One of the strangest stories weaving its way through the music press at the moment is the sacking (or not) of Bloc Party singer, Kele Okereke, by his Bloc Party band-mates. In an interview with NME, Kele said that he had recently spotted Party guitarist Russell Lissack, bassist Gordon Moakes and drummer Matt Tong outside a rehearsal studio in New York. It made for awkward times…
“I was actually having lunch about three weeks ago, just here on 8th Avenue and I saw somebody walk past and I recognised the haircut,” he said. “It was Russell. I was like, ‘Hey!’ but he didn’t see me and I followed him around the corner and then I saw Matt, Gordon and Russell all standing outside this rehearsal space. They all went inside. I hope I haven’t been fired. I don’t really know what’s going on, because we haven’t really spoken recently and I’m a bit too scared to ask.”
A few days later, guitarist Russell Lissack seemed to confirm that story…
Read more…
Helia News Bloc Party, Kele
After Bloc Party announced their hiatus, many suspected that their enigmatic lead singer Kele Okereke would eventually surface with a new project. While the singer had originally intended to take a year off from music, he quickly found himself in the studio experimenting with ideas. These eventually morphed into the songs that make up his debut solo album, ‘The Boxer’.
Free to take the tracks in any direction he wanted, the singer locked himself away with a plethora of synths and drum machines and simply saw where his ideas took him. “It was just me and an engineer. I plugged in synths that I had no idea what they would do. I began programming drum beats, which I had never done before. It was completely back to the drawing board. It was exciting and terrifying. In most cases I sat down, pulled a drum beat out of nowhere and arranged stuff around that. This was as exciting to me as the first time I picked up a guitar”.
Released through Wichita on June 21st, ‘The Boxer’ was produced by XXXchange – the man behind Spank Rock’s 2006 album ‘YoYoYoYoYo’. The tracklisting is:
1. Walk Tall.
2. On The Lam.
3. Tenderoni.
4. The Other Side.
5. Everything You Wanted.
6. New Rules.
7. Unholy Thoughts.
8. Rise.
9. All The Things I Could Never Say.
10. Yesterday’s Gone.
Jon Davies News Bloc Party, Kele
This week Ian Carey retains his place at the top of the UK Pre-release Tag Charts with his summer anthem in the making, ‘Get Shakey’. Meanwhile, new release come from the likes of Shontelle, Bloc Party and Wale, whose ‘Chillin’ features the currently unstoppable Lady Gaga.
Check out the full chart here
Stephen Titmus Shazam New Release Chart UK Bloc Party, Ian Carey, Lady Gaga, Wale
