New Kids

Bloc Party Could Be This Year’s Franz Ferdinand

March 22, 2005— Back in November 2003, Franz Ferdinand were a relatively unknown opening act at NYC’s Mercury Lounge. By the following spring, their first single, "Take Me Out," was blaring from Yankee Stadium speakers between innings, and their debut went on to sell more than 2 million copies. Soon FF could pick and choose their own opening acts. Among their preferred groups—London’s Bloc Party, whose first album, Silent Alarm, drops stateside today amid expectations that they could repeat their mentors’ success. Singer Kele Okereke's vocals (which can also be heard on the new Chemical Brothers track "Believe") simultaneously channel Robert Smith and Damon Albarn, while Matt Tong's frenetic, low-fi snare work calls to mind early Specials and provides a solid underpinning for Russell Lissack’s wonderfully loud guitar work. Easily the season’s most buzzed-about group, Bloc Party silenced all doubters with their Friday-night South By Southwest gig. In case you missed it, score tickets to their 19-date tour, which wraps up April 30 at Coachella in Indio, CA. (And make note of who opens for them—we’ll no doubt be writing about them next spring.)

Pictured above, from left to right, are: Kele Okereke (vocals and guitar), Gordon Moakes (bass), Matt Tong (drums), and Russell Lissack (guitar).