Bubbling Under: The Secret State Isn’t So Secret Anymore; Also, the Neighborhood, Alexis Spight, Watch The Duck

Billboard presents “Bubbling Under,” a weekly look at new and noteworthy acts making their way toward Billboard chart success. Up this week: the Secret State, the Neighbourhood, Alexis Spight and Watch the Duck

The Secret State

The rock quintet the Secret State is looking to translate impressive online attention to radio airplay. The group (forced to go in hiatus early in its existence when drummer Michael Marx-Gibbons was deployed to Iraq) has garnered 35 million YouTube views for its new single “The Biggest Mistake” (Stealth Tiger) since its Sept. 21 posting. The track is approaching the Mainstream Top 40 chart with notable airplay at KVLY McAllen, Texas (359 plays through Dec. 2, according to Nielsen BDS, Sirius XM’s 20 on 20 channel (278) and WXXX Burlington, Vt. (110).

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The Neighbourhood

For a band that’s barely a year old, the Neighbourhood is quickly heightening its profile. (Despite the British spelling of its name, the act hails from Thousand Oaks, Calif.) Formed in August 2011, it signed to Columbia Records this year and dropped its debut EP “I’m Sorry” in May. The quintet have amassed nover a 1 million YouTube views for its video for “Sweater Weather,” which is flirting with a debut on the Alternative chart. The band is aiming to release its debut full-length album early next year.

Alexis Spight

Alexis Spight, the runner-up on the recently-concluded season of BET’s “Sunday Best” singing competition, has her sights set on the Gospel Songs chart, under which her debut single “Imagine Me” (Music World) shows up at 20 of the list’s 46 reporters. The 19-year old Buffalo, N.Y., native resides in Kansas City with her parents; all three are graduates of the Buffalo Performing Arts School. Spight is finishing her debut album “L.O.L (Living Out Loud),” due in March.

Watch the Duck

(*Video above may not be appropriate for all viewers)
A genre-bending sound fusing urban and dubstep is the bedrock of Atlanta’s three-man DJ group Watch the Duck. The video for its track “Poppin’ Off” (Epic) features the dance group Dragon House Crew, which includes Cyrus “Glitch” Spencer, the 2011 runner-up on Fox TV’s “So You Think You Can Dance.” The cut is nearing the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop airplay chart, with KNDA Corpus Christi, Texas, leading all panelists with 41 plays last week.

Reporting by Keith Caulfield, Wade Jessen, Rauly Ramirez and Gary Trust of the Billboard charts department.

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