It was four hearty, beer drinking males under 38 with a passionate love of simple rock 'n roll. It was lots of E chords and minor chords, lots of Beatles damage, lots of harmonies and actual friendship. That's what The Neighbors were.
The Neighbors...a band that was shunned by the world. Now let's go back, back in time to the year 1985. There were three men playing together for awhile: John, Scott and Steve in a group called Punch Me Judy. Then a man named Pete joined up for the experience that was to be, in a basement in Arlington, Virginia, just off route 50. For something like 48 hours, they deemed themselves Herschel's Neighbors, memorized chords and lyrics. Days later, they played at a club in Washington, DC that no longer exists, calling themselves Bag 85.
Some parents were there, a few friends, some regulars, future fans, future nobodies. It was an excellent evening, the die was cast. Only months later, the band now called The Neighbors, entered the Arlington studio of Don Zientara called Inner Ear (home of many of the DC area bands that recorded for the Dischord label) to record the album "Famous Potatoes" which would see release on a small french label (Closer).
Later there were tours through the South and Northeast of America. There were gigs with Roy Orbison, NRBQ, Marshall Crenshaw, The dB's and others too wonderfully obscure to mention. Then, under the managerial guidance of a man named John Rowny--whose father was a major player in NATO, but had nothing to do with the career of The Neighbors--more action came. More tours and a second album, "Welcome Wagon" from a small label in New York (Upside). It burst forth in 1987. The label soon went out of business.
Yet strength within the group remained. New songs were written, crappy jobs were attended to. Bass player Scott McKnight recorded the band on four-track (or was it an 8-track?). The outcome was "Masterpiece" tape, musically God-like but commercially ignored. Time passed, the odd gigs persisted, but the laughs were growing thinner. Finally in 1989 The Neighbors split up to try to carry on as normal people.
Peter Gilstrap, April 1996