Sound of the Week (14.04.13)

The Local Natives.

I came across The Local Natives thanks to a friend of mine who has, in my opinion, an unparalleled taste in music, a serious ear for good music, a right “squiggly” fucker.

The name of the Local Native’s second EP is called ‘Hummingbird’. The band wrote and produced most of it while in Brooklyn, New York. This came about when the band met Aaron Dessner while on tour with his band, The National. He asked if he could produce their next album. Drummer Matt Frazier noted, "One night, after maybe drinking a little bit too much, he was like, 'Maybe I should work with you guys.' We were like, 'Sure, buddy.' After meeting with all these other producers, it just seemed like we should work with somebody we really get along with and respect as a songwriter." So, the band relocated to Dessner's home in – that’s right – Brooklyn, NYC.

Vocalist and keyboardist Kelcey Ayer, said of the time in Brooklyn, "It was awesome because we stayed upstairs on the two top floors, and he and his family are downstairs, and the studio is in the back. It's this really tiny space, but it was so convenient to us."

Happy families…

OK, enough of that. Back to the music itself.

Hummingbird was bound to be different to their debut album, Gorilla Manor. Not only did they have Dessner involved, but they were also dealing with the departure of band member and bassist, Andy Hamm, which the band have described as “heartbreaking” in interviews.

It is a refreshing mix of bare-faced emotion - that even the most “feelings? Ugh” types couldn’t argue with - and upbeat loveliness that makes you smile and head/toe bop to.

‘Heavy Feet’ has a really nice flow to it. It has made its way onto my running playlist.

The first time I heard ‘Breakers’, it wasn’t the album version, it was a live acoustic recording of it on the bank of some river in Paris. I have to admit, in classic Becca style, I prefer the acoustic version, but either way the song is good. Very good.

Bowery is the last track on the album. I remember when I was younger – a lot younger – I used to find that the last few tracks on albums were always rubbish. I soon realised I was listening to the wrong albums. This track is a perfect finisher, that makes me want to play the album from the start, all over again.

I have two favourite tracks on this album. One is ‘Columbia’ (track no. 10). This was written after the death of Ayer's mother in 2011, and therefore is unsurprisingly dark. The lyrics are raw and beautiful, matched perfectly by the unrelenting emotion in Ayer’s voice. He even name-checks her in its closing moments.

My other favourite track is ‘You & I’. In fact, it is probably my favourite track by the band, followed closely by Airplanes, from their previous album. I adore the lyrics and the build up is pretty cracking.

Most of the reviews I’ve read see critics concluding that, with Hummingbird, Local Natives show that they can dig deeper, and that in the case of their debut EP, they were just scratching the surface. Having listened to both a lot, I agree to a certain extent. I like Gorilla Manor a lot. I’d rate them close enough, but Hummingbird takes the win. It feels more like the all-growed-up, slightly cooler and wiser brother of the debut.

Big fan of this. Cannot wait to see them live.

Sound of the Week

So this is my first 'Sound of the Week' installment in a while. Plan is that I manage to do one of these - yes, you guessed it - a week. Famous last words...

The Morning Benders.

I discovered this band last night, completely by accident, while baking an apple pie (there it is below, right before it went into the oven. It was exquisite).

I haven’t been able to tear myself away from them since… or the apple pie that I made, for that matter… snort

I accidentally came across a live acoustic performance they gave, of their song, Promises. I was looking for some Local Native live sets to add to a playlist and up popped this video, as they do on YouTube, along the right-hand side of the webpage. Couple of things caught my eye, the first, being the name ‘The Morning Benders’. It’s a bit odd, and for any Irish people reading this that are as immature as I am, it’s also quite funny. The other thing that caught my eye was the thumbnail frame of the video. It was a close up of the lads in the band, each of whom embodied everything wonderful about classic geekiness (see for yourself below). Between that and the name of the band… I was sold. Off I clicked...

Promises may be just another one of those songs about an uncertain relationship, but its unique combination of big-beat thump and tangled voices add something kind of special.

As most people tend to do when they find a song they like by a band they’ve not heard before, I went and had a gander at what else they had to offer. After a little bit of digging, I got the impression it was their second album, ‘Big Echoes’ that I needed to pay most attention to. So I slowly but surely, in my belly-full-o-pie state, nommed my way through what ended up feeling like dessert number two... The type of dessert number two you have room for, and turns out to be way more satisfying than you had anticipated.

The Morning Benders' vocalist and founder, Christopher Chu, said in a recent interview, that he likes to attack the recording process with a "Phil Spector kind of vibe." He went on to say that he would just like to "pile in like 50 people into the studio... and just blow it out."

Enter their recording of ‘Excuses’ (video of recording below), courtesy of Yours Truly sessions. Excuses is my favourite song on the album, and I think it is down to this recording. The quartet were joined by an array of friends and San Francisco music found-abouts, while they performed the song.

I fell for the lyrics pretty quickly. Chu says, when speaking about the meaning of the song, “It’s a song about trying to reconcile falling in love for the first time… physically, specifically, having sex for the first time, or kissing for the first time. That kind of experience. And then, growing older with someone, and picturing yourself with someone forever. And it’s trying to reconcile how you can make those two things work, or how they can exist in one person…”

Excuses is a fun, sunny, lilting little tune that evokes a 1950s pop feel. If this song were a person, that person would be an incredibly easy-going, honest pal, who you'd love hanging out with, especially on lazy summer Sundays.

These guys are fun to listen to. I have a long way to go in terms of making my way through all of their EPs to date (there are about seven, I think) but Big Echo was a good place to start. It isn’t overly sappy or sweet, the way you might think an album from a group of mop-headed twenty-something lads from California might be. It’s accessible, and it kind of gets deeper with every listen. Like many of my favourite albums, this seems like it has longevity.

Enjoy.