watch the whole thing. Hot, hot version of "Banquet" in there. The setlist from the show follows...
"Song For Clay"It is all part of a weeklong Bloc Party celebration at NME. Other features include: Kele's favorite video, Russell's favorite track, and Gordon's favorite band.
"Like Eating Glass"
"Blue Light"
"Hunting For Witches"
"Banquet"
"Waiting for the 7.18"
"The Prayer"
"This Modern Love"
"Uniform"
"Two More Years"
"So Here We Are"
"Helicopter"
"Kreuzberg"
"She's Hearing Voices"
"Sunday"
"Pioneers"
The Lefsetz Letter is always interesting because of its spin towards the money-making end of the music industry. I'm not really sure what this guy does or used to do, but his angle is always ripe with sarcasm when it comes to record sales. For more, head here...
On Fall Out Boy (#1: 259,674):
"As for Fall Out Boy itself, the band has built an audience. By going positively mainstream. I wouldn’t quite call it selling out, but it’s not like they’re absent from the media circus. And said circus resulted in this total. But in a few years (months?) the circus will move on to a new act, and Fall Out Boy’s sales will tank, the band will be irrelevant.Something really turns me off about Fall Out Boy and I don't know what it is. Oh, wait. Yes I do. I remember seeing them live on SNL and it was completely flat. Dull. Dead. Granted, many a band have been struck down by SNL, but nothing about these guys do it for me. There seems to be something very artificial about their whole makeup/songs/following.
"In other words, Fall Out Boy is flavor of the month. Just marginally better than Panic At The Disco! It’s kind of like hula-hoops, but worse. At least everybody knew what a hula-hoop WAS, most Americans are still clueless as to the music of Fall Out Boy, and many have never even heard of the band. As for identifying a member of the act? Impossible except for those truly diehard."
"Doesn’t smell like a hit, does it?He's right about Bloc Party and the road. Matt Tong getting hurt definitely hurt their ability to pump this album drop, but what gives? Can we get some more American dates or what? I'm standing by, debit card in hand.
"Where do you get airplay/mindshare for an act like this, such that you can sell tonnage?
"Nowhere I know of.
"Oh, maybe you can get a song in a commercial or on a hot TV show, but then you alienate all the hard core fans and really, the newbies are only in it for the track.
"If you don’t make Top Forty music and you want to make money, take to the ROAD!"
A respectable first week of sales for Bloc Party's second album but unfortunately, nowhere near the success of the Shins' Wincing but considerably better than Silent Alarm.
From Billboard:
Hipster favorite Bloc Party sees its second album, "A Weekend in the City," debut at No. 12 on The Billboard 200 with 48,000 units. It also plants the flag at No. 3 on Top Tastemakers and Top Rock Albums. The U.K. band's last effort, "Silent Alarm," topped out at No. 114 in 2005. It spent 16 weeks on the chart, and has sold 291,000. That set was supported by the hit single "Banquet," which has sold 106,000 downloads and reached No. 34 on the Alternative/Modern Rock chart. The new album's single, "I Still Remember," climbs 35-32 on the Alternative/Modern Rock chart in its fourth week on the tally. Only five monitored radio stations aired the song more than 20 times last week -- KUCD Honolulu; KJEE Santa Barbara, Calif.; WEQX Albany, N.Y.; XTRA San Diego; and KNXX Baton Rouge, La.
Most of us have been listening to A Weekend in the City since November but that doesn't mean that I don't want to get my cd delivered on time. I pre-ordered the album almost 4 weeks ago and I still haven't received it in the mail. What's the point of pre-ordering an album if I won't get it on time? I also picked up Peter Bjorn and John in the same order and THAT arrived yesterday. Are they out of AWitC? Mind you, these guys are based in NYC. I want to like Amp Camp, their prices and shipping rates are great but I've come to expect more after the demise of Tower (which had locations blocks from my office and my apt.)
On the subject of Bloc Party, I'm loving all of the buzz around the b-sides currently floating around the internet. It was obviously planned by the band since they've chosen different b-sides for various special editions and retail outlets. The greatest part about this is that there are 11 fucking songs to go around. This scavenger hunt, as it's been called, for Another Weekend in the City (coined by IGIF?) is a great way for the band to remain relevant for the release of their album. What a concept...
Saying these 11 songs are better than the 11 on the album is crazy talk but as with most of their b-sides, I'm definitely enjoying them. "Secrets" is one of my favorites and admittedly would have been a nice replacement over "Sunday" or "SRXT."
MP3: Bloc Party - "Secrets"
Here is the full tracklisting (according to Wikipedia):
1. "We Were Lovers" (Japanese Edition)
2. "England" (Japanese Edition)
3. "Cain Said To Abel" - 3:24 (iTunes US only)
4. "Atonement" (iTunes US pre-order only)
5. "I Still Remember [Video]" (iTunes download only)
6. "The Prayer (Does it Offend You, Yeah? remix)" (iTunes UK only)
7. "Version 2.0" - 3:19 (Best Buy version only)
8. "Emma Kate's Accident" - 5:38 (Best Buy version only)
9. "Secrets" (Canadian version & Target version only)
10. "The Once And Future King" (Canadian version & Target version only)
11. "Rhododendron" (eMusic US only)
12. "Selfish Son" (Napster and Rhapsody)
13. "Vision Of Heaven" (Free Purevolume exclusive)
[Photo Credit: Is The Rub]
Found this number while I was hanging out at Brooklyn Vegan clicking on links. They post so much stuff over there that it is nearly impossible to keep up. Here's the abbreviated bio on Cosmo Baker, courtesy of his site, CosmoBaker.com:
EitherGotta love the Warren Zevon reference, and the Bloc Party/Outkast mashup. More tracks, mixes and setlists here and here. Don't confuse this battle with their previous encounter.
A: "I'm from the old school, I love P-Funk, But now rap music is all that they want, So when I'm in my car, I play Clinton, And when I'm on the stage I start pimping."
or
B: "Now I'm hiding in Honduras, I'm a desperate man, Send lawyers, guns and money, The shit has hit the fan..."
[Sebastien Grainger: MySpace]
Yeah, its not Death From Above 1979, but its the brainchild of a man that was 50% of that epic and sorely missed bass and drums noise-rock outfit. If this track is any indication of the things to follow from Sebastian then I am along for the ride. MSTRKRFT is great, but this is a little more my speed. No album date yet. Just a split 7". But, he's helping out Bloc Party on a couple of their dates, so I'm sure that more goodies will be explored at those shows. I won't be there. Salt on my fucking wounds. Oh, and uh, sweet shirts, guy.
Bloc Party Dates w. Sebastien Grainger support:
23.03.07 Chicago, IL - Congress Theatre
24.03.07 Detroit, MI - Royal Oak Theatre
25.03.07 Toronto, Ontario - Kool Haus
27.03.07 Montreal, Ontario - Metropolis
28.03.07 Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre
30.03.07 New York, NY - United Palace Theatre
31.03.07 New York, NY - United Palace Theatre
MP3: Sebastien Grainger - "When You Go Out"
From P4K. Directed by Aggressive. Sidetrack: there was a summer when the word aggressive was used everytime I headed out. Or maybe it was my entire last year in college. I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat sometimes with visions of Thomas Beckett standing over me stanking of beer, good times and aggressivity. He's dressed like Hunter S. Thompson a retarded cowboy and he's got a shotgun in one hand and sixer of Bud Heavy tall boys in the other smiling, "let's focking get agghressive." I still remember.
