Eight Years Later…

Back in the Fall of 2004, I started my freshman year of college. Both of my best friends went away to Northern California; one to SF State, and the other to Berkeley. We used to spend lots of time on Livejournal…these were the days before Twitter, and Facebook barely existed. We were never much for talking on the phone and when we did talk, it was mostly on the weekends. But we spent a lot of our time in between classes chatting on AIM. I remember one day my friend Nisa came back from class and told me about how she got handed some random flyer on the way back to her dorm. It was of the photocopied on neon paper variety. Sure, it was like every other random flyer you get handed but for some reason there was something about it that made her want to Google the band that was on the flyer. And as soon as she did, she sent me this video:

This was the video that made us fall in love with Bloc Party. We played "Little Thoughts" to death and we got our hands on all the singles we could from their EPs. But I think we mostly rejoiced in believing we were on to something that no one else knew about just yet. Then about 3 months later (March 2005), we saw them at the Glass House just a month after the release their first album, Silent Alarm. I remember picking up a shirt that read "God Bless Bloc Party" that was printed on an American Apparel tee. To this day, that night is still one of the best/favorite concerts of my life.

Now Bloc Party is about to release their fourth album, appropriately titled Four with the first single "Octopus". Although their sound has changed over the years, I feel like they somehow seem to always align with the changes in my life. It's been about two months since I've graduated from college and I feel like Four has come at a good time.

There are many elements of this video that bring back memories of "Little Thoughts"; From the bright colors to the punchiness, it's like they've come full circle. I love everything about this video. And it's full of the energy and bravado that the first album had but with more confidence. With this album due out next month, I have really high hopes for it and I can't wait to hear what else they've been working on.