Glasgow

It’s funny to me when Brit folk are impressed by the 4 hour drives, like the one we had from Leeds to Glasgow. Used to touring the states, our average city to city time is over 6 hours, and we’ve become much too familiar with the occasional 30+ hour drive in the last few months. Van time is good time. It’s time for humus and pita and reading books. Finished The History of Love while a constant portrait of gloomy skied, ship laden fields filled the van window.

As a support band, it can take a few songs for a crowd who don’t know your music to respond, but the Glasgow kids would have gone crazy for a miniature monkey clashing a cymbal thrown out onto the stage. These were kids ready for new music. Everything is cake until halfway through the second song we hear muffled yell through our monitors; “stop f*cking playing!!” Confused, half the band decides to keep going with the song until the fire alarm kicked in, completely drowning us out. We finally relinquished as the crowd evacuated the building. They say it was the smoke machine that did it, which I think is a much better theory than someone straight hated our set and in a last ditch effort to escape misery decided to try and end the show.

Once they let everyone back inside our set time was almost up, so we finished with a couple songs and ended with Sun Hands. We invited up Nick from Marina, Alexis from Golden Silvers, and Joey from Yes Giantess for a massive ending drum jam session. So many drums on stage my ears were bleeding after the set. Needless to say that will be a repeat set closer for the rest of the tour.

I was determined to get in a solid night at Glasgow based off two reasons: 1. We had a day off following and 2. When we asked the bartender what was the recommended Scottish beer, he replied, “Whiskey.”

We ended up at the local Art School turned euro trance club in downtown. Three hours of intense communal dance moves and a few “beers” later, we were ready to go find a place to continue the celebration of Glasgow, but unfortunately had no common sense. First place we were kicked out of was Yes Giantess’ Hilton suite. Dance moves were auditioned, beds were somersaulted over, lamps overturned, and a three member Hilton employee confrontation council was at our door not to be haggled with within a half an hour. Next we tried to bring the group to our own room at the Glasgow Travel Lodge. We literally didn’t make it through the door as the desk woman was threatening angrily to call the police the moment she saw us approaching. Soggy, miserably tired and near deciding to just bum it and sleep in some cushionless couches left outside for the trash, we finally found victory at Nick and Nick’s (Marina’s rhythm section) who were at another hotel down the street. We pushed the two single beds next to each other and crammed seven people horizontally like sardines, finally closing our eyes at 7:30am. Needless, to say Glagow lived up to the infamy.

Taylor

Local Natives

Album Artwork

Matt:


Ryan:Andy:


Taylor:

Kelcey:


There is a little tail end on the album artwork so for sharing purposes only...

An idea is sparked somewhere in the think blob of the better known human brain. This idea soon sprouts a new think stem from which blooms a road map of new trails, rails and roads. Every once and a while we will focus and dwell, analyze and reanalyze this idea to the point of over inflation. The head throbs and swells like a belly breathing and suddenly your focal point is lost and bursts into varieties you can't recall. It's funny how this idea, this dream and this pursuit over time molds itself into an ever constant pressure to obtain what you've always wanted...and it makes you feel as if your head is going to explode.

With this atrocity in mind I headed out to Ralphs(supermarket) around the corner from our house to get some supplies. I had been really wanting to use meat in something for awhile so I knew I needed that. With the rest of the bits and chunks I tried to find elements that would apply to each one of our personalities. I could go into detail on why Taylor has foil in his head or why Kelcey has cottage cheese but I won't. White trash bags which were taped to the yellow tile floor in our upstairs bathroom. I had a pile of groceries, dirt, weeds, paint and a camera. Like a fool with a sleep mask on I proceeded to blop, drop and throw specific liquids and solids onto the flattened trash bags. For the broken skulls I supplied shattered bottles and broken melons. Cleaning the melon seeds out of my bath tub drain proved to be the longest part of the entire process. I thought a splatter logo would fit well enough with the rest of these piles created and the words were brought about with left over black paint. The layout of LN was based off the wolf poster we had.

The mouths on the back were simply my way of fucking with an image of each of us singing. I just really liked the idea of someone imaging those images when listening.

The inside poster was done by Matt. It was originally a random photo someone had taken at a party turned food fight at our previous house. All of us have always loved this image and thought it really captured the idea of "Gorilla Manor" in a nutshell. Notice how Matt is literally in mid air caught in the mayhem of flour, peanut butter, pasta, sugar, cereal and liquor.

Thats it. Hope you enjoy

Andy
Local Natives




Front Cover:


Back Cover:Inside Lyrics/Info fold out:


Inside fold:
Inside Poster:

First date in Newcastle

We have now been on the road overseas for about one week. Sufficient to say that the little details that squiggle their way in between people from the states and people over here are beginning to show their necks. Its a breathe of fresh air to find trophies like a greek salad, pita bread and hummus or four kinds of couscous inside many of the gas stations along our routes. I also feel the need to mention they are selling for around $2. I think most Americans would guess couscous is a small beetle found in Australia or maybe in Florida. I am nipped by the fact that most of the showers here are quite awkward and small. I feel as if I am completing my weekend chores as a kid while trying to find out if hot water was just a fantasy of mine or not. The older architecture can be blamed and would also explain the smaller elevators and consistent smell of body odor in the air. A pint is a true pint and people could give two shits who you are before they say hello to you. In other words, we are enjoying ourselves very much.

In many ways we are on a first awkward date with the UK. We have decided to meet solely based on pure fascination with each other. Neither of us know exactly what we are looking for and don't really care. Unsure of what to say we sip our wine and spew nothing by hot air making asses out of ourselves. We'll drink, we'll dance and maybe, just maybe not one of us, but both of us will get lucky.




just discovered animation on photoshop...

Making me queasy at the moment:
1. Triangles
2. Space art
3. Rainbows
4. coughing
5. commitment
6. Travelodge bedding

Making me healthy at the moment:
1. Vernon Courtland Johnston
2. skulls
3. bad animation
4. Mark and Spencers
5. ksubi
6. commitment

Andy
Local Natives

Soaked in Manchester

We have settled in, soaked some of it in and are readying ourselves for more. Currently being a rather large geek and spending my precious back stage time on the internet in Manchester. To my left is a beautiful and most likely ancient church. I am quickly reminded of how young the United States is compared to most of the world. Ryan is finally in a place where many of his favorite bands grew up and Matt is taking very nicely to his "prawn cocktail crisps"(translation: ketchup flavored potato chips). We are slowly but surely being integrated into this proper society.

Being that this is a tour put on by a major publication, we are all also getting our first lick of being interviewed. I think the majority of us still get a little giddy at the fact that people outside of Southern California are interested in us. Certain questions for new bands have to be asked. i.e. How did you get you started? Tell us about the album? etc. In the gut of us all we take what we create very close to heart and I can't say how many times we've been at our wits end trying to get a melody just right or yelling into each others faces fighting over a lead line or bridge. Yet with the monotony and repetitiveness it was interesting to see how lackadaisical we would get as the day progressed. Earnestness and tension are best and often served in our small rehearsal studio in Los Angeles....so we'll have some fun while away.

Off to Dublin and more. I have to say I am looking forward to a right pint of Guinness. Officially labeled "Picture Perfect Dublin Tourist".

Andy
Local Natives

pictured below is literally the scene I came upon when we opened our suitcase filled entirely of our "van made" cd's in London. I thought it was very fitting visually to the above blurp.

Close Quarters

Everyone keep close, very, very close. We are currently so far from home(just landed in the UK) and in many ways even farther from the ones we love. Yet I watch as all of us scramble and fumble to make sure that we stay close w/those we are physically farthest from. As a band we keep close to try and keep it honest, to openly communicate and to annoy the living hell out of each other. We pack ourselves into a blue tin box known as our "tour van" and find ourselves focused on sitting up straight and keeping equal elbow room. We cram and spoon each other onto one bedroom hard wood floors, crashing with old friends or running into new ones. We push our bodies into seats 34A-E and fight to fall asleep in airplane chairs that seem more fitting for a five year old leprechaun than a full grown human. I see each of our material belongings condense and deflate into a single carry-on and a computer bag. Ambian, laptop, cellphone, alcohol, hard drive and headphones are my new materialistic best friends. Without these I am a quivering, crying child.

We are all very new to this "closeness". Learning as we trip, bruise, pass out and stub our toes along the way...and it makes me smile. We should be so lucky that we are in such close quarters.

Andy
Local Natives

Dreams

I'm slightly shaky because of the caffeine. I'm slightly hungover because of the Anchor Steam. I'm slightly foggy on all the details of these past five Mondays spent playing at Spaceland.

For some reason I think most of us were under the impression August was going to be a little lazy. Looking forward to the thought of finding random movies to watch on Netflix and getting around to exploring the corner bars of Atwater Village. I got as far as Naked Lunch and the bear special at Hugo's...which isn't that far. August shaped up to be a very busy but all around productive 31 days. We have added some music to the final album. We have finalized all the artwork/packaging. Its mixed, its mastered, its stirred, its salted, its sweetened, its splattered.

Five Mondays in the month of August meant a quintuplet of free shows for our residency at the glitter curtain known as Spaceland. So very pleased with how this residency turned out. Humbled that so many great local LA bands decided to join us and thankful for all the people who got involved, whether it be a laptop DJ in the corner or just a fellow blog friend. I am a failure in the realm of photos or videos from this past months shenanigans, but I'm sure I'll be reminded of all them over the next few weeks(as I stare into a destroyed kitchen deconstructed at 3am last night).

Every single one of us appreciate the fact that so many new friends came out each Monday. We are still dipping our toes into the deep end of L.A. and it was overwhelming to get such a welcoming response to what we put way too much time and effort into.

I'm gonna take a nap.

Andy
Local Natives

p.s. Every month Spaceland does a little piece of art d'residency on the display board right inside the doorway. This was the one we got....Note the bent frames on the glasses and the PBR in hand.

This is a Barnstorming Tour

So its already been a few weeks since we returned from our initiation into The Daytrotter Barnstroming Tour. We have been perspiring in our rehearsal studio everyday and and every night since returning. My finger tips are worn down to their nubs from writing new lines and my eye lids are barely peeled open. We also have to be back at Spaceland in 30min for our second August residency night. That being said I'll keep my summary of the Barnstorming tour short and sweet.

Middle America Mayhem was introduced to the Local Natives in all the right ways. The people in middle of nowhere Iowa and Wisconsin know how to throw a proper Barn Show. Thanks for showing us the ways of the 'Small Town Love'. Below are all tid bits of the actual barns that we played in, partied in, fell in, tripped in, yelled in, hugged in, kissed in and just did a shit ton of weird fun in.

This is all thanks to: Sean, Phil, Josh, John, Erin, Chelsea and Maria at Daytrotter, Kevin and Piper w/the cameras, Shoe with the sound goo and all the bands who joined us along the way.

Andy
Local Natives