New Music Report: Local Natives

Rolling Stone blogger Daniel Kreps directs your attention to Local Natives' debut disc Gorilla Manor — which checked in on the charts at Number 142 this week — in our weekly spotlight of the best new music. The quintet come from Los Angeles' Silver Lake district, and like their neighbors the Fleet Foxes, Local Natives excel at multi-part harmonies. But while Fleet Foxes gravitate towards more rootsy, Crosby, Stills and Nash-style harmonics, Local Natives draw on the Talking Heads' brand of Afro-pop (Gorilla Manor actually features a cover of Talking Heads' "Warning Sign"). Other standouts on the record (co-produced by Raymond Richards) include the infectious "Camera Talk" and "Cubism Dream," which sounds like something a supergroup of My Morning Jacket and Grizzly Bear would have created.