Watch Tame Impala & Theophilus London Debut Their “Theo Impala” Project In LA
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For a band who haven’t released a new album in more than three years, Tame Impala have had an awfully eventful few days. This past weekend, the band’s set at the otherwise-exemplary psych-rock festival Desert Daze was cut off, three songs in, in for lightning storms. And last night, as previously announced, band mastermind Kevin Parker joined up with New York rap polyglot Theophilus London to debut some new music onstage.
Parker and London have been working on some tracks together, and London claims that they’ll appear on his forthcoming album BeBey. (He’s also teasing a joint tour, but that may just be wishful thinking. This all could be part of a larger “Theo Impala” project, as well.) Last night, London and Parker shared a stage at West Hollywood’s Peppermint Club, and the phone cameras were out.
There’s no setlist for London’s set last night, but it looks as though he and Parker only debuted one or two new songs. (One of them might be called “The New LA.”) Parker played a keyboard and sang. London rapped and sang and sometimes played an MPC. The music that’s appeared in the Instagram videos of last night is intriguing — psychedelic disco with occasional rapping. It’ll be interesting to see where it leads when we get to hear these songs as something other than muffled and blurry Instagram clips.
On Instagram, London writes that he got professional footage of the show and that singles and videos will be out in a few days. He also writes that BeBey is “coming soon.” Watch some videos from last night below.
We are witnessing Kevin Parker ascending to that rarified Chris Martin/Justin Vernon level of “rock guy who rap guys love.” It is a beautiful thing.
