Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke has slagged off his band's US record label. Well, not really, but he has slagged off the magazine that is owned by the same company.
Bloc Party, signed to V2 and Wichita over here, are signed to Vice Records in the US, the record label spin off of arty New York mag Vice - that glossy affair that you sometimes stumble across in bars in this country too. Vice has courted controversy in the past because, despite its trendy image and audience, it has published articles sympathetic with more right wing or conservative groups and opinions, less often associated with the trendy crowd. Some articles on immigration a couple of years back led to some criticism of underlying racism, though others deny that was ever the case, and say the mag, while sometimes conservative, is very much anti-racism.
Anyway, Okereke now says he wished he'd been more upfront about his objections to the magazine at the time his band signed to the brand's record label. He's quoted as saying: "That's one of the things that I most regret about our history. I wish I'd voiced my concerns at the time, articulated them more clearly. The people that we work with are lovely, and they're a separate company from the magazine, but Vice the brand just fills me with dread, really. It's a real kind of nasty vortex, where any decency and general compassion to other people has just been completely obliterated. I don't know if the magazine is still like that, but it certainly was very much so back then".