Producer Hudson Mohawke recently revealed to BBC Radio1Xtra that Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke is currently working on a solo album. “It hasn’t been finalised yet, but I’m doing a bit of stuff for Kele from Bloc Party’s solo album,” Mohawke explained. “He’s doing a record with one of the guys from Spank Rock.” Makes sense. Kinda. Since releasing Intimacy last year, Bloc Party have been chewing up the road ever since, a grueling schedule that has drummer Matt Tong questioning whether or not he wants to stick with the band. That plus this equals impending hiatus, guys. (via Spinner)

We’ve been scrambling to keep you up-to-date as Glastonbury’s slowly leaked megaconfirmation after megaconfirmation in the past few months. But today’s full lineup announcement is something to behold, the headlining package of Neil Young, the Boss and a reunited Blur now propped up by a roster so behemoth and iron-clad, it’s equal parts intimidating and enticing. Also playing: Bloc Party, Lady Gaga, Jarvis Cocker, Regina Spektor, Maximo Park, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Lily Allen, Tom Jones, Pete Doherty, Q-Tip, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Streets, Ray Davies and and and and…

There will be mud.

“I like to see lady drummers. It’s fucking cool,” says one of the security guards at Popscene as The Whip plow through their soundcheck. The Manchester quartet are in town to open for fellow UK outfit Late of the Pier, but in two short hours the Mancs will blow their contemporaries out of the front door and onto the alleyway outside of the club.

“What was the name of that first band? They were so. Much. Better,” I overhear while standing in line to use the ladies’ room.

And it’s true. Cousin to The Faint with a dash of Daft Punk knob-twiddling, the four friends from college now known as The Whip are able to deliver more songs to grind to then their headliners. The most success comes from songs like “Blackout”, which carries a sexy bass line with a light Nintendo synth, and “Muzzle #1”, a rhythmic foot tapper that sort of sounds like what The Horrors would be if they went dance-punk. And while the band doesn’t talk much in between songs, opting to end their short set with lead single “Trash”, the venue breaks into continuous cheering at the end.

Both bands are sharing the green room, where I’m whisked into for The Whip interview pre-show, and the scene is somehow serenity-meets-frenzy. There are lanky Brits from both bands falling over themselves trying to reach the riders while I plop down onto a black vinyl couch, and even though the vibe is at a calm tone, everyone is talking to one another — and not me. Never before have I had to keep track of my interview subjects until now, as various members of The Whip actually leave the interview mid-thought to answer a phone call, talk to a manager, or huddle up next to a LOTP member.

It’s somehow not rude, though — it genuinely feels like all the people smashed into this tiny ass room want to hang with one another, and I even find myself floating from person to person to spark a conversation. “I love this song,” says Daniel when Bloc Party’s “Banquet” thumps outside, and we talk about the influx of British bands to hit America in recent years.

The whole setting resembles a cozy house party, which is both endearing and neat. I end up speaking with drummer Fiona Daniel and keyboardist Danny Saville the most while sitting on the couch, as vocalist Bruce Carter and bass player Nathan Sudders to my right are distracted at various intervals, but piping in when given the chance. Most of our conversation centers around their hometown of Manchester (both Sudders and Carter are tickled to know about the goth night I went to while there a few months back: “I actually know the owner for Satan’s Hollow!” says Saville), and what some goals are (Carter: “Ride a cable car”). As I leave, all four extend their hands to shake mine warmly, offering to hang out if we all were ever in their hometown at the same time. This cordiality is again replicated as I join Sudders outside for a cigarette post-interview.

“Please, MySpace us if you decide to join us in Manchester for grad school,” he urges. I’m amazed he remembered that small detail from our conversation amidst the ringing cell phones and chatter about doing shots back in the green room. “Maybe I will,” I reply. “You lot seem to be really good folks.”

There seems to be the common theme of “fucking shit up” when people talk about your music. Is this accurate?
Fiona Daniel: Fucking shit up? Really? [laughs]

Danny Saville: Well, I mean, I think that’s a good thing. Right?

Nathan Sudders: Oh, wow.

“Trash” is the opening song on your album, and has been the one garnering the most attention. Are you afraid no one is going to be listening after that first song ends?
FD: You know, people don’t have to dance if they don’t want to. I mean, we want it to happen as naturally as possible.

Bruce Carter: I think we did a great job on the album as a whole.

You’ve cited having older siblings and friends who got you into the Manchester scene. What particular interaction stands out most?
DS: I got my foot in the door with that scene from an older friend [who gave me a cassette of music]. I remember the tape cover was a yellow and black picture/painting of sorts with some vandalism-looking writing. There was the FAC 51 symbol in it and Bigfoot was prancing around. So weird but very cool.

I fell in love with Manchester when I was in England over the winter. I saw the Hacienda apartments and it’s so sad what they look like now. Is it weird something so historical like that is now defunct in your own hometown?

DS: I used to live right across the street from the Hacienda. I used to break in and play there before it was torn down to be converted. It’s a bit of a shame that it wasn’t saved but what can you do? And now it’s like any other neighborhood in the area. There’s weed on the corner.

There’s always seems to be a Manchester/London comparison that happens.
FD: True. But when you consider how many amazing bands that have come out of our humble little area, it’s quite impressive.

DS: And it’s all about the sizing, really, too. Birmingham is bigger, but in Manchester you can still bump into people. London is just too big for us. We might not have been able to succeed if we had decided to move there first instead of sticking to where we started.

BC: In any case, it’s obviously not as cool as here. [grins and points to his surroundings]

How many sexual innuendos have you gotten in reference to your band name?
DS: What, you mean like bondage or S&M-type stuff? None. None at all. [smiles]

Silversun Pickups and Eulogies will be rocking for a good cause this Thursday at the Echoplex in Los Angeles. Tickets go on sale tonight and all proceeds benefit The Pablove Foundation.

The Pablove Foundation is named after Pablo Castelaz, the five-year-old son of Dangerbird Records co-founder Jeff Castelaz and his wife Jo Ann Thrailkill, who suffers from a bilateral Wilms’ Tumor, a rare form of children’s cancer.

In addition to the performances, there will be some swag for purchase to raise more money for the foundation, including a limited edition t-shirt and the two-disc benefit compilation Give. Listen. Help. Volume 5, featuring Radiohead, Bloc Party, Oasis and the Dangerbird Records roster. Each CD purchase will be accompanied with a free poster, crafted specifically in honor of the evening.

Tickets go on sale tonight at 7 p.m. for $25 via TicketWeb. Purchase will be limited to two tickets per customer and are only available through online purchase, with a scheduled will-call pick-up.

Here’s some more background on The Pablove Foundation:

On May 17, 2008, Pablo was diagnosed with bilateral Wilms’ Tumor, a rare form of children’s cancer, and has been receiving treatment at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

The Pablove Foundation also plans to contribute to cancer research and treatment at CHLA, including the efforts of CHLA’s Saban Research Institute, one of the top cancer research facilities in the United States.

As I headed down 56th toward Terminal Five, the massive crowd I saw teeming outside the entrance was no shock — I knew the show had been sold out for weeks and I was definitely feeling the appropriate level of thankfulness for my job, which allowed me to walk right into the Bloc Party/Longwave show, navigate the sea of people and find an open seat on the mezzanine.

Brooklyn indie rockers Longwave just released their fourth album Secrets Are Sinister in late 2008, and though they’ve been out of the scene for about three years, you’d never really know it.

[Longwave]

Longwave’s is nothing if not a thick sound. In fact, their set seemed to principally be about sound, a wall of sound, actually (with apologies to Phil Spector), an expansive, driving force that made the vocal all more ethereal in comparison. The contrast was stark, and just right.

There was a young lady in the front row who definitely agreed, and actually seemed to be involved in some sort of religious experience, exorcism or otherwise. She was enjoying the show enough for everyone in at least the next three rows. Besides fan-girl, even those in the crowd who weren’t there to see Longwave were still really tuning in to what they were doing. Regardless of their New York fanbase, at a gig like this, they’d definitely be playing to the right type of crowd. Not that I would go so far as to compare Longwave to Bloc Party, or even to pool their influences, but it was a sound charged with a lot of the same energy, packed with those same driving, addictive rhythms and bright guitar melodies.

Before Bloc Party hit the stage, I had been worried that their set was going to be dominated by tracks from their most recent LP, Intimacy. It wouldn’t have been a bad thing, necessarily, because I definitely gave the album high marks. It’s just that Intimacy hasn’t had quite enough time in my record collection yet to really become part of me the way Weekend In The City and Silent Alarm both have.

[Bloc Party]

Turns out though, I had nothing to worry about — they opened with “One Month Off” from Intimacy, but the rest of the set was dominated by WIC. And the response from the crowd was deafeningly audible. The second song of the night was “Hunting For Witches,” and after the screaming stopped, the moshing started — I said a silent thank you to the Gods of the All Access Pass that allowed me a birds’ eye seat to the chick getting dropped on her head while crowd surfing over the mosh pit, as opposed to being that chick who got dropped in the mosh pit.

They also pulled out “Positive Tension” from Silent Alarm and “Waiting For The 7:18″ from WIC. But it was on “Song For Clay” that they really demonstrated what it is that makes Bloc Party a band you want to see live. Lead singer Kele Okereke drew out the opening verses, milking every phrase, twisting and bending the pitches, holding the notes so long that when the transition from the intro to the verse finally arrived, it was like a bomb dropping. The crowd exploded, the stage opened up and there was no turning back.

The next appearance from WIC was “Where is Home” immediately followed by the debut single from Intimacy, “Mercury.” It butted up against a string of the band’s older tracks, and the immediate combination made it easy to hear the difference, the gradual evolution but also the conscious stylistic changes, between the albums. And of course, “Mercury” allows Okereke to be removed from the shackles of his guitar — he made a playground of the stage. He’s definitely a born performer, charming the crowd several times with no more than “How are we feeling, New York City?”

For the encore, they brought out the track that surely almost all of us had been waiting for — “The Prayer” — and ended the night with “Helicopter.” It seems only appropriate to sing to the New York crowd, “Stop being so American.”

Both Bloc Party and Longwave put out new material late last year, but it wouldn’t matter if they had records to promote or not, these shows at Terminal 5 next week are already sold out. Lucky for you, we have one pair to give away to the closing show on March 25.

One winner will be chosen at random to receive a pair of tickets to the Wednesday, March 25 show at Terminal 5 in NYC. All you need to do to enter is e-mail us here with the subject line “Long Party” (make sure to include your full contact info*). The contest runs through Friday, March 20 with the winner notified by Monday, March 23. The full Bloc Party / Longwave tour is listed below.

*Please provide e-mail and full mailing address. Contest will officially end at 6pm EST on Friday, March 20th. E-mail addresses not already on our mailing list will be added.

Bloc Party / Longwave tour dates
03.19.09 – Boston, MA (House Of Blues)
03.22.09 – Washington DC (9:30 Club)
03.24.09 – New York, NY (Terminal 5)
03.25.09 – New York, NY (Terminal 5)
03.28.09 – Chicago, IL (Riviera Theatre)
03.30.09 – Minneapolis, MN (First Avenue)
03.31.09 – St. Louis, MO (Pageant)

Bloc Party are set to release a remixed version of their third album Intimacy on May 11 (in the U.K.), and aside from the lead single — a version of “Signs”, remixed by Armand Van Helden (out April 27 in the U.K.) — we’ve learned that among the bakers dozen enlisted to remix the album are No Age and Mogwai.

The full track listing of Intimacy Remixed, with the remixers in brackets
01. Ares (Villains)
02. Mercury (Hervé Is In Disarray)
03. Halo (We Have Band Dub)
04. Biko (Mogwai)
05. Trojan Horse (John B)
06. Signs (Armand Van Helden)
07. One Month Off (Filthy Dukes)
08. Zephyrus (Phase One)
09. Talons (Phones RIP)
10. Better Than Heaven (No Age)
11. Ion Square (Banjo or Freakout)
12. Letter To My Son (Gold Panda)
13. Your Visits Are Getting Shorter (Double D)

It’s a bit like running through razor blades then diving into a swimming pool full of rubbing alcohol when a band takes on groups like The Cure, Bloc Party, Jane’s Addiction, New Order and Franz Ferdinand: the chances of catastrophe and painful death are magnified by 47 million.

Many acts have tried to ape their heroes and have failed miserably (see Bauhaus doppelgangers She Wants Revenge). The Killers have attempted to mug U2, Springsteen and Joy Division for their sound and the results have, for the most part, been more lukewarm than killer. The one-time touted second coming of rock, The Strokes, attempted to borrow from the Television and Lou Reed songbooks and quicker than you can say “Marquee Moon” the band went the way of the dodo bird.

But sometimes, when the clouds part, the seas grow calm and beasts large and small live together in harmony, a band that covets their influences and shapes said influences into something all their own comes along. That band in this case is Kansas City, Missouri’s, Queens Club.

QC first began gathering attention through their expansive live shows and a strong push from Kansas City alternative rock radio station 96.5 The Buzz, specifically the Sunday evening local music showcase Homegrown Buzz. Early last year the newly formed band (Tyler Bottles – bass, Jake Ryan – drums/ programming, Daniel Eaton – vocals/guitars and Andrew Nichols – guitars/vocals/programming) became a local sensation with their debut single “Nightmarer” and word of mouth was so strong that late last year they did a showcase for the record label Tooth and Nail.

Though no deal is set as of yet, Tyler Bottles told me that they are optimistic. “We’re really hoping to get signed, every band that makes music wants to have their music heard. But if we don’t, we’ll release it ourselves and see what happens.”

The album, so far untitled, is a perfect storm of Euro dance rock, indie sophistication and a sprinkling of punk rock’s filth and fury snottiness (see the pummeling track “I’m American”); all aspects of the Queens Club dynamic fit together smoothly like cogs in a well oiled machine. It’s almost frightening to me that a band that’s only been together a little over a year can kick out a debut this tight, well written and infectious. Yes, the clouds have parted, dogs are living peacefully with their feline friends and the rock Gods have smiled on this Midwestern band. Take my advice: When they come to your town, go and see them in the club because soon enough, they’ll be selling out stadiums.

Listen to Queen’s Club here.

It was British Thursday around here yesterday (evidence here and here), so why not keep the trend alive with a little more news from across the pond today. Although this time, it’s actually about crossing the pond, as Bloc Party and The Ting Tings announce U.S. tour dates for the spring.

Bloc Party will kick things off in Boston on March 19 in support of their third album, Intimacy, but they’re hitting up Canada before that, with dates in Toronto, London, Ottawa and Montreal. Brooklyn’s own Longwave will be opening for the band on all dates, wrapping up in St. Louis on March 31.

The Ting Tings meanwhile will hit 22 cities, starting things off in New York on March 16 at Webster Hall. They’re supporting their recent debut We Started Nothing, and will hit Miami, Chicago, Denver, Seattle and a few others before wrapping it up in San Francisco.

Bloc Party U.S. tour dates (supported by Longwave)
03.14.09 – Toronto, Ontario (Kool Haus)
03.15.09 – London, Ontario (Centennial Hall)
03.17.09 – Ottawa, Ontario (Bronson Centre)
03.18.09 – Montreal, Quebec (Metropolis)
03.19.09 – Boston, MA (House of Blues)
03.21.09 – Philadelphia, PA (Electric Factory)
03.22.09 – Washington, DC (9:30 Club)
03.24.09 & 03.25.09 – New York, NY (Terminal 5)
03.27.09 & 03.28.09 – Miami, FL (Ultra Music Festival)
03.28.09 – Chicago, IL (Riviera Theatre)
03.30.09 – Minneapolis, MN (First Avenue)
03.31.09 – St. Louis, MO (The Pageant)

The Ting Tings U.S. tour dates
03.16.09 – New York, NY (Webster Hall)
03.18.09 – Boston, MA (Paradise Rock Club)
03.19.09 – Philadelphia, PA (Sanctuary)
03.20.09 – Washington, DC (9:30 Club)
03.21.09 – Carrboro, NC (Cat’s Cradle)
03.23.09 – Norfolk, VA (NorVa)
03.24.09 – Richmond, VA (Canal Club)
03.26.09 – Jacksonville, FL (Jack Rabbits)
03.27.09 – Miami, FL (Ultrafest)
03.28.09 – Orlando, FL (The Social)
03.29.09 – Tampa, FL (Orpheum)
03.31.09 – Tallahassee, FL (Club Downunder)
04.02.09 – Birmingham, AL (WorkPlay Theatre)
04.03.09 – St. Louis, MO (Blueberry Hill)
04.05.09 – Chicago, IL (Metro)
04.06.09 – Minneapolis, MN (Varsity Theater)
04.07.09 – Kansas City, MO (Record Bar)
04.08.09 – Denver, CO (Bluebird Theater)
04.09.09 – Salt Lake City, UT (Urban Lounge)
04.11.09 – Vancouver, BC (Commodore Ballroom)
04.12.09 – Seattle, WA (Crocodile Café)
04.13.09 – Portland, OR (Douglas Fir Lounge)
04.15.09 – San Francisco, CA (The Fillmore)

With a few more tour dates to wrap up here in the States before heading home, Bloc Party has premiered the video for the latest single from their not-quite-critically-acclaimed October release, Intimacy.

The video for “One Month Off” (which officially comes out as a single in the UK on January 26) does little to give the self-indulgent and often disconnected tone of Intimacy — and especially lead singer Kele Okereke — any pick me up. As if watching a happy band turn into a bunch of curmudgeons hasn’t been difficult enough, now they’re using tanks and fighter jets to lay waste to our favorite fairy tale characters? Don’t worry, it’s all just a rouse — in the closing seconds of the video we learn that none of the footage is actually real. Whew.