Sound Doctrine » Courtney Barnett

Courtney Barnett – Avant Gardener

Mar

posted by tommy

This is without a doubt the offspring of the beleaguered ‘chillmate’ generation which I think we can all agree (come on gents, be civil) is ready to be put to bed/euthenised. There’s plenty of good acts that have come out of the few, fuzzy chillmate years but there’s plenty more that have parroted their best Bored Nothing / Boomgates impersonations. I guess it’s a really easy sound to mimic, though a surprisingly difficult sound to do well. Don’t we have an obligation to do the right thing though… It really isn’t the noise it once was and noone’s going to call us cruel if we should shake hands and go our separate ways. This isn’t to say the earlier mentioned Boomtwerp Nothing’s should call it quits, quite the opposite. Those are the acts that are going to cut through the noise for years to come and there’s been a pretty hearty batch of roaring good sorts that have come forth but yeah. That’ll do pig, that’ll do.

For me, it’s about more than detuning your guitar and overlaying your recordings with crackle and pop. It’s about writing good songs. And that friends, that is why Barnett can trace lineage through the strong Australian songwriters of chillmate times. And probably much further back than that too, but I’m being typically monodirectional and putting all of someone else’s eggs in someone else’s basket again. Let’s reaffirm this. She’s not derivative, she just shares merits with other winning bands.

Courtney Barnett – Avant Gardener

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All. That. Said. The new Courtney Barnett single is, quite simply, glorious. It’s got story-telling lyricism out the bee-hind and what could be one of the most interesting voices to rise from the red Australian sands these past few years. She recounts the overlap between a little gardening and some ambulance worthy respiratory problems, repeating ‘I’m having trouble breathing in’. Who’d of thought she could back up History’s Eraser with such a total jam / brilliant tale as this. Not I folks, not I.

Polaroids of Androids are presenting Courtney’s upcoming tour which is sure to be a real blasty-blast. See below for details.