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The Newbury Park Sound
It’s been said that most of us stop listening to new music — especially by new bands — when we turn 25. And by the time we’re 40 we are hopelessly behind the Zeitgeist when it comes to the Latest Thing. So, how about a quick tutorial to make you cool with your kids on one of the hottest new sounds on the pop charts — courtesy of my son, Tad?
Tad is a fifth-generation journalist who is currently a student at Santa Clara U. after spending a couple years at Oxford working on his A-levels. He wrote his first columns for ABC News at the age of 15, and is a reporter for the local Silicon Valley weekly. However, this is his first feature for a national site (the article is, as you might expect, a bit NSFW).
The Neighbourhood, the band at the heart of this article, is currently one of the hottest acts around — especially after the success of its exquisite (“alt-noir,” as Tad calls it) “Sweater Weather” a couple summers ago. A few months after that song hit the charts, I answered a phone call from Brandon Fried, Tad’s childhood friend. He asked me to pass along the news that he’d dropped out of college, was currently driving home down Highway 5, was joining a band called The Neighbourhood — and would be playing a Grammy concert the next night and leaving on a UK tour the following morning.
It seems that sometimes rock’n’roll dreams still come true. As still do, apparently, the dreams of young freelance writers.
Published in Entertainment
Nice sounds. How did you select the title for your post?
That was the author’s phrase, since Newbury Park is The Neighbourhood’s neighborhood. That, I suppose, and having some fun with Asbury Park, NJ and the old Dick Clark-esque [enter city name] “Sound.”
Ah, thanks. Yes just saw that in the article. Not that this has anything to do with the tunes, but the Author of the article probably should learn that Newbury Park is in Ventura County, about a 30 minute drive from the extreme western-most part of the San Fernando Valley in L.A. Ventura County folk (a generally red county) want nothing to do with, nor to be considered L.A… so I heard.
Good music. Well-written article. Time for a Ricochetti road trip.
Any chance your journalist son has a Conservative/Libertarian view of the world? There’s nothing we need more.
More anarcho-primitivist these days, as he jokingly calling himself. But he’s starting to get smacked by reality. In particular, he’s seriously into making money these days. His younger brother, by comparison, is almost too conservative to be a Ricochetti. So, there’s hope.
I am 60 years old and a few months ago I got tired of listening to classic rock.
So, I flipped around the dial and found a local college station, WBRU out of Brown University. After listening for a couple of days I got in touch with my 27 year old son and sent him the link to the station. He got back to me that I was listening to Indie Rock…the same music he does.
Actually, it isn’t bad. I’ll go farther…it is really pretty good. The music is more highly produced than the old 1960’s stuff and they seem to make a point of introducing different instruments…like the banjo.
Anyway…this is the music I listen to now and I enjoy it.
For all of you other geezers out there, I recommend listening to Elle King’s Exes and Oh’s. This song could have been written in the fifties or early sixties and sung by Brenda Lee. It has that timeless sound. VERY enjoyable.
I could suggest others but I can’t remember the names or artists. Like I said…I’m sixty.