Neighborhood Shit – “Neighborhood Shit”
Neighborhood Shit is the shit. They were told they’d never get anywhere with a name like that but look at them now. Opening up for Taylor Swift in Foxboro! No, I mean opening up for The Cro-Mags and Anti-Nowhere League, June 1st, at the Middle East.
Neighborhood Shit is the shit. They put on local shows- use the name Original Local Collective- they just don’t sit on their tiny asses and pray, “Oh, I hope someone calls us for a gig today.” They do things and they do things right.
Neighborhood Shit is the shit. I used to see their bass player prowling around Midway Matinee shows. Now he’s playing them. He says, “I used to play sports, that was my outlet, now I play music.” I’m glad that he does.
Neighborhood’s the good shit. It’s like they’re sick but in the good way, like they’re bad meaning good. They forge a unique style that mixes punk, metal, hardcore and doom and sound like no one else we have on our site. Their album is abrasive, brutal and art.
Neighborhood is the good shit and mosquitoes have 49 teeth and polar bears hair is transparent and actually, their skin is black; and I have the facts while others stroll leisurely along, pushing a baby carriage, smelling the flowers, but people, PLEASE GET THE RECORD STRAIGHT.
Neighborhood Shit is the shit- ‘k?
Brendan (the guitarist) has the high black metal vocals. Alex (the bassist) has the low, growly hardcore vocals. And they frequently trade off lines (like they do in this song- “i”). Terry, (the drummer) he hits things with sticks. This is a strutting metal/hardcore tune with a doom pause plopped in it, then it comes back with a roar. “Through the worst of it all/ We’re still in this shit/ You kick me when I fall/ But I still won’t quit.” Some doomy Sabbath chords break it down towards the end that adds intensity and doesn’t subtract from the lines, “With the cards thrown down/ We’re still in this shit/ Don’t get it twisted/ We will never quit.” I won’t quit thinking this is a great song.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/02 i.mp3|titles=i]
A dissonant minor chord change backs up a propulsive rhythm section and rant against the police. “The blue lights that flicker tell us you’re here/ Has my brain fucked up and flooded with fear.” Though I know there’s bad cops I also feel cops, firemen and soldiers put their lives on the line for us in their jobs while most of us don’t. That being said this is a great headbanging tune with a ringing, metal-ish guitar line running above a sometimes crushing and sometimes ominous rhythm section.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/06 Pick a Side (Pigicide).mp3|titles=Pick a Side (Pigicide)]
This song “Pressure” is a hardcore rush with the trade off vocals bouncing off the walls. “Pressure everyday/ Break my back just to end up this way/ Boils my blood, thrives in my brain/ All of the pressure will make me insane.” This song is short and sour and complete.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/04 Pressure.mp3|titles=Pressure]
“Rot” (Destroy Your Hood) is a song against gentrification. Being a band from South Boston they know what they sing about. “But these people will never know/ The struggles that once went down/ In their perfect house/ On the east side of town.” They suggest you destroy your hood before someone else does while they continue to destroy every fiber of our beings with a crushing sound of minor key metal chords slamming against hardcore rhythms. They follow this with doom metal pauses leading into the desperate, anguished words until the song builds speed and the chords bring it to completion, completely leveling our minds and ears in its quake.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/09 Rot (Destroy Your Hood).mp3|titles=Rot (Destroy Your Hood)]
“This Is Our War” starts with some feedback guitar until it explodes in full combat with tanks of thunderous sounds detonating landmines in our guts and up our spinal columns. Brendan rattles off common maladies like, “Drug Addiction/ Booze Affliction/ Unemployment/ Fiscal Enslavement.” While Alex answers with “This is our war.” This song makes me think of an ambulance on fire crashing into a burning effigy of God. The music is full out hardcore rhythm while the vocals bounce around the speakers of our souls and the guitar offers aggressive and decisive answer to all until an explosive, revolting surge at the end. My favorite song on the cd.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/03 This is our War.mp3|titles=This is our War]
When Andy hears this band he says “punk”, when I hear this band I say “metal” meaning- metal heads think this is punk and punkers think this is metal and they all meet at the crossroads of hardcore.
But what is great about this band is it’s new and alive and bringing in elements of punk, hardcore, metal and doom and representing all that is vital, all that is on the streets of Boston, all of the passion, all of the hate, all the good and the bad, all the grime and dirt and displaying it for all to see.
And you, or your neighborhood, may not give a shit about what I have to say (but if you did I’d probably tell you this is the best album I’ve heard all year) but you should give a shit about what Neighborhood Shit has to (say), because they embody where you’re at, what you’ve experienced. They reflect the shit you have to go through to live everyday. They represent the struggle and the frustration of young, aware intelligent folks who see a dead end in modern existence and believe in another way.
They’re not just playing music, they’re playing our lives, they’re playing our thoughts and they’re playing our feelings- every dissonant feedback and intense vocal heard here is inside you waiting to leap out.
Listen for it.
Listen to them.
(Slimedog)
