Kevin Bronson on December 16th, 2012

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During the encore Friday night at Local Natives’ intimate gig as part of KCRW’s Berkeley Street Sessions at producer Bob Clearmountain’s Apogee Studio, some of the gear went haywire. Unfazed, the Los Angeles quintet plowed through, singer-keyboardist Kelcey Ayer making light of the moment afterwards by holding his hand up and saying, “‘Men in Black’ thing. OK? Click.” All forgotten.

The episode recalled an early encounter with Local Natives. At the cozy Buzz Bands LA party at SXSW 2009 – with a lot of movers and shakers from the U.K. record industry in attendance to check out the band – the stage monitors went south, victimized by brutal afternoon heat. Local Natives carried on, their pristine harmonies prevailing.

• ||| Photos by Jeremiah Garcia via KCRW

It was an early indication that the fivesome not only had the songs (“Airplanes” found its way onto BBC radio shortly after SXSW, starting their momentum in the U.K.), but that they were warriors. Indie bands are hardly going to pay any bills with album sales, and as Local Natives found in the two-plus years after releasing their debut “Gorilla Manor,” they have to make hay on the road.

And so it will be for the band in 2013. Their second album “Hummingbird” comes out Jan. 29, the week they play sold-out shows at the El Rey and Fonda Theatres. World travels will ensue, including, probably, a return to Coachella.

For all its merit, “Hummingbird” is not an album likely to vault Local Natives into the mainstream. It’s moodier, more intimate and perhaps darker than “Gorilla Manor,” juxtaposing stratospheric vocals (principally Ayer’s and Taylor Rice’s this time) against complex polyrhythms. In fact, if you didn’t know better, you’d think most of the new songs started with savant drummer Matt Frazier.

The new album was recorded in New York with Aaron Dessner of the National. During Friday night’s mid-set interview with KCRW music director Jason Bentley, Frazier copped to having some challenging moments in the studio. “Sometimes I would be sitting at the drums and he’d say, ‘I’m pressing record,'” Frazier said. “And magic would happen.”

Local Natives said they made in the album in New York in part to escape the hometown distractions of Silver Lake, only to find that NYC had its own set of distractions. Still, “[Dessner] was like an older brother to us in a lot of ways,” Ryan Hahn said, and they were happy with the experience, even if the gang’s-all-here writing and recording process felt at times like it bogged down the process. “Yes, we’re collaborative to a sometimes non-functioning fault,” Rice joked.

Local Natives’ Friday night set (recorded for use on a date to be announced on KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic”) was highlighted by the big swells of their current single “Breakers,” the R&B-tinged piano number “Bowery” that builds to a big finish and the ballad-esque “Colombia.” On the latter song, Ayers asks in his arching falsetto: “Every night I ask myself / Am I giving enough?”

A relevant question, and in many ways Local Natives’ mantra.

Setlist: You and I, Breakers, Ceilings, Columbia, Black Spot, Heavy Feet, Three Months, Bowery, Wide Eyes, Who Knows Who Cares, Sun Hands

||| Live: Local Natives play Jan. 28 at the Fonda Theatre and Jan 29 at the El Rey Theatre.

||| Previously: Local Natives’ surprise show in October at the Satellite.