I’ve been pretty busy lately with a lot of things not related to music, but I have been listening to a lot of music. One new band that has really caught my attention is The Neighbourhood. I heard their song “Sweater Weather” on the radio and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since then. It has instrumentals similar to some of my favorites from Death Cab, but an overall feel and vocal performance more similar to some of The Script’s songs when they were almost rapping. I also checked out their other music, and they have two EP’s released right now, I’m Sorry… and Thank You, and I pretty much liked all of their songs, especially “Let It Go” and “Wires”. These guys have an awesome sound and I recommend you check them out.
A big part of following up on their music was that I had recently become a Spotify user. I joined mostly so I could make sure my song made it up there ok, and have generally been against what Spotify does. To me, it seems like offering up almost every song out there for free streaming is really not keeping the artist in mind, but I found that it offers some other benefits for artists. The simplicity of using it led me to check out a lot of music I wouldn’t have otherwise explored, like The Neighbourhood, and now, being the music consumer that I am, I want to buy their stuff and see them in concert. Without Spotify, I probably would have forgotten how much I like “Sweater Weather” and moved on. I may not be the average Spotify user, but in this case it brought a new fan to a band! In general, bands make way more money on shows and merch than on selling their music, so to me it looks like streaming services are turning out to be a positive for bands trying to get their music out there.
In other news, I’m working on finishing up a few songs that my brother and I have been working on for a while. I can’t wait to get those out to you guys!
Eric