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Tame Impala Find Their ‘Elephant’ Swagger on ‘Jools Holland’

Tame Impala's Kevin Parker on 'Later... With Jools Holland'

Behold the transformative power of heavy psych-rock. It might just be our imagination, but it looks like Kevin Parker gains confidence throughout Tame Impala’s performance of thunderous Lonerism advance single “Elephant” last night on BBC’s Later… With Jools Holland. From the Aussie band’s Essential sophomore album, the savanna-shaking stomper sketches out a supremely arrogant asshole who’s full of shit, a thematic shift from lovelorn plaints like fellow album highlight “Feels Like We Only Go Backward.” In this Later clip, Parker’s vocals appear to start out uncertain, his first couple of words mumbled, but before long he’s grinning with brash determination, the five-piece band is locked in spacey interplay, and the drums are soloing just when they should. It’s not Tame Impala’s first time on TV — hell, they played Jimmy Fallon last year — but here you can almost see Parker being possessed by his own song’s fierce imperiousness. Like the song’s self-regarding main character, “he talks like his opinion is a simple fact,” and after the song’s crashing conclusion, you might feel so bold, too. Annoy your co-workers!