Local Natives

Gorilla Manor (Frenchkiss)

By Christine Werthman
Published: March 7th, 2010 | 6:45pm

There’s something primal about the music of Local Natives. The debut album, Gorilla Manor, from the L.A.–based, all-male group shows the band breaking down music to the basics: melody and rhythm. There are keyboards and electric and bass guitars that, at once, punch up the background (“Sun Hands”) and another, give the music an orchestral quality (“Shape Shifter”). But the vocals and the dry, sometimes militaristic, percussion are what really steal the spotlight.

Local Natives successfully utilize three singers; separately, the mid-range voices aren’t anything special, but the simple harmonies those voices create together give the music its richness. It’s an approach that might make you think of Fleet Foxes, but the comparison waivers as the band goes through the album’s 12 tracks. The singing, more or less, comes across as more insistent and aggressive — not without quiet and controlled moments, but lead singer Taylor Rice is not afraid to let it rip. The lyrics of Local Natives also make the band seem more citified: where Fleet Foxes fits in the cabin, Local Natives comes with you on the subway.

To go along with their cosmopolitan vibe, Locals Natives dole out some in-your-face lyrics. On “Airplanes,” one of the best songs on the album, Rice laments, “I want you back, back / You back,” and shows off his sentimental pack-rat tendencies: “I keep those chopsticks from when you / Taught abroad, taught abroad in Japan.” Sure, these words could be sung by some dude in a flannel shirt sitting in the woods, but they’re more befitting of a guy who pairs that flannel shirt with some skinny jeans and is hanging out in a cramped city apartment.

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