Kevin Bronson on February 2nd, 2009

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Their name is barely known outside of a few small clubs, but already Local Natives are telling us all the places they’ve been – and, in doing so, all the places they intend to go.

The L.A. quintet makes music that crackles with frenetic beats, agile melodies and cascading harmonies, tightly assembled in songs that advocate, in varying degrees of exuberance and wonderment, the notion that to embrace change is to nourish growth. “Most of our songs have to do with traveling, or moving on, or some kind of change,” bassist Andy Hamm says, and, yes, those qualities are what have given Local Natives their fresh start.

• ||| Stream: “Sun Hands” [audio:http://www.mediafire.com/file/jdnmt3qmx4o/Local Natives_Sun Hands 1.mp3]

• ||| Download (previously posted): “Airplanes”

The band that tonight kicks off a residency at the Silverlake Lounge – singer-guitarists Taylor Rice and Ryan Hahn, singer-keyboardist Kelcey Ayer, drummer Matt Frazier and Hamm (along with violinist Amanda Salazar, who sometimes joins the live lineup) – was known as Cavil At Rest until last year. But a new musical direction and a more intense focus induced them to turn the page. “Our visions collectively came together, and it kinda deserved a new banner,” Hahn says. “We were all living together and all going through the same sort of things. So writing the album we were all in the same place.”

Not that the music turned out that way.

The album is titled “Gorilla Manor,” after the house the bandmates shared. (It’s finished and being shopped to record labels.) Recorded with Raymond Richards in his Red Rockets Glare studio, it reflects the sonic differences of five guys who write songs collaboratively – and, if you get them all together, explain the process consecutively.

Rice: “The album doesn’t have just one sound, and there’s positives and negatives to that.”

Hamm: “We all care so much about each other and about the music, we’re able to get on the same page. But without tension there’s no creativity.”

Ayer: “We’ve come to embrace it … and it’s not hard to find a thread that runs though [the music].”

If there is one, it’s the Rice-Ayer-Hahn harmonies, which, while not boy-band sweet, lend a kind of sibling kinship to the melodies. Probably the closest sonic cousins to Local Natives in L.A. would be the Little Ones; “Gorilla Manor” at other points might remind you of Broken Social Scene, Vampire Weekend or even Arcade Fire, and the band has been known to cover Paul Simon and the Talking Heads. “We knew we wanted the harmonies, and we spent a lot of time on the drum and bass grooves,” Hamm says. “It’s almost a tribal thing, except with three-part harmonies.” Says Ayer: “It’s like chamber pop.” Maybe. In a popcorn popper.

Local Natives have already road-tested their new material, having traipsed across the country in December and January on a four-week tour that turned out to be a true test. First, the bus driver they’d hired backed out of job the day they were leaving, telling the quintet, “You guys won’t make it.” But after procuring a van and setting off, Hahn says,”  “Gas prices all of a sudden plummeted. We ran into no bad weather. We found free places to stay.” Adds Ayer: “And noboby robbed us.”

Sure, there was the belligerent door guy at Annie’s Social Club in San Francisco, and the guy in the Midwest who called out, “Quit playing your fairy California music.” But in all? “It’s like it was meant to be,” Hahn says.

||| Live: Local Natives kick off their residency at the Silverlake Lounge tonight, supported by Aushua, Lemon Sun and the Outline.