Tame Impala

Australian trio Tame Impala are one of the few current, retro-flavored bands with both — er, make that *all* — feet planted firmly in the previous millennium with nary a concern about this one. With bands like Love, Can, Cream and Blue Cheer as touchstones (Galaxy 500, Spaceman 3 and the Brian Jonestown Massacre are nowhere to be heard), these six tunes are as transportive as little paper tabs were back in the day. Kevin Parker’s voice is smooth and glassy, his effects-laden, blues-tinged guitars as heaving and crunchy as Leigh Stephens’ were on “Summertime Blues”; the rhythm section of Dominic Simper and Jay Watson is as tight, solid and as sinewy as a Sufi dancer following her muse.  Packing more of a stomping punch than tranced-out bliss (see Wooden Shjips, or Black Angels for sheer droning delight), songs like the gleeful “Skeleton Tiger” and the swerving, swooping “Half Full Glass of Wine” are real powerhouses; a song like “Slide Through My Fingers” is more a magic carpet trip.