Mon July 28, 2014
KEXP Presents: Courtney Barnett
Courtney Barnett may prefer the mundane, but that doesn't mean we have to. In the songs on her debut album, The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas, really two early EPs mashed together, the young Australian singer-songwriter relates with hyperfocus the details of a day and moments of simply average significance. A failed attempt at gardening, an invitation to a friendly gathering, a post-breakup rant, an after-party adventure, a concerned call from mom — this can all happen to you! Yet while Courtney Barnett revels in the routine like a high modernist (it's not for naught she namechecks Ezra Pound in a song like "History Eraser"), she leaves off lofty language. Her comments are clever but her language is unadorned. It's the honesty of her delivery and the raw intensity of her performances that elevate each moment to a uncommon experience of sense and sound.
As you'll see and hear during her recent set at The Triple Door, performed exclusively as part of KEXP's VIP Club concert series, each song ultimately becomes an excuse to rock out. With Courtney Barnett, it's always a wonder and never a waste.
- "Avant Gardener"