Who better to do a cover of Perth psych-rock exports Tame Impala than Oklahoma’s finest purveyors of the art form, The Flaming Lips?
Well that’s exactly what’s happening with the two bands having already announced a limited edition collaborative EP release in which they cover each other’s songs, now, as the two bands continue to buddy up on their American tour together, fans get to hear some of those juicy results.
We’ve already heard Kevin Parker and his rock cosmonauts offer their Flaming Lips tributes, including performing ‘Silver Trembling Hands’ at a concert in Dublin in mid-August, then a cover of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots cut ‘Are You A Hypnotist?’ at the Rock En Seine festival, but now we get to hear Wayne and co tackle one of Tame Impala’s biggest tunes, the mighty Lonerism single that is ‘Elephant’.
The Flaming Lips recently shared a video of them covering the barrelling blues-prog-pop nugget, as Consequence Of Sound points out.
“This is the one that goes bum ba bum ba bum,” goes frontman Coyne’s intro as the band manages to strike a pretty neat balance between fidelity to the original while giving it their own Fearless Freak touch.
The Instagram-baiting frontman had already teased they’d been recording their own wigged-out version of the track when first revealing details of the split EP with Tame Impala late last month.
The two bands have been touring together in recent months, taking the road-hewn mateship and mutual admiration into the studio, where both bands have recorded covers of each other’s work for the four-track vinyl only release.
The limited release is set to be a highly sought after collector’s item, with Wayne Coyne noting that the 4-track EP will be “only available at the shows,” those international gigs The Flaming Lips and Tame Impala are playing together late October and early November, including the Flaming Lips’ Halloween Blood Bath show in San Francisco tomorrow night.
The Flaming Lips/Tame Impala collaborative EP is actually one of a slew of new special releases from the band in special team-ups with a variety of artists, as The Future Heart points out; including an EP inspired by the forthcoming sci-fi blockbuster Ender’s Game, a tribute album to The Stone Roses’ eponymous debut album featuring Ke$ha and Foxygen (among others), as well as plans to release a white chocolate skull for Record Store Day 2015 (you just can’t make this stuff up).
Meanwhile, in related psych rock team-up news, Tame Impala’s sister band Pond (fronted by former bassist Nick Allbrook) have a collaborative album with UK band The Horrors in the can and awaiting release, while MGMT have touted “something crazy” with Pond for the pair’s dual appearance at the upcoming Falls Festival.
Meanwhile, Tame Impala are up for a whole swag of awards, earning major nominations in their home state with the WAM Music Awards, to be held in November, and seven nominations in this December’s ARIA Awards 2013, including Best Group and Album of the Year.
