It’s been an eventful seven years since The Neighbourhood formed in Newbury Park, Calif., a span that has seen the release of three full-length albums, six EPs, a mixtape and a clutch of infectious singles. The Pop/Rock quintet’s most visible entry in that last category would be 2013’s twice-platinum “Sweater Weather,” which hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart; to date, the track’s video has generated over 244 million views on YouTube. Predictably, The Neighbourhood has wedged an impossibly active touring schedule into its consistently busy studio regimen, playing some of the world’s biggest music festivals.
The band — vocalist Jesse Rutherford, guitarists Zach Abels and Jeremy Freedman, bassist Michael Margott and former drummer Bryan Sammis — assembled in 2011 as The Neighborhood, but another American band was already operating under that name, so the quintet’s manager suggested a shift to the British spelling to avoid any legal issues. Within its first year, the group signed with Columbia Records, which led to the release of two EPs in 2012 and an invitation to Coachella on the eve of its 2013 debut full-length, I Love You.
Early in 2014, founding drummer Sammis opted out for a solo career (he’s since released music and toured as Olivver the Kid) and his place at the kit was filled by Brandon Fried. Later that year, The Neighbourhood released The Love Collection EP and #000000 & #FFFFFF mixtape, which featured G-Eazy, Danny Brown and many others, The next year saw the release of sophomore album Wiped Out!, which cracked the Top 15 of the Billboard album chart. Last fall, the band dropped the Hard EP, and followed it early this year with To Imagine, all of which led to the March release of The Neighbourhood’s self-titled third album and the charting singles “Void” and “Nervous.”
They’re not the flavour of the month and they definitely colour outside traditional Pop/Rock lines. The Neighbourhood requests the favour of your company, guvnah.