Neighborhood Watch is medicine for music industry sickness. Tired of “indie” music released on Warner imprints? Visit the website of the out-of-a-corner-of-the-living-room record label Undetected Plagiarism, who has more integrity and a killer ear than they do money. The conceit of Neighbourhood Watch is bands either presently or recently in college. Most of the bands are from Northern California, with two offerings from USC. The CD opens with Berkeley’s Clarendon Hills’ lyric driven paean to identity politics (“Her parents don’t speak much English/And I think they are judging me/A Chinese boy who doesn’t speak Chinese/I am an oddity”). Neighborhood Watch’s impressive range is exemplified in the shift from USC’s Joe the Intern’s spiritual “The Afterlife Show” (“I shot guns/And I loved girls/And now I stand in front of the gate of pearls/I had fun which means I sinned/And now he’s telling me that I can’t get in”) to Berkeley’s cheeky Librarians’ “Record Store” where “we buy records that you’ve never heard of/And that makes us cooler than you.”
UCLA’s Division Day’s standout, “Acres” is a perfect song. Distinctive lead vocals, surprising tempo changes, original lyrics (“Acres and acres of signals and telegrams/all of them aching for your ownership/codified messages sent in transit and later rerouted/all of these and other excuses for not giving in/is it too far/there’s just too many roads”). Of note is Berkeley’s Skyflake’s lead singer Tricia Saria Ramos’ quirkily lilting voice embodying everything good about the kindercore sound. Other talented bands space prevents lauding include Berkeley’s Grand Unified Theory, Vernacular and Knulla Roofs as well as USC’s Daphne the Painted Lady.
Neighborhood Watch weakens towards the end, with five songs jarringly inferior to the first nine. Berkeley’s Fenway Park, Mastema and Charmless, as well as SFSU’s Four Minute Mile, don’t offer much of note. In all fairness, poorer production quality hurts these bands, which seem to be going for more mainstream, larger sounds, either power poppy or sweeping arena rock, while the other bands work better within a lo-fi aesthetic. The second to last track, UC Davis’ Robert & Karen’s “April,” is simply obnoxious, the only song here that makes the college music error of confusing reaction with appreciation. Redemption is found in the end as Berkeley’s Noah Berkowitz’s restrained voice finishes out the CD “I never give credit/And I never say much/When I’m with you time just does smile and relax and I’m pacified.” Much bitching about the state of the music scene is done by people who proceed to do nothing about it. Undetected Plagiarism is being part of the solution, putting what little money they have where their mouth is. No musical offering can be everything to everybody, just the sheer bravery of the eclectic nature of Neighbourhood Watch deserves credit. On a small level, this CD is ten killer songs for a suggested retail price of six bucks. On another level it’s a risky attempt to keep the term “independent music” from being watered down to meaninglessness, and that is huge.
-Sherry Sly
West Coast Performer Magazine
May 2003