Few things are sadder than the territorial tendencies of those that brag that they blogged about an artist first. Not only does no one care, it’s not like you wrote the lyrics, the melody, or had even the remotest role in a song’s conception. You just discovered a Zshare link. Besides, it’s antithetical to the nature of criticism, which ostensibly would be about building on each other’s ideas not building up your own transparently insecure ego. That said, I totally wrote about the Local Natives first. Sort of.
Actually the NME contacted me in May to write a story about the rising Silverlake quartet, who were about to go on their first English tour. Because the piece was print-only, I never linked to it on the Passion and thus deprived the folk-pop outfit of the overwhelming deluge of attention that would’ve inevitably ensued (groupies, tours, offers of free penguins). Luckily, good music won out yet again and over the last six months, the band became blog bonus babies and and delivered one of the best Monday night Spaceland residencies of the year.
Their excellent debut, Gorilla Manor, dropped last month on English indie Infectious and this week, the band announced a deal to release it domestically on Frenchkiss. An article on the pact and an abbreviated narrative of the band’s ascent is up now at Pop and Hiss. Hopefully, this will not trigger The Aquarium Drunkard launching into lame invective about how he WROTE ABOUT THEM FIRST and I should discover a band busking in the smoking area out behind The Echo, when the Natives play a homecoming show there on the 22nd. That would be so authentic.
Download:
MP3: Local Natives-“Sun Hands”
MP3: Local Natives-“Camera Talk”
See Also: The Aquarium Drunkard Session with Local Natives
