Coachella Band Preview: Tame Impala

Welcome back to week 1 of Coachella Band Previews. As always, we’ve got 3 months and a lot of listening to do. This week I decided to start strong with Saturday night headliner Tame Impala. As I said in my lineup release post, I was super hyped to see Tame Impala’s name in big letters as a headliner this year so it made sense that I previewed them before everyone else. Needless to say, I’ve never actually wrote about them on this blog before either. Not until today that is.

Tame Impala is an Australian psychedelic indie pop rock band based out of Perth. The band was formed in 2007 as a home recording project of guitarist and vocalist, Kevin Parker. He started posting the music to his MySpace page which began receiving some attention from music labels. He then brought Dominic Simper (bass) and Jay Watson (drums) into the mix for live shows. Now Simper and Watson are playing different instruments in the band (guitar and synth for both as well as vocals for Watson) and Cam Avery (bass, vocals) and Julien Barbagallo (drums, vocals) have joined as well.

The band released their debut self-titled EP in September 2008. Three songs from the five song EP received national airplay. The EP reached number 1 on the Australian Independent Records Labels Chart as well as number 10 on the ARIA Physical Singles Chart. The band embarked on tours in support of You Am I, The Black Keys, Yeasayer, and MGMT as well as a national headlining tour in support of their EP. They released a new single “Sundown Syndrome” in 2009 and continued touring through 2010.

2010 also brought the band’s first full length album Innerspeaker which was received with general and critical acclaim nationally and in the U.K. and U.S. The band received 4 ARIA Music Award nominations that year as well, but did not win in any category they were nominated for.

The group’s second album Lonerism was release in October of 2012. Like its predecessor, the new album again received praise in Australia, the U.K., and the U.S. It was voted the number one album of the year from mediums in all 3 countries. The group then embarked on an international tour in 2012 through 2013. This included the group’s second stop at Coachella (the first was in 2011). It was in 2013 that original member Nick Allbrook left the band and Cam Avery took his place. The album also received a 2014 Grammy Nomination for Best Alternative Music Album.

The band’s most recent album Currents was released in July 2015. To date the album is the band’s best charting release, reaching number one in Australia, number three in the U.K., and number four in the U.S. The album won 2 ARIA awards for Best Rock Album and Album of the Year and was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album.

Parker recently said that there will be new music for Tame Impala in 2019. As of now, no official date for an album is known. A first time headlining spot at Coachella might just be the place to preview some new tracks though.

Tame Impala’s style of music can be best described as trippy. It is psychedelic rock after all, but it’s much more rock oriented than the kind of music you’d hear from psychedelic jam bands like the Grateful Dead or Phish. “Let It Happen” does close in on the 8 minute mark though. It’s more on the indie rock spectrum of music than other well known bands associated with psychedelic music.

I’m not sure how or where I first heard Tame Impala, but I began listening to them around the Lonerism era. I actually purchased Lonerism from Amoeba Records in Hollywood on my first visit to California (one of my all time favorite vacations). I bought it in CD form because I didn’t think I’d be able to transport a record properly on an airplane. I can’t say I binged on the CD after that but I’ve definitely been listening to Tame Impala here and there ever since.

2019 marks Tame Impala’s 4th Coachella appearance. After playing in 2011 and 2013, the band then played again in 2015. This is of course the first headlining spot for the Australian rockers. I’m not sure what kind of crowd size Tame Impala will draw. They’re definitely not as big of a headliner as Beyoncé was last year. I’m guessing Bassnectar will overlap in set times as well, which hopefully may pull a lot of the youth attendees to the Sahara Tent or Outdoor Stage, wherever Bassnectar may be posted up. Tame Impala’s performance will surely be epic production wise. I’m hoping it’s comparable to or beyond that of Panorama 2017’s headlining set. The visuals, lasers, strobes, and everything in between brought an incredible vibe to Randall’s Island that night, which I hope translates to the Polo fields come April. So now it’s time to start listening to Tame Impala for the next three months, here’s what you need to hear:

1. Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
2. Let It Happen
3. Elephant
4. The Less I Know The Better
5. Half Full Glass of Wine
6. Solitude is Bliss
7. Mind Mischief
8. Eventually
9. Cause I’m A Man
10. New Person, Same Old Mistakes

 

Coachella Band Preview: M83

Another week less until Coachella 2016 means another week less to listen to your favorite bands performing in the desert this April. I have plenty of favorites playing the festival this spring, but one I wanted to preview is French/American band M83. They’ve been out of the picture for a few years since their last album came out 5 years ago. With multiple festival appearances and a new album slated for release this year, 2016 looks to be a big year for the band.

M83 was originally a duo formed in 2001 by Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau. The band’s debut self-titled album was released in the spring of 2001. It didn’t receive much acknowledgment outside of Europe. It wasn’t until the band released their second album Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts that their name reached the shores of North America. However, the album was released in Europe in spring 2003, but did not get popular in North America until the following summer. After M83 toured to promote their second album, Fromageau left the band and Gonzalez went on to record the following two albums, Before the Dawn Heals Us (2005) and Digital Shades Vol. 1 (2007), by himself.

M83’s fifth album, Saturdays = Youth, was released in 2008 and was the band’s first album that contained a typical song structure and form. It was at this point that Gonzalez began to receive consistent help from others in the recording process. One person in particular was vocalist and keyboardist, Morgan Kibby. The band then went on to support acts like Kings of Leon, The Killers, and Depeche Mode in 2008 and 2009. In 2009 Gonzalez made a permanent move to Los Angeles, which, in a way, revamped the band. By 2011 Gonzalez began writing songs for the band’s sixth album, which he stated would be a double album. In July 2011 the first single from the new album “Midnight City” was released. It was M83’s breakthrough hit. The album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, was released on October 18, 2011. It became the band’s most successful album to date, debuting at number 15 on Billboard’s 200 and receiving honors from Pitchfork on their list of Top 50 Albums of 2011 . It also received a Grammy nomination in 2013 for Best Alternative Music Album.

Since Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, M83 has not released an album. However, it was announced via Twitter in mid-December 2015 that the band recently completed a new album. It’s safe to say we can expect a new release sometime this year. In the meantime though, the group re-released some of their older albums in late 2015.

M83 got their name from the galaxy Messier 83, nicknamed M83. Their sound perfectly reflects their name too. Their synthpop, ambient style music has a super trippy, outer space feel to it. When you listen to their music and close your eyes, you can literally imagine yourself floating through the universe. Their early music is especially like that since, as I mentioned, most of their songs didn’t have much form or structure until their fifth album.

I first heard of M83 around late 2011-early 2012. Midnight City was of course the first song I downloaded by the group. I then proceeded to download a few other songs in the following months. M83 was a tough band for me to get into, since their music was pretty different from what I was listening to at the time. However, I really took a liking to the song “Steve McQueen” off Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. It became my go-to for M83 songs.

This won’t be M83’s first time at Coachella. They last played in 2012 in the wake of their success from their most recent album. They play Friday this year. I’m sure they’ll play many old favorites and a few new songs as well. It’s bound to be a good set whether they’re one of your faves, whether you missed seeing them in 2011-2012, whether you got into them after that time, or whether you’re just hearing about them now. To get you ready for their set though, I recommend these jams:

1. Midnight City
2. We Own the Sky
3. Steve McQueen
4. Wait
5. Splendor
6. Kim & Jessie
7. Reunion
8. Intro
9. Outro
10. Skin of the Night