Can we please stop making up news stories about Tame Impala?

A couple of weeks ago the music world was aghast with news that Tame Impala were finishing after their headline appearances at St. Jerome's Laneway Festival next year. A lot of music press jumped on the story - and fair enough - a headline like "Leaping at their peak: Tame Imapala's Last Hurrah at Laneway" definitely sounds like it's the end of the day for the much-loved WA outfit. Except of course, if anyone actually bothered to read the article, in fact even just the byline of that article, it states they'll be going on hiatus after the Laneway tour.

A band is taking a break from touring? Common sense will tell you that's what band's actually do once their touring cycle is up. They put out an album, tour the thing fucking hard for the next couple of years, then take a break. That's not news - that's called being a successful touring artist.

Everyone eventually caught on, and the report's angle definitely started to change shape. But holy hell that initial blast definitely got us talking didn't it!?

"Tame Impala to take a break after Laneway because that's what bands do once their touring cycle is up" definitely doesn't have the same ring to it unfortunately. It also doesn't really encourage you to click on it.

Fine. Whatever. That's how music news works. We're not above clickbaity headlines from time to time. We need to drive traffic to our site too. But where does it end?

Today comes a shocking new revelation - "Kevin Parker wants you to stop calling Tame Impala a band."

Only, he doesn't.

He just did an interview with the NZ Herald and talked about something that anyone with a passing interest in Tame Impala already knows: Tame Impala is the solo project of Kevin Parker. He produces the records himself, and then goes on tour with his bandmates to reproduce that music live. It's right there in the first fucking paragraph on Tame Impala's Wikipedia (and spare me the 'oh you can't trust Wikipedia bullshit').

This isn't exactly out of the ordinary. In fact that's how a lot of artists operate in 2016. And to say its disrespectful to the other band members for him to say such a thing, is in itself disrespectful to the other band members! You don't know how they feel about the situation. But given that it's a formula that's worked pretty well for Parker and friends over the course of Tame Impala's career, we're going to make an informed guess that they don't mind it? And enjoy working with someone like Parker while then going off to work on their own solo projects (GUM, Cam Avery etc.) Perhaps Nick Allbrook wasn't a huge fan of that modus operandi, so he no longer tours with Tame Impala, deferring energy into bands like POND and his own solo career. Turns out, with two seconds of research, we can answer that question.

Tame Impala isn't breaking up after Laneway. The project is going on a well-deserved break after a couple of intense years touring the awesome album that was Currents.

Kevin Parker is Tame Impala. Always has been. Always will be.

Expect more from your news sources and don't just take things at face value. The only way we'll get rid of clickbait bullshit is to think before reacting. Take half a second to question a headline before you tag 15 of your mates in tears at the thought of Tame Impala breaking up.