First Name: Club. Last Name: Nokia. Middle Initial: Get ready to throw them hands up to start your summer. DOB: May 13th, on sale Friday (Pre-sale info below). How long will I keep doing this?: Till its Over.

[An AEG Live Joint]

RnO favorites Local Natives have come a long way from their days formally known as Cavil at Rest.

The Silverlake-via-Orange Country quintet have found a sound that speaks volumes, changes direction and keep you guessing in wonderment throughout their debut album, Gorilla Manor.

Music and more after the jump….

Manor was recently deemed “Best New Music” by Pitchfork Media, a huge boost for an indie band for exposure (and sales) all across the U.S. and Europe, which in turn might have helped them snag a spot at Coachella this April.

Pitchfork recently got a taste of what LN is like off-stage with former Pepperdiner, guitarist Ryan Hahn, and bandmate Kelcey Ayer:

KA: I have a tough time with radio, because I think it’s hard to find good radio in your area. But we’re all lucky enough that we live in Los Angeles, and there’s an NPR-affiliated noncommercial radio station called KCRW that airs a program called “Morning Becomes Eclectic”.

RH: You sounded like a radio guy right there!

KA: This program is wonderful; they truly play a very eclectic mix of music, and I’ve found out about tons of bands that I like now through that station and through that program. They do these great sessions– Grizzly Bear did one and played “While You Wait For the Others” before the album came out, and that was a great performance.

Funny they say that (x2): 1) They will be on their favorite (and mine) morning show March 31 after a trip to the always exasperating SXSW in Austin, Texas. 2) They are kind of like a West-Coast Grizzly Bear or Fleet Foxes in a way.

More party that introspection, more “young band on the road and on the run” than painstaking perfection are the differences. But the harmonies, the explosions of sound and texture are there.

Local Natives – Camera Talk

Local Natives – Sunhands

RnO will have an interview with Local Natives probably post-SXSW, so stay tuned….

Guest Lists: Local Natives [Pitchfork]

For those of you that have yet to get on the Team Coco Twitter Train, do so here.

Although not cheap ($40-80 before those pesky “service charges”) Universal City Walk should be a hot mess in a month and a half.

To reminisce about the good ol’ days…..here’s a classic Coco (I guess we’re calling him that these days now?) clip. Ticket page below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

UPDATE: Another show has been added on the 25th, so now your weekend will be full of Coco.

[Conan O'Brien tix]

Editor’s note: Ok, so I gave you a WEEK to catch up, watch all of the first season of Southland, and the premier of the 2nd season last week. I’ll play a little catch up for you this time, but tomorrow for this week’s review, all bets are off. And now….

For those of view familiar with Training Day, the ending is a haunting tail of how quickly those being protected in this so-called “Southland” can turn against you.

In this new, jam-packed and exciting episode of Southland, we pick up where Denzel Washington’s Alonzo Harris left off, in the heart of the so called “Jungle Street” — a Cul de Sac combining some of the meanest, roughest projects in South Central.

We also pick up right where Southland left off. Our good friend Ryan Atwood (Ben Sherman) has just got to the final stage of his rookie LAPD training (he gets to drive), and he and and his partner come to “The Jungle” to stop a riot from co-squad patroler Chickie and her new partner, basically described as “Sloth” or “Scrum” or something like that.

Chickie is still reeling from her dismissal of her previous partner, alcoholic Dewie, after he continually passed out on the job in the middle of the day. Chickie’s new partner doesn’t take his job too seriously (eating free food, picking up dry cleaning, etc.).

So when Chicke and Chump start following a stolen car into “The Jungle,” and well, Chump’s trigger finger is a little greasy. Speaking of….

FREEZE FRAME! O.K., these freeze frames and old-man voice overs are starting to get annoying. Although they provide a usually-powerful first scene, I hope eventually they phase these out of the new season. I’m sure they are just keeping them around for the new viewers. Speaking of….

This episode was a great introduction to the series. Every character, new and old, became involved, and although we do not have a clear story arch for this season on the cop side of things, an interesting nasty front is imposing itself to the District Attorneys and Detectives.

After a caballero car chase in the Cesar Chavez District and a shootout on the 4th Street Bridge downtown, we find a multi-gang collaboration possibly in the works, which, must like last season’s gang takedown, will take all season to take down.

And as we see at the end of the episode in prison, anyone who snitches about this polygang activity will get stitches. It’s simply bigger than anyone in or out of jail would ever know.

Sandwiched in the middle of it all was Detective’s Lydia and Russell’s post-season finale turmoil, with Russell in-and-out of consciousness from his injuries, future of being a cop in serious jeopardy. Lydia discovers that she has a new partner (hopefully for little time), a pretty-boy-hotshot played by Amaury Nolasco (of 2Fast 2 Furious fame, in my eyes).

Their storyline seems to hit the hardest in this episode, seeing as that it has the most screen time. Their kidnapping suspect (snatched an old man in Elysian Park) was released from jail early because of budget cuts and overcrowding in the county, a real problem facing us in the state. Like some story lines in Southland, it doesn’t end pretty, but it’s not our characters’ fault.

“Phase Three” set up the new season quite nicely, and set a darker tone for things to come.

RnO Grade: B

Notes:

- While the season premier got off to a good note in terms of pace, action and acting, those who had not watched the show before might feel a little left in the dark. I think because this was only the 8th episode, this might have been part of the 1st season.

- When a show sits high on the critical scale for so long, even a few slips in the cracks here and there can bring it down to a bad grade, even if — it’s better than anything else on television. So RnO is grading on the AP curve.

- It wasn’t necessarily my favorite story lines, and things ended with too many smiles, but nevertheless, a strong debut for Southland on cable, although it will need to pick it up in the upcoming episodes.

- Chickie and Ben (Ryan Atwood aka Ben McKenzie)…..is there still some sexual tension there?! I remember in the 2nd or 3rd episode there might have been something. Ben, she’s easily 48, come on brother.

What if Rick James had walked into the Mos Eisley Cantina instead of Han Solo in Star Wars? I think it would look much more like this shady, 80’s space-bar then those damn jazz flute space aliens they had rockin’. As we’ve mentioned before, great tune from a great album made by a great band.

[vid via]

DOWNLOAD HERE

I put (and found) that picture up there specifically to go with this song. Some serious 60’s psychedelia going on here, which is very remminescent of the second half of their debut album, Oracular Spectacular.

AKA, the side without “Electric Feel,” “Kids” or “Time to Pretend.”

The album cover is all starting to make sense now….

MGMT – Flash Delirium

[mp3 via]

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.