Song of the Week

I've never really gotten into Bloc Party all that much ... I bought the first cd, and it was ok, but it never got me excited enough to buy anything else from them. However, one song that I absolutely can't get out of my head (or MP3 player) is Banquet - arguably their most popular song.

It starts off with a swooshing sound, kind of like a helicopter ... followed by toe-tapping drumming prior to actually jumping into the song. To me, the song sounds like a blending of The Police, Joe Jackson (think Steppin' Out), and Men at Work. The band is often compared to the Cure and the Strokes.

Here's some more information on the band from Wikipedia, in case you are interested:

Bloc Party are a British indie rock band, composed of Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Russell Lissack (lead guitar), Gordon Moakes (bass guitar, synths, backing vocals) and Matt Tong (drums, backing vocals). Their brand of indie rock has been compared to bands such as The Cure, Gang of Four and The Strokes.[1]

The band was formed at the 1999 Reading Festival by Okereke and Lissack. They went through a variety of names before settling on Bloc Party in 2003. Moakes joined the band after answering an advert in NME magazine, while Tong was picked via an audition. Bloc Party got their break by giving BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq and Franz Ferdinand's lead singer Alex Kapranos a copy of their demo, "She's Hearing Voices", which was later released as a single.

In February 2005, the band released their debut album Silent Alarm. It was critically acclaimed and made NME's Album of the Year list.[2] The album was certified platinum in the UK a year later. The band built on this success with the release of their second studio album, A Weekend in the City, in 2007. The album reached a peak of number two in the UK and number twelve in the Billboard 200. In August 2008, the band released their third album, Intimacy.