It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Los Angeles sister trio HAIM (beyond getting some questionable advice about switching the leather jackets out for smart blazers), but as it turns out, in between touring with the almighty Taylor Swift, the girls have been obsessing over the same music that we have been for the last month. Following the lengthy rollout and release of Tame Impala‘s incredible third full-length Currents, Danielle, Este, and Alana recently decided to pay their respects to the skyrocketing Aussie band and recorded their own rendition of the LP’s second single “‘Cause I’m A Man.”
Not really a remix, not really a cover, HAIM’s version of the Tame Impala number throws Danielle’s falsetto in place of Kevin Parker’s inimitable voice and slows the original track’s beat down significantly. Signature HAIM clap breaks, glitchy reworkings, and echoey harmonies bring Parker’s self-aware lyrics front and center. The result is a jarring, yet satisfying sonic collage of the two groups.
Danielle Haim offered an explanation for the new track and a brief timeline for her history with Tame Impala via Facebook:
In 2009 I was in japan playing the summer sonic festival with Jenny Lewis as her guitar player. On a day off of the festival we played a side show at astro hall in tokyo with a band from Australia I’d never heard of called Tame Impala. I remember standing in the crowd and not really understanding how this MASSIVE sound was coming off the stage with just 4 people playing. They were one of the best bands I had ever seen live. When I went back to my hotel, i downloaded their ep immediately- told my sisters to also- and since then we’ve seen their incredible shows all over the world at various festivals and loved every record. Sooo needless to say, when we were asked to do this remix we jumped at the chance!! but we’ve never really done a “remix” before so we decided to put out our own spin on the song. Go get Currents if you haven’t yet- you’ll be stoked.
Currents is out now via Interscope.
