photo by Benjamin Hoste
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection, chosen by Midday Show host Cheryl Waters, is “Sun Hands” by Local Natives from the forthcoming album, Gorilla Manor
With an album title as heavy handed as Gorilla Manor, you’d imagine the first taste of the forthcoming album would be big and hulking (perhaps with medium length fur) but “Sun Hands” is the sort of nimble and adventurous pop ditty in its beginning that all reference to the idealized power and majesty of the gorilla is forgotten for the caretaker sheen of Dian Fossey. Of course, Local Natives tap into that primal instinct as “Sun Hands” evolves from its Vampire Weekend/Paul Simon folk into a whooping, rocking, and all-around destructive break; like Dian Fossey leading her posse into the poacher’s village to make her ultimate statement. Much like the endangered gorilla, Local Natives create a song in “Sun Hands” for the [seemingly] aptly named album that packs the wallop and possesses the inherent beauty of nature’s strongman.
MySpace proves itself most useful in letting us know the tour plans for Local Natives, which finds the band hitting the West Coast before flying to the UK for a bevy of dates. The band hits The High Dive in Seattle September 19th but not before appearing live on KEXP’s broadcast from the Doug Fir during Northwest Music Fest on Friday, September 18th. While you wait for these next few weeks to pass, why not enjoy a video of Local Natives covering Talking Heads’ “Warning Sign” while hanging from the rafters:
