Is it just that they are the next new thing to have an EP out? I may post a lot, but I haven't been around but about a year. It seems these things go:
Hyped EP
Good reaction to actual album
Backlash when people start to like album better than EP

Seriously, it seems this formula has worked around here for (give or take an EP)
Ryan Adams
The Strokes
The Walkmen
TVOTR

I'm sure I'm missing some.

As for Bloc Party, there are parts of Banquet that are interesting, and the end of Staying Fat is pretty sweet, but it seems like "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO BLOC PARTY" these days, and I just don't hear it.

Maybe I'm so indie I've backlashed against the EP. Like pre-backlash-backlash :head explodes:

You're such a neckbeard.

man, the ep isn't shit, the lp is fucking wicked.

don't hate.

Boh "Banquet" and "Staying Fat" caught me straight away, which doesn't happen very often with a new artist. I don't know if the LP will be all that or not. I'm just excited about the fact that it could be.

i would be so much happier if we could equate "objective criticism of a trend, artist, album, idea" with something a little more substantial than "hating."

i haven't found much to like about the bloc party, which is how i have felt about a lot of the (NME) hyped artists in the past 2-3 years. nothing new about that.

KPH

i didn't like the EP that much at all.

the album is great though.

i don't see anything that remarkable about them. will probably never listen to them again. still, i don't know that there's really a lot of hype about them, or maybe i'm not reading the right magazines. are they getting the kind of time magazine love that gimmicks like the Darkness and Scissor Sisters did?

What he said.

There's no hate in the Senator's post. I think he's making a valid observation. It seems to me that so many people (magnified in impact by the internet) are in a desperate search for the great-band-nobody's-heard-of that they end up spinning their wheels in a greasepatch of their own hype. I mean, for example, I thought the Strokes ep was pretty cool, though nothing earth-shattering (and I don't need everything to be earth-shattering in order to simply enjoy it), but the fuss around that ep built the band up to be - and you'll remember this - the saviors of rock. It was obvious the band was doomed for a backlash, and forever to be argued over in the bi-polar "they're great/ no, they suck" vacuum.

The first album I ever noticed this phenomenon on a large scale was Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville. That album was objectively so ordinary, so average in all respects, but it was (and continues to be) lauded as some kind of wildly original turning point in pop history. There's no way a minor talent like Liz Phair could ever have lived up to the hype around that debut - and, of course, she didn't (even though her subsequent albums were just as good if not better).

So why do we ("we" as in an overview of the pop culture landscape) unrealistically build up these artists? I suspect the same thing has just happened with Arcade Fire. They put out a pretty decent debut, but it's been praised to the high heavens as some kind of readymade bedrock classic, and holy fuck are they gonna see some backlash action next time. And it's not gonna be their fault - their next disc will probably be equal to Funeral.

As an audience, it seems we're addicted to what Pete Townshend called the first fuck. It's the surprise and delight of that first time with a new lover. It never gets better, and then often drifts into boredom if not outright contempt. Right now, the Bloc Party are enjoying the benefits of that first fuck. Boredom and/or contempt to follow.

Dude get over it.

Yeah, this is a very real phenomenon as far as unreasonable hype creating disproportionate backlash.

I don't get the big deal with Bloc Party (EP is alright, parts of Silent Alarm I heard were boring), and I'm having a hard time caring.

but where is the hype? that's what i don't understand, where do these concepts of overhyped and overrated come from? maybe it's because i stopped reading pitchfork like a grown up, but i just don't see it. even here, i think that dalen's the only guy that's been really all about it, and we're dorks. i'm really into Too $hort lately, can i overhype him? we can talk about his raps about bitches as opposed to his raps about rapping about bitches.

OH NO! Mean ol' Radcliffe mentioned Arcade Fire again! Must. Get. Defensive.

agreed.

there aren't really many people hyping up the bloc party record. might seem like it, but aside from myself, there's probably only a handful on here that even care about bp. only a few mags have even mentioned them as well. but when i like something, i tend to scream it pretty fucking loudly.

for those that have yet to hear the new bloc party album, here's an mp3 of my fav tune on the album, "Pioneers"......

http://s8.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2C3VT ... OAAJNTDRT9

I still stand by this kooky bastard, despite all he has done to lead me astray. Besides, "Heartbreaker" is dramatically different than his other stuff - he keeps changing gtenres each album, so some slack can be cut here (a.k.a. I can understand people who just like that album)...

As far as Bloc Party goes, I like "Banquet", "Staying Fat", and even "Tulips" - key word here being like. They're catchy, fun, and I don't mind listening to them. Better than the Futureheads, Moving Units, or any of that other stuff they're being compared to...

Chase has a valid point, in that I did not specify who everyone was. I meant The obnish. I see a lot of it on NPs and there is talk of their shows, etc... all over this fucker. I know we pride ourselves on being ahead of the curve, but if the curve ain't any good, who cares?

Radcliffe is right in that there is no hate in my post, just a kind of WTF? I listened to this whole Ep while I was just out. I'm not a musician or critic, but it sounds like recycled 80s stuff to me, with some cool guitar licks. The best part is the end of "The Marshalls are Dead," and that's cos it sounds like ...Trail of Dead.

I agree with Radcliffe that it doesn't have to be earth shattering to be good (I'll stand by Ryan Adams AND The Strokes) but it does have to be good. (There's a little 'hate' for ya Dalen and Dri )

I don't think it's everyone soiling themselves. It's just Dalen. And it doesn't take much for him to soil his pants.

if you mean every British music magazine ever, than yeah, pretty much.

Yeah - remember the time we took him to see "Little Monsters"? His pants were full by the first sighting of Howie Mandel.

um.....case closed.

Let me put it this way, I like a lot of the dance-punk type stuff. Hence, why I like Bloc Party. And from what I noticed, Dalen's into a lot of that too- not too many people on the Ob are into that. So- some people may not think it's good, but different strokes for different folks.

I can see that. Maybe its that I'm just not into that type of music really at all. I didn't start this to start an argument (wait, did I?) I was hoping someone could sell me on this, but maybe its that I just don't like anything like this. I can't dig on The Furtureheads, and if these dudes listed their influences, I would probably not really like any of them, either.

I guess I'm just GAR.

just 1 riff damnit, just 1.

Is this to say that he sucks, or that because I like his stuff I wouldn't like BP?
Seriously, Rock N Roll is better than this band's entire ouvre.

a few of their influences...

gang of four
roxy music
wire
stone roses

Wow, fancy word for a hick.