courtney barnett.

[cobl04]

Good morning motherfuckers, one and all.

It is time I made a thread for one of my favourite current Aussie artists, Courtney Barnett.

Her debut album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Think, is out March 23.

You can hear the first single from the album, the rollicking "Pedestrian at Best"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-nr1nNC3ds

I also reeeeeally hope that this song will be on the album because it is lovely

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz06XZqOlmQ

She's been around a few years. She made her own label, Milk Records, through which she released her first two EPs, I've Got a Friend Called Emily Farris and How to Carve a Carrot into a Rose.

They produced some great songs, this one of which is my favourite and appeared on my DI list

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d_WdcDev9c

And this one which is no doubt her most popular song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcnIhzaDTd0

The two EPs were combined into a quasi-LP The Double LP: A Sea of Split Peas for ease of collection. It was subsequently given a 7.8 over on "hipster bible" Pitchforkmedia.com. I forced gump to buy it when we popped into Rough Trade.

She is fucking awesome. She is hilarious, her lyrics are very interesting and she absolutely shreds guitar.

Please get the fuck into her music.

 

[cobl04]

Tracklist, stoked

01 Elevator Operator
02 Pedestrian at Best
03 An Illustration of Loneliness (Sleepless in NY)
04 Small Poppies
05 Depreston
06 Aqua Profunda!
07 Dead Fox
08 Nobody Really Cares if You Don't Go to the Party
09 Debbie Downer
10 Kim's Caravan
11 Boxing Day Blues

 

[Kieran McConville]

Got to listen to some more of her stuff, so this new album might be a good place to start.

Considering I know like two songs: Avant Gardener and Anonymous Club.

 

[Axver]

I've seen her live and enjoyed it, and remember when she worked at the Northcote Social Club, but that song she had in the Hottest 100 wasn't very good.

 

[LemonMelon]

A Sea of Split Peas is excellent. Really excited that she's got a debut LP coming.

 

[cobl04]

I've seen her live and enjoyed it, and remember when she worked at the Northcote Social Club, but that song she had in the Hottest 100 wasn't very good.

Not a fan either, thankfully it's not on the album.

 

[cobl04]

Pedestrian at Best given a BNM over at the 'fork. Good sign given it's not necessarily that great a tune - will definitely pay that the lyrics are terrific though. I'm almost as excited for the lyrics on this album as the music. She is darkly comical and describes generalised anxiety in such unique ways.

A Sea of Split Peas is excellent. Really excited that she's got a debut LP coming.

Fav tracks?

 

[gump]

I forced gump to buy it when we popped into Rough Trade.

Very glad you did. That double EP found its way into my 2014 top-10. Don't Apply Compression Gently is probably my favorite track at this stage, I love her delivery there. Can't wait for the proper album.

 

[LemonMelon]

Fav tracks?

Avant Gardener and Anonymous Club. In general, I felt the tracks from How to Carve a Carrot Into a Rose were the highlights.

 

[cobl04]

in the words of u2popmofo, 'omg we r twinz!!1!'

 

[phanan]

The local music store had a copy of her double EP disc in stock, so I grabbed it.

It's snowing out and I've got the fire going. Sounds like a good time to lay back and give this a spin.

 

[scrumpyjsk]

Discovering her over the past week. She's great.

 

[cobl04]

Awesome work! What did you two think?

 

[gump]

Hey cobbler, just got ticket to see her on May 20th. Should be fun.

 

[nielsgov]

I listened to the double EP two days and I loved it. It's all about the lyrics indeed and also the delivery.

 

[cobl04]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS another one on the bandwagon

keep climbing on people, there's plenty of room.

 

[cobl04]

I will never get sick of Avant Gardener for the exact reasons you describe. A song about having a panic attack wrapped up in hilariously mundane everyday tasks and delivered with seemingly after several strong hits of valium.

 

[phanan]

I agree with LM that the songs from the later EP really stood out, but the whole thing was very good.

 

[gump]

I will never get sick of Avant Gardener for the exact reasons you describe. A song about having a panic attack wrapped up in hilariously mundane everyday tasks and delivered with seemingly after several strong hits of valium.

Now, is it really about a panic attack? Or an anaphylactic shock? I seem to think the latter - there's nothing in particular that would trigger the panic attack there (not that there always is), and she seems to imply some form of allergic reaction (especially at the ambulance). I dunno.

 

[scrumpyjsk]

Awesome work! What did you two think?

I think she has an authentic Aussie voice, her lyrics are very clever and the music stands up. I think this will be a big year for her - Triple J big of course (she's hardly going to crack the commercials).

 

[gump]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NVOawOXxSA

New song is pretty nice. Although someone should probably tell her she is driving on the wrong side of the road.

 

[cobl04]

Great to finally hear a studio version. That's really great. Love the watery production

 

[cobl04]

Also really love the lyrics as well. It's a suitably mournful take on the modern housing market, creating the future at astronomical prices while tearing down the past without any respect.

Then I see the handrails in the shower
A collection of those cannisters for coffee, tea and flour
And a photo of a young man in a van in Vietnam
I can't think of floorboards anymore
Whether the front room faces south or north
And I wonder what she bought it for

Really gives that final refrain, if you've got a / spare half a million / you could knock it down / and start rebuilding, a heavier emotional weight than it ever had before for me.

 

[Kieran McConville]

I'm not quite on the Courtney Barnett Bandwagon (henceforth to be abbreviated as CBB), but I really love Depreston, and particularly for that refrain you quoted just there. In fact the Jays played it this morning.

 

[cobl04]

What's bloody hilarious today is that like six or seven American music websites/blogs have written that the song is about moving to California hahahahahaha

I mean, really not surprising given Americans' famous insularity, but still very funny.

 

[Kieran McConville]

If she ever breaks down and adopts an American twang and changes a few place names, she could be bigger than Jesus on a bumper sticker.

 

[cobl04]

Once Jeff Tweedy gets hold of her she'll be gone to us.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Oh god help us, she can join that band he started with his son or whatever.

 

[liamcool]

I just wanna bring up the possibility of Barnett playing with Nels Cline. (!!!)

 

[gump]

I just wanna bring up the possibility of Barnett playing with Nels Cline. (!!!)

She could use some lap steel guitar.