Album Review - Tame Impala - Currents

July 22, 2015 by David in Music

"Yes, I'm changing," Kevin Parker sweetly serenades the critics, haters, and trolls, "Yes, I'm gone / Yes, I'm older / Yes, I'm moving on / And if you don't think it's a crime / you can come along with me / Life is moving / can't you see?"

The most talented musicians in the world adapt. They don't find one sound and stick to it. They become restless, striving to create something that makes their ears ring anew.

Vampire Weekend completely departed from its upbeat and poppy sound and made their best album to date centered on death and dark subjects. Arctic Monkeys did something similar. Kendrick Lamar's release this year sounded almost nothing like his prior classic album, but it was Lamar adapting to his life, circumstances, and influences, and responding in his own way. Bon Iver's Justin Vernon recently said in an interview (I'm somewhat paraphrasing) that the hardest thing about becoming a famous musician is losing sight that creating music should be for you. When you lose sight of that, you begin to create for others and lose a bit of identity and ownership as a creative. "It has to be real," Vernon said.

Luckily, Tame Impala's mastermind Kevin Parker keeps it real. Tame Impala's third album, Currents, is a wonderfully freeing musical expression and acknowledgement of adaptation for the sake of Parker and no others.

5 Faves - Tame Impala

June 12, 2015 by David in Music

Parker dropped a few interesting tidbits, including:

Michael Jackson is his favorite artist ever;
Parker and the band were pretty drunk at their Coachella set (which I got to see), and he says he started drinking right after the show "to wash away the sorrow" of what he thought was a poor performance. For the record, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as their ACL set or show at The Fox last year;
Currents was written entirely on tour and is the kind of album Parker thought "indie snobs would turn up their nose at." The truth is now Parker has hit that Messiah Complex where everything he does will be loved by critics because he's made so much flawless music, so when he shifts gears and goes a bit poppier, all is forgiven because he's a genius. We'll see what I think of the new album, I will definitely have a review!
"Let It Happen" is basically about evolving as a person and musician, from his introverted ways as a musician on his first two albums to what he describes as being more extroverted these days;

Big Basin National Park

April 02, 2015 by David in Photo

California's oldest state park Big Basin Redwoods State Park is located in Boulder Creek, CA, about an hour and a half drive south of San Francisco. A beautiful park and the clouds that day looked like a snow covered blanket!

Pop Quiz: Does this shot remind you of any album cover?
Hint: My favorite song from the album is "Alter Ego"