A place that's built on noise and needs

Bombay Bicycle Club played their first show in Chicago last week at the Subterranean, in front of a very enthusiastic packed house. Let's hope they come back again really soon.

I don't know how I forgot to post about these guys earlier, but in case you completely missed the boat last May, Friendly Fires dropped their sophomore album Pala, and it is so excellent that I decided to blog it late just in case. This trio of English boys from St. Albans sure knows how to jam, and their powerful brand of indie dance defies you not to tap your toe. If you're into Cut Copy or M83, you will go nutty over the driving synthpop of this album, and you will definitely want to catch them the next time they do a U.S. tour. Unfortunately, their record label is notoriously meticulous in keeping their tracks off the web, so I had to resort to these user uploads. They are definitely worth your time all the same:

Can you feel the leeches bite?

Although these guys hardly need any press in their native UK or even in Europe for that matter, Bombay Bicycle Club has hardly received the attention they deserve Stateside. After their catchy and promising debut album I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose in 2009, their popularity erupted from London outwards, and they followed it up with 2010's soothing Flaws, a collection of acoustic tracks including a couple of lovely cover songs. But neither of these two notable albums foretold the release of their newest LP A Different Kind Of Fix this August, a truly brilliant masterpiece of indie rock. While tightening up some of the more raucous elements of their first album, they adeptly blended the best aspects of all their previous work, and there is not a single track that I would not STRONGLY recommend. The heavier rock songs are still beautifully coordinated, and the more melodic slow pieces are every bit as inspired and  charming. I have not enjoyed a full album this much since Foals' marvelous Total Life Forever last year (still one of my favorites), so chalk another one up for the post-Britpop indie team. I honestly could not decide which tracks to share, but since these two were selected by the band themselves as their singles, I figured they are a good place to start (but afterwards you really must listen to the whole album, no joke):

Bombay Bicycle Club "Shuffle" (radio edit) by GrillMarketing

Bombay Bicycle Club - Lights Out, Words Gone by The Sifting Pan