Written by Erin Phelps
The Neighbourhood will be in Seattle this Monday, April 9th, at the Showbox SoDo. Despite the British spelling of their name, the band hails from Newbury Park, California. The Neighbourhood has been creating their synth-pop, chart-topping tunes since 2011, and if you were listening to pop radio anytime since then to now, you’ve heard one of their songs whether you know it or not.
The band consists of vocalist Jesse Rutherford, guitarists Zachary Abels and Jeremiah Freedman, bassist Michael Margott, and drummer Brandon Fried. Together they have created a sound that is distinctly theirs, while still having versatility to evolve and polish their music over the years. The band has experimented with sound instrumentally and vocally, with their newest self-titled LP adding more synth, and more distorted vocals than previous releases.
My first memory of The Neighbourhood was like most other young adults my age—I heard the band’s track “Sweater Weather” on the radio and was immediately hooked. I began to dive a little deeper into their LP I Love You. which “Sweater Weather” was released on, as well as other hits such as “Afraid,” and “Female Robbery.” I remember being entranced by their sound as I had never experienced a band quite like The Neighbourhood. Sadly, and admittedly, I did not follow The Neighbourhood very closely for many years, and I’ve missed a lot of their releases since I Love You.
Something compelled me to listen to them again this past fall, and I was able to get caught up with all the releases I missed. It was almost overwhelming—the band has been steadily creating for the past few years and have released two LPs and four EPs since 2013. It would require a few pages to comb through the songs on these releases, however I’ll offer you a couple of highlights in case you’re in catch up mode like I am:
On their LP #000000 & #FFFFFF (that was actually released for free), The Neighbourhood loaded the album with star-studded features, the likes of YG, French Montana, DeJ Loaf, and G-Eazy. Being partial to hip-hop, I particularly like the track with French Montana titled “#icanteven.” Additionally, the band just released a full-length self-titled album that compiles songs that were previously released on EPs through 2017 and early on this year. My favorites from their new release are “Scary Love” and “Nervous,” although there are many more great tracks.
Besides hearing The Neighbourhood’s music on Monday, I’m also excited to see their unique staging. Recently, while watching their performance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, I noticed that their stage presence is reminiscent of 60s pop rock bands performing on The Andy Griffith Show. This may not be exactly what they’re going for, but the isolated nature of each member of the band, the old hanging microphone, and the matching suits projected a serious throwback. I’m interested to see how the band will navigate this stage presence as they navigate their anthology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvt31LfNAEo
To see updates from The Neighbourhood, you can check out their Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also listen to their music on YouTube and Spotify to catch up for their concert this Monday at the Showbox Sodo.
Find tickets and more information for this all ages event here. Doors at 7:00 PM and the show begins at 8:00 PM.
ERIN PHELPS | ready to live out my high school dream | KXSU Assistant Program Director