While the Los Angeles-based five-piece Local Natives’ debut album Gorilla Manor was first released in the UK last year, it made its way across the pond in February—and stateside indie-rockers have been elated ever since. Filled with hooky three-part harmonies and soaring melodies, the record’s folk-infused vocals (supplied by keyboardist Kelcey Ayer and guitarists Ryan Hahn and Taylor Rice) are the embodiment of chemistry, like an additional instrument in the song structure. Local Natives cross strands between the East Coast’s melodic leans and the West’s woodsy ones—enough so that Pitchfork called them a sort of “West Coast Grizzly Bear.” Look to them as evidence that, while novelty might make classics, synthesis doesn’t hurt either. With The Love Language, The Union Line. NICK FELDMAN

Fri., Sept. 24, 8 p.m., 2010