Common Market, Durham

Thursday, April 11, 7 p.m.

Hopefully you'll have listened to the song so many times by then that you'll have it memorized and you can hop on the mic and join me when I sing it. I promise not to do this: 

I've also got some surprises up my sleeve, in the form of two other songs I guarantee you've never heard me sing, unless you've been creeping outside my window over the last few days, in which case: OK then. 

Come on out some more

Before I get to a deep dive on There Goes the Neighborhood, I want to tell you about two upcoming dates, one of which is online. 

Piedmont Earth Day Fair, Winston-Salem

Saturday, April 20, Noon

It's a free event with Family Fun! Live Music! Food Trucks! Environmental Education! I'm one of several musicians who'll be playing sets on the hour starting at 10 a.m. I go on at noon. If you know someone in Winston-Salem, tell 'em to come check me out, and not to bring any single-use water bottles! 

The Piedmont, for those of you not around here, is a region in North Carolina that's basically the central part. 

Licks & Lyrics, WCOM 103.5 FM, Carrboro

Saturday, May 4, 3-4 p.m.

You have to snuggle up pretty close to the actual building to hear this low-power station on your FM dial, but you can always listen live on your device by clicking this link. 

If you do that May 4 at 3 p.m. EDT, you'll get to hear me talking to Dan Friedman and playing some of my songs, almost certainly including the ... 

Song of the Newsletter:

There Goes the Neighborhood

The title gives away the subtext that despite the silly story of having a dancing bear, an elephant and some gearhead dinosaurs for neighbors, this song is about a certain kind of bigotry.

It's that kind where you maybe don't like a certain kind of person — like say dancing bears — but that one you know? Your neighbor? Heck, they're OK! 

As long as they don't act too much like one of those, you know, bears. You get what I mean, right? 

He's my neighbor and I like him

But he better stay out of my trash

Or we're gonna fight!

The singer's neighbors are going to say:

There goes the neighborhood

There goes the neighborhood

There goes the neighborhood

When we fight

Of course, that's what people say when the wrong people move into the neighborhood, whoever the wrong people are. Elephants maybe. But it's our narrator, the protector of the neighborhood, who's starting the fights, isn't it? 

You can read the full lyrics on YouTube or at Bandcamp, where you can also download the song for any amount of money you want, starting at $0.

I like to play There Goes the Neighborhood first for new audiences. It's not too fast and loud, not too slow and sensitive. It's got some dynamics. It almost certainly doesn't sound like anything anyone before me that night has played. It's easy to understand what I'm singing even if the sound system isn't great.

It's also easy to play and sing, which is nice for a first song. Sometimes it takes me a minute to settle in at a new venue and I can be mistake-prone on the first song. Also all the other songs but especially the first one. 

And There Goes the Neighborhood is kind of a calling card for me. If I had to pick one song of mine that says "this is what I do," at the moment I'd pick this one. It's a little funny — I've seen and heard people chuckling at the punch lines — and can be enjoyed as just a silly song, but there's something a little serious behind it too. You don't need the serious part, but it's there if you want it. Yeah, that's me.

It also lets me do a little stage business that often loosens up an audience: "There Goes the Neighborhood" has lots of stops, and one of them is the end of the song. But since there's been so many, the audience doesn't realize the song's over, even if I play the last chord with a flourish of finality and definitively step away from the microphone. I have to break the spell by saying "Thank you." 

So I started doing this: 

There Goes the Neighborhood is my most frequently video'd song, as you can see from the DIY-edit music video above and linked again here. Thanks to all the videographers and livestreamers who captured those clips, who are listed at the end of the video. 

One more plea: I'd love it if you gave it a play or three on whatever streaming service you use, but if it's all the same to you, Spotify. 

I mean look: It's a low-fi, self-produced, guitar and vocal song. I don't have any illusions that it's going to blow up, but I'd like to get it in front of a few people, and a little surge of listens on Day 1 might convince our algorithm overlords to give it a bit of a nudge. 

Thanks.  

Your friend,

The King Teen

Instagram | Spotify

Bandcamp | Facebook | YouTube

The throat clear that used to be at the beginning 

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