How Serendipitous.

Yesterday evening, as I'm on my seemingly interminable bus ride home after work, I decided to get a little creative in my music selecting for the final leg of my journey. I was in the mood for something more or less indie that was still up-tempo enough to keep me awake as I stood there, bookless, among the masses. I settled on Bloc Party's debut album "Silent Alarm", and it fit the bill incredibly well. (pun intended)

So that evening I went home and decided to look up what all the latest was on BlocParty.com, and lo and behold, yesterday they released a new album out of the blue. It's called "Intimacy" and from now until October 27th it's a digital download only, though they have options for people who want a digital copy now and a physical CD later.

I've got to say, it's pretty friggin' good, too. It's a little more across the board, but it all sounds like what we've come to expect from Bloc Party. I may even go so far as to say that it's better than their sophomore album "A Weekend in the City", which I enjoyed, but thought lacked a little bit of edge from the first album. It seems they've re-captured said edge with this album.

Also, I have realized that I am a huge fan of indie rock with strings. I was impressed when Throw Me the Statue put strings in their opening song "Young Sensualists" on their album. Murder By Death, though not really "indie", has a cello that really rounds out their sound. (it doesn't hurt that the cellist is hawt, too) A few other bands have incorporated cello or violin into their music, and I pretty much always enjoy it. Then, last weekend I lucked into seeing this band called Geographer at Cafe Du Nord, and I was thoroughly impressed. They are three key members, with some supporting cast, but one of the three members plays cello (along with some keys/drum loop stuff), and they have a great sound. While still being wowed by that show, I happened upon some discussion of Headlights, who remain one of my favorite bands, and there was argument of the relative hotness of Erin Fein, their vocalist. Someone arguing that she wasn't particularly hot mentioned the band Ra Ra Riot, who has a couple cuties in the band. Luckily, they are also incredibly talented, and feature both cello and violin in a number of their songs.

So there you have it: click around the indie blog world, go to shows, and you too may find new bands to adore and new albums from bands you're already fond of.