Tame Impala On The Meaning of 'Lonerism'

By Aaron Frank Wed., Nov. 14 2012 at 3:30 AM

The clearest example of this is "Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control," a meditative seven-minute jam containing a bit of inspirational dialogue inspired by teen romantic comedies. At about two minutes in, the music is muffled and you hear Parker's girlfriend say, "What are you doing out here? You're out here thinking about everything aren't you? I know it's crazy, but don't think of it like that. Nothing has to mean anything." Parker says his intention was to make it sound like it was taking place outside of a party or a high school dance. It's one of the strangest and most flooring moments you'll hear in rock music this year.

Every song on Lonerism is written, recorded and performed by Parker, and you'd think they'd be difficult to recreate for a live show. Luckily the touring members of Tame Impala are just as seasoned as Parker and help expand the songs even further outside their original bounds. During the show at Webster Hall last Saturday, "Half Full Glass of Wine," from their first EP, stretched out to nearly ten minutes for a gripping one-song encore. When Parker goes in for the solo and lapses into periodic trances a la Jimmy Page, bassist Nick Allbrook is right behind him keeping things steady on a vintage Hofner. Most of the members have known each other for over a decade, and when he's not touring with Tame Impala, Parker lends a hand on drums in Allbrook's band Pond.

Parker confirms that his move to Paris helped make Lonerism a more personal affair. The album is clearly more narrowly defined as a concept, and though there's a through-line of existential angst and uncertainty, he seems cheerful discussing its warm reception. Parker says he set out to originally make an album that critics would hate, so the glowing reviews from Rolling Stone and Spin are unexpected. When asked if it's difficult adjusting to the isolation that songwriting requires, he says: "I have to be alone to be able to write the type of music I want for Tame Impala." Clearly there's an upside to being a loner.

Tame Impala performs Friday, Nov. 16th at the El Rey Theatre and Saturday, Nov. 17th at the Fonda Theatre.

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lukevs

Tame Impala belongs in the "20 worse hipster bands" list. All they've done is rip off the later stuff by the Beatles and Pink Floyd's first album. And badly at that. The singers tries to imitate John Lennon, but it just comes off as a nasal whine that they drench in reverb as an attempt to hide it.

They're also part of worse trend. Every couple of years an Australian retro sounding band comes along and the whole music world loses their minds for them. Of course when people realise that they are simply one-trick-ponies, they desert them. And rightly so. Previous examples include: The Vines (they were hailed as the next Nirvana. I'm not kidding either. Google it), Jet and Wolfmother. No one cares about those bands now, do they?

As an Australian I'd like to apologize for these bands and for Tame Impala. The sooner people forget about Tame Impala and they disappear from the airwaves so anyone with a semblance of music taste doesn't have put up with their boring drone the better.