Tame Impala - Lonerism

The drum sound is a major reason why it caught my attention. Flaming Lips are one of the few other post 2000 rock acts I've liked. Most "modern" rock I've heard put aside heavy drums and bass, god only knows why.

anyone have any opinions on the Melody's Echo Chamber album,

it's vastly better than tame impala

Hmm, sounds like a must hear then, considering how much I love the Tame Impala.

love this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wycjnCCgUes

yeah that's great

MEC = cross between Tame Impala and Lush to my ears, w maybe hints of Best Coast in there, but I haven't listened to it all the way through yet or anything. I don't think you'd hate it jvc to be honest

Tweet from Michael Azzerad: "I've been going to rock concerts for 40 years, and last night's Tame Impala show was the first time I've ever seen applause for a drum solo."

so far, I find MEC a bit meh.
there's tame impala's production and all the arrangements and tricks but it's a bit... shallow. I don't really like the voice and no song has grabbed me yet.
maybe it will grow...

I do like the voice, so maybe that's part of the reason

after several spinning:
Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control
and
Be Above It
are the best songs on the record imo

regarding MEC : I don't particularly like her voice, I don't particularly like the songs... and I hate the kids/french/silly stuffs (the lyrics in french are unbearable) !

as for Lonerism, "nothing that has happened" is great (but the instrumental jam is a bit long), also "apocalypse" and "keep on lying"... and of course, "feels".

arew Tame Impala and The Scientists the most popular indie acts that came out of Perth?

Bon Scott grew up in Freo iirc

in other words, probably

The Waifs are from Perth. If they still exist, I think they may be more popular than Tame Impala.

"The Waifs are from Perth"

not according to this thing called "the internet"

Eh, they come from Albany, which is a few hundred miles south of Perth, which in Australian terms, particularly western Australian terms, might as well be Perth.

Suburbs of Perth!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Western_Australia_location_map.svg/270px-Western_Australia_location_map.svg.png

lol
i surrender..

john butler is from freo, which is almost perth

i understand your in chicago, but not from chicago?(maybe australia?!)
xpost

I totally think almost Perth should count. Even my Australian relatives have never been to Perth.

I keep hearing about these people and mentally filing them with Beach House under 'bands who I never need to actually hear a note from.'

Which I realize is unfair but the NME No. 1 album of the year list isn't HELPING, you see.

lol. I probably should give the new Beach House a spin now that you mention it.

I've only had this one for two weeks and I can safely say it's one of the best records I've heard this year.

Maybe it helps you get interested, Ned, or... maybe it does exactly the opposite but one of the first things I heard from them is their cover of Blueboy's 'Remember Me' (which in turn samples Marlena Shaw's Woman of the Ghetto). They sound way fuzzier and trippier nowadays but it's as good an introduction as any other:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27RYzoZLR7w

I feel like this band is special enough to recommend them to people who are unsure. Why not?

1) NME
2) people are talking about it

If both of these apply to an album, you need not check it out.

I tend to do the same.. I held off listening to tame impala for a while. i don't know why 2) is so accurate but it is

i heard them, ned! just the other day. and beach house too! what a day that was...

You are the cutting edge!

as part of my top 50 countdown on ilm. i learned a lot. i learned how to love.

first off i was like heres some dudes sounding like the sixties again then i was like WOAH

opening track of lonerism in particular

Okay I just gave a couple of tracks a listen and I kinda sense I don't need to hear any more. Just very fussily polite trippiness.

m@tt's comment about them being a rock version of Caribou is by far the best description of them/argument for their existence that I have come across yet

I don't know... is it not kind of silly to fully ignore a band just because NME champions it?

This album suffered a bit for me after I listened to it after a load of 60s psych, and when you listen to that stuff it's really apparent that the conventions of rock music hadn't settled by that stuff, so all this really batshit stuff creeps in. There's so much more folk and music hall and other influences apparent melodically and harmonically as well, things that have bled out of most rock music over the intervening decades. That stuff doesn't come across in Tame Impala at all, although they've got the sonics and the voices and the recording effects down pat, their songwriting horizons feel limited by comparison. Still a nice enough record though.

The other way you could describe it 'slavish and cautious recreation of a sound that was never cautious in the first place' but that accounts for a lot of rock music nowadays.

I don't think that's quite fair, Matt. Compare it to the Allah-Las - that's a slavish recreation. Tame Impala have clearly heard those 60s records, but I'd say they're trying to copy the spirit rather than the songs.

kinda like the yang to Uncle Acid the Deadbeats yin, y'know?

(as in: weirdly Lennon-esque vocals taken in different emotional directions while an overall trippiness prevails)

I still don't get "Lonerism". I loved their other album, but I don't think this album is as good - so I'm confused by the NME's album of the year verdict. I still don't think adding synths helps, and I don't think the songs are as good. I may be in a minority of one there.

And having listened to psychedelia for years and years... Yes, you can't compare it to the original stuff (and I agree with Matt's point, the references are pretty narrow) but it does remind me of the first Sun Dial LP which was equally reverent to the style. Maybe I need to persevere with "Lonerism", but something about it doesn't really make me want to go back and listen to it.

I still don't think adding synths helps, and I don't think the songs are as good.

i agree w/ this completely. there's something naggingly annoying about this record that i never got from the first

That stuff doesn't come across in Tame Impala at all, although they've got the sonics and the voices and the recording effects down pat, their songwriting horizons feel limited by comparison.

I kind of feel like this is missing the point; obv there's no 'wtf' factor where it feels like any old sort of batshit thing can happen, but that's bcz dude kind of approaches writing songs the way, say, M.C. Escher approaches painting staircases (this is true of the first album also)

i think that might be giving them a little too much credit

eh maybe

perhaps I am confusing the potentiality of what I'm hearing with its actuality

Tame Impala have clearly heard those 60s records, but I'd say they're trying to copy the spirit rather than the songs

That's probably fair. They're definitely trying to copy the sound, and yeah probably the spirit too, but I'm not sure they're entirely successful in the latter. The album's enjoyable enough but short on surprises.

cleared from all the extras surrounding them - the essence of the melodies is very simple and repetitive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6CZTDCb7g4

I am relistening to this today and Keep On Lying really stood out before Elephant. I agree with the person who said that the fuzzy synths are the best thing about this album. Whatever the exact combination of influences is, the sound is great.