Tame Impala
I first remember seeing Tame Impala at a showcase in 2008. Just signed to Modular (home of Ladyhawke, Cut Copy and The Presets), they looked like shy, barefoot kids who’d just emerged from a forest and sounded like they’d teleported straight outta the ‘60s via time machine that day.
Fusing the psychedelic rock of Jimi Hendrix with the dreamy melodies of John Lennon, the Perth trio (singer/songwriter Kevin Parker, bassist Dominic Simper and drummer Jay Watson) have since become worldbeaters, with critics, bloggers and fans all falling under their hypnotic spell. Formed in high school under the name the Dee Dee Dums, they won a bunch of band comps before being discovered by Modular via MySpace (remember MySpace? It was kinda like Facebook but with more photo cubes and crazy loading times).
They grabbed the world wide web by the ears with their self-titled EP in 2008 before flooring everyone with their self-produced debut album Innerspeaker two years later. Peaking at #4 in the ARIA charts, it scored glowing reviews including an 8.5 from renown music snobs Pitchfork and sent the lads orbiting round the planet on tour.
2012 saw them land back on Earth long enough for Parker to mastermind fabulous follow-up in Lonerism, which debuted at #4 on the ARIA charts, scored a whopping 9.0 on Pitchfork and five freaking stars from English newspaper/barometer of cool The Guardian. We don’t want kind of trip these guys are on, but it shows no signs of wearing off anytime soon.