Tame Impala

Watch Tame Impala perform “Love/Paranoia” on “Fallon”

Tame Impala performed on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” last night, playing their Currents track “Love/Paranoia.” Watch it below. They also performed it live for the first time during their set at Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York last week followed by them playing it again during their 2017 Panorama set.

FYF Fest reveals 2016 lineup featuring Kendrick Lamar, LCD Soundsystem, Tame Impala

FYF Fest has released its 2016 lineup. The two-day music festival will take place August 27th – 28th at Exposition Park in Los Angeles.

Kendrick Lamar, LCD Soundsystem, Tame Impala, and Grace Jones are leading the lineup. Other acts include Grimes, ANOHNI, Father John Misty, Hot Chip, Explosions in the Sky, Air, Beach House, Wolf Parade, Vince Staples, Shellac, Blood Orange, and Moby.

Peter Bjorn and John, Ty Segall & The Muggers, DIIV, Oneohtrix Point Never, Kelela, Chelsea Wolfe, Wild Nothing, Floating Points, Todd Terje & The Olsens, Jagwar Ma, The Black Lips, Junio Boys, Hop Along, Julia Holter, Denzel Curry, Museum of Love, Alex G, Head Wound City, Sheer Mag, and more are also playing.

Single-day, two-day, and VIP passes will go on sale Friday, April 1st.

fyf fest 2016 lineup

The Melodic Tree’s top 10 albums of 2015

10. Wanted On Voyage – George Ezra: There is something about George Ezra’s low, fairly surprising voice that captured the hearts of his fans that lead to his ultimate widespread success on this album. Songs like his hit “Budapest” gives the aura of him being from another era and not a British twenty-something. The variety of the album while also maintaining its simplicity makes it accessible to a wider range of audience.

9. Currents – Tame Impala: Tame Impala returned on this album with as much ambition as they had before. They have returned with their familiar sound but somehow managed to come back fresh and the band never seems to fail and experimenting with their music without much disappointment.

8. If I Should Go Before You – City & Colour: Maybe this album is on the because Dallas Green never seems to fail at pulling at the heartstrings of everyone who comes across his music, however, this album seems to maintain a much more electric sound compared to his previous releases. But, the lyrics stay true to his much praised sound and maintains his classic voice while transitioning to this new sound.

7. Nathaniel Ratecliff & The Night Sweat – Nathaniel Ratecliff and The Night Sweats: It’s such a strange happening when a band like this releases an album so strong and have a song named “S.O.B.” about drinking after a breakup. However, this didn’t take away from his massive voice is overwhelming and is accompanied by what sounds like a band that belongs to a soul artist at the start of that era. This album is one that helping lead the way to new soul becoming more and more popular.

6. All We Need – Raury: It’s hard to find such an ambitious 19 year-old who can have such an eclectic sound on an album. Combing soul, hip-hop, and folk, Raury genre hops throughout the album and never seems to miss a beat of it. The lyrics stay the main catch as the transition between melancholia,  especially in tracks like “Forbidden Knowledge,” and optimism as the album progresses.

5. Vestiges & Claws – José González: In the subtle layers in each song, his voice stays soft and calm with cyclical guitar. The track “The Forest” features the flute and cello which seem to add the sense of solitude that is recurrent in the album. Even though his songs are gradual, the have massive themes including how to situate in the world and making your voice heard.

4. I Love You, Honeybear – Father John Misty: As a sincere ode to his wife, Father John Misty demonstrated the intimacy and attachment he has felt towards her through of it. The stand-out track on the LP is the hit, “Chateau Lobby #4 (In C for Two Virgins)” where he displays this grand sound through brass and strings.

3. Prom King – Skylar Spence: Ever since transitioning from Saint Pepsi to his current stage name, the sound that comes from Prom King seems to be the monument that seems to suit such a name. This type of nu disco sound is hard to discover anywhere else and seems to focus thematically on love, which especially shown in tracks like “Fall Harder.” Skylar Spence fulfills wishes that any fan would want to hear on this first album under the name.

2. The Epic – Kamasi Washington: Kamasi Washington’s jazz debut is one of a kind and seems to move seemingly track after track. Even at three hours, the album has a smooth energy to it, never letting it feel like it should be any less. Every aspect of the album seems to be meticulously put together, which makes it such a compositional overload. Such a jazz album now is hard to come by and with the sound it has, it sounds similar to those that influenced him as a child. No matter what is going on, The Epic seems to never disappoint.

1. To Pimp A Butterfly – Kendrick Lamar: Kendrick Lamar probably had the most groundbreaking year with this album. It maintains this cinematic way of incorporating various themes, dealing heavily with racism, and networking various dramas and different characters. Lamar has this overarching tone of chaos and wryness, sometimes may it be all at once, but under the chaos, there is the narration of avoidance of the manifestation of the devil, Lucy and saying his fame has not helped his family at home.

Our 50 favorite photos from 2015

Tame Impala shares video for “The Less I Know the Better”

Tame Impala have released the video for “The Less I Know the Better” from their recent album, Currents. The story tells of a basketball player who’s heart gets broken when the cheerleader he fell in love with begins hooking up with the gorilla mascot of the team named Trevor. Watch the Canada-directed video here.

There are a few somewhat NSFW shots, but there are also some intensely imaginative shots as well, the dancers’ in King Kong hand outfits or the animated psychedelic breakdown. It is as creative as the album it comes off of.

 

Austin City Limits 2015: the best moments

Austin City Limits came to a close on Sunday night and it is time for us to reflect on the best moments of the weekend. The beautiful city of Austin hosted their 12th annual festival this yea and it has one of the most diverse lineups in its history.

Billy Idol still has it going on at 60. It seems as though we were transported back to the 1980’s as Billy Idol and his band came out sporting Idol’s classic blonde hair and clad in leather and denim. Still looking great at 60, it seems like Idol and the band haven’t aged at all in terms of energy. Playing hits like “Dancing With Myself” and Rebel Yell” (although having to restart “Rebel Yell” three times and sarcastically saying “one more time and if we can’t do it this time, I’m retiring”). It was an energetic set was jam-packed with hits and new material, which seemed to drag the show a little bit. However, the band can still put on a dynamic show 34 years later.

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Father John Misty did everything you could ever imagine him doing, and even more. He walked out, immediately raised his mic stand behind his back and continued to do his usual pretend striptease as Misty and the band went straight into their set. Although there were not as much sarcasm as expected from him during the set, he still made fun of those filming with their iPhones and even faked filming on a lucky fan’s phone, moving around and holding the phone out. His performance was dramatic, smooth, and entertaining as one would expect from Tillman.

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Tame Impala brings a psychedelic mood to the festival as they played a variety of songs from their catalog of albums and EPs including their debut album, Innerspeaker. Moving from song to song, the band accommodated to their hour-long set, joking about the heat and spraying water bottles over the front rows of fans during an instrumental break in between the songs. Kevin Parker’s voice was as trippy as it is when Tame Impala is in the studio. Even though they played shorter than they should have, it was a still a stunning set.

 

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High intensity is the simplest way to put Twenty One Pilots’ set as they played through their songs, ranging from hit to hit from “Tear In My Heart” from their smash album, Blurryface to “Car Radio” from Vessels. Running around across the stage, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun seemed to be relentless and filled with energy. They also initially came out in ski masks and Joseph with the classic black on his body that represents insecurities that he and everyone face that suffocates them. The highlight of the set was when Joseph climbed their stage, the Samsung stage, the largest stage at the festival, and performed the rest of “Car Radio” (or at least tried to with microphone issues) at the top of the stage, holding onto the Texas flag.

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As dreamy as in the studio, José González performed at Tito’s Homemade Vodka stage and seemed to put his audience into a trance with his enthralling yet quiet voice and fascinating instrumentals. Without talking much, González went through his set, which included a Junip song and new songs from Vestiges & Claws. The light show that went on  worked perfectly with his calming music and the setting sun behind the audience. His set was like the calm before the storm at the hectic, crowded, and sold out Saturday of the festival.

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Although coming on ten minutes late and the occasional slip of lyrics, The Strokes performed a worthy set for being closing out the first weekend of the festival. With the occasional snark from frontman Julian Casablancas, the band played through the majority of their discography including a large chunk of their hits including “Reptilla,” however disappointing a number of fans by not playing “Under the Cover of Darkness.” It was a special set as there have been rumors of the band having internal conflicts, but still recording a new album. Nonetheless, the band still sounded and performed as intensely as ever, even performing a one song encore, if it should be called that as they left the stage initially twenty minutes before they should have.

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There is one word to describe the Foo Fighter’s headlining two-hour set on Friday night: rambunctious. The band tore through their career-spanning hits, from “Best of You” to the set opener, “Everlong.” Still in the “throne” Grohl performed as energetically as ever, lecturing the crowd how to scream like him, claiming his secret his “vocal juice” (his champagne and beer). It was, to say the least, expected from everyone in the crowd that Gary Clark Jr. would join the band on stage as they recorded What Did I Do? / God As My Witness with him at the legendary Austin City Limits studio in Austin with him and Clark performed at the next stage an hour before. Nonetheless, it was as rowdy and loud as anyone would expect from the Foo Fighters, even twenty years after their debut album. Die-hard fans and the casual listener can all agree that this set proves that the band still has it going on.

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Austin City Limits Weekend 1 in photos

The Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

1. First – Cold War Kids

2. Ceilings – Local Natives

3. I’m A Pilot – Fanfarlo

4.Multi-Love – Unknown Mortal Orchestra

5. Midnight Surprise – Lightspeed Champion

6. The Summer – Coconut Records

7. You! Me! Dancing! – Los Campesinos!

8. Black Wax – Dananananaykroyd

9. Sister of Pearl – Baio

10. Wizard Staff – Wampire

11. Radley – French Cassettes

12. The Less I Know The Better – Tame Impala

13. Wait & See – Holy Ghost!

14. Real Slow – Miami Horror

15. Shades of Black – Breakbot

16. 58th St – Gap Dream

17. Mr Understanding – Pete And the Pirates

18. Let’s Go Surfing – The Drums

19. Goran Ivanisenic – We Are the Physics

20. Pulling Push Ups – Copy Haho

Foals cover Mark Ronson and Tame Impala’s “Daffodils”

Funk and R&B are not typically the first things to come to mind when thinking of Foals. This could change after the band performed a cover of “Daffodils” by Mark Ronson and Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker.

The UK rock band performed the cover at Australia’s triple j radio station, passing it as if it was one of their own songs. Frontman of Foals, Yannis Philippakis stood in place of Kevin Parmer and added his own spin to the vocal arrangements. Watch here.

Foals’ new album, What Went Down, is set to be released on August 28th. 

Tame Impala releases behind-the-scenes video for Currents

Currents, the upcoming album from Tame Impala is due out on July 17. The band shared a behind-the-scenes video following the creation of the album, directed by Matt Sav and Kevin Parker. Watch the video below.