she's ok, but way overrated imo
― nostormo, Wednesday, 25 March 2015 09:57 (nine years ago) link
The album is definitely too mild for me. Figured there would be more fuzz pedals.
― how's life, Wednesday, 25 March 2015 10:42 (nine years ago) link
i like the album but i wish more of it sounded like "pedestrian at best"
― bae sremmurd (monotony), Wednesday, 25 March 2015 10:50 (nine years ago) link
The album bloomed as soon as I realized the guitar and attitude were closer to Sheryl Crow than Liz Phair.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 25 March 2015 10:54 (nine years ago) link
i checked out her collection of eps last year (thought it was an album until now) after enjoying a one-off song i heard, but was kinda disappointed. the title and cover of this one are both supremely offputting
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 25 March 2015 11:00 (nine years ago) link
welp that's sorted then
― j., Wednesday, 25 March 2015 15:11 (nine years ago) link
re: dude singing
Yeah, she really reminds me of Reed and Cobian, not just in the chord progressions and imagery, but also the way she builds an aggressive persona around feeling weak and ineffectual. Also the way she make the music pretty when you're looking for noise, and noisy once you're getting comfortable with the jangle.
― juggulo for the complete klvtz (bendy), Wednesday, 25 March 2015 15:17 (nine years ago) link
I seem to playing Aqua Profonda the most. I like that track.
She doesn't seem perturbed that the person next lane over apparently left her to drown.
― jmm, Wednesday, 25 March 2015 15:27 (nine years ago) link
her singing is talky but there are also lots of people talking in the songs, the climax of elevator operator is even when the elevator operator talks back
― j., Wednesday, 25 March 2015 16:05 (nine years ago) link
like 1 in every 3 links/headlines/tweets i've seen on the internet this week includes the words "Courtney Barnett"
― alpine static, Thursday, 26 March 2015 00:35 (nine years ago) link
Good for her! She was very humble and self-deprecating when I saw her last year.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 26 March 2015 01:06 (nine years ago) link
Yeah her persona feels very low-key (dunno where bendy gets "aggressive" from). Not my #1 favourite album of the year but it's very solid and if she blows up/becomes "the next" Sheryl Crow I'm happy for her.
― kriss akabusi cleaner (seandalai), Thursday, 26 March 2015 01:34 (nine years ago) link
What Alfred said. I've been thinking a lot about why I like this album and when I think it's because she's closer to Sheryl Crow than Liz Phair.
― Robert Earl Hughes (dandydonweiner), Thursday, 26 March 2015 01:53 (nine years ago) link
yeah, i knew that would come off snarky/negative, but i'm stoked for her. love her and her music. she rules. but man she is seriously buzzing right now
― alpine static, Thursday, 26 March 2015 02:05 (nine years ago) link
Aggressive isn't the word for it, yeah. But I get a lot of pent-up emotion and defiance beneath her laconic delivery.
― juggulo for the complete klvtz (bendy), Thursday, 26 March 2015 11:57 (nine years ago) link
shout out to anyone else who rides the 96 to work; kinda decided i loved the album after she dropped that line
― bae sremmurd (monotony), Thursday, 26 March 2015 12:09 (nine years ago) link
i like the whole thing but "pedestrian at best" stands way out to me. i get that her appeal is as a lackadaisical chronicler of the quotidian but when her delivery is louder and fiercer and more like that of an inspired pulpiteer she becomes way more exciting to me (i mean, way to make lines like "I'm a fake / I'm a phony / I'm awake / I'm alone / I'm homely / I'm a Scorpio" sound like gospel)
― bae sremmurd (monotony), Thursday, 26 March 2015 12:13 (nine years ago) link
just realised i already posted about how much i love "pedestrian at best" about 30 posts ago, sorry all
― bae sremmurd (monotony), Thursday, 26 March 2015 12:14 (nine years ago) link
Wow, this is good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqP3ICzc7eg
― jmm, Thursday, 26 March 2015 14:08 (nine years ago) link
"Numbers stand for routes of buses" as an argument for the importance of numbers :D
― jmm, Thursday, 26 March 2015 14:09 (nine years ago) link
i used to take the 96
didn't see CB on there tho
― don't ask me why i posted this (electricsound), Thursday, 26 March 2015 21:37 (nine years ago) link
this new album is great, thank u ILM
― sleeve, Friday, 27 March 2015 01:38 (nine years ago) link
i must confess, i've made a mess of what should be a small success
^^
― j., Friday, 3 April 2015 20:59 (nine years ago) link
i like her a lot
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 3 April 2015 21:07 (nine years ago) link
pretty great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKQ5P7vBIwc
― that's not my post, Saturday, 4 April 2015 04:53 (nine years ago) link
cambridge show was fun, although shame we had to leave early to catch a train :-/
― but then again, who really cares? I don’t. (dog latin), Thursday, 9 April 2015 10:35 (nine years ago) link
Among the things I do now is perform a bar quiz every Wednesday evening. One of the nicest parts of the gig is I get to play music from my library when I'm not reading questions or answers. Last night I got into the sound system early and treated my patrons to the first three tracks from Sometimes I Sit... I walked around the place to make sure the speakers were working, and to hear those songs coming out loud and clear in a suburban Texas yuppie bar felt so damn good.
― Love, Wilco (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 9 April 2015 20:33 (nine years ago) link
"she looks him up and down with a botox frown"
really looking forward to (slowly) learning the lyrics on this album, she is so good
― sleeve, Wednesday, 29 April 2015 00:33 (nine years ago) link
this was #1 on my CMJ Core station last week
― sleeve, Wednesday, 29 April 2015 00:34 (nine years ago) link
… with death
― j., Tuesday, 2 June 2015 14:42 (nine years ago) link
More raucous live, with slightly quieter moment being solo encore take on You Am I's "Heavy Heart." They also did a sloppy fun take on Breeders "Cannonball"
― curmudgeon, Monday, 15 June 2015 13:52 (nine years ago) link
For those who thinks she sounds like Sheryl Crow, Sheryl would put her fingers in her ears for much of the set and head out quickly if she ever saw Courtney live. Much more Nirvana-eque
― curmudgeon, Monday, 15 June 2015 15:20 (nine years ago) link
yeah i remember her being a lot rockier live than on record
― don't believe me, just wash (dog latin), Monday, 15 June 2015 15:22 (nine years ago) link
I don't think you're giving Sheryl Crow much credit, curmudg.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 15 June 2015 15:56 (nine years ago) link
The frequent Sheryl Crow comparisons make little sense to me either, though the (as frequent) ones to Nirvana are only a bit more understandable. Likely this is because so much of what defines Barnett, for me, is her off-kilter phrasing, and I don't here any such analog in either Crow or Cobain.
― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Monday, 15 June 2015 16:17 (nine years ago) link
She's closer to the pop side of the spectrum, which is why she's more fun than Nirvana.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 15 June 2015 16:22 (nine years ago) link
Mostly it's the "All I Wanna Do" conversational phrasing that overlaps between the two. And that, in the same way that Vampire Weekend reached college kids who heard Graceland in the car in their first years, now it's Tuesday Night Music Club infants reconnecting with that style.
― ... (Eazy), Monday, 15 June 2015 16:26 (nine years ago) link
otm
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 15 June 2015 16:27 (nine years ago) link
Huh. Didn't even think of "All I Wanna Do" (mostly because I try not to ever think of that song). But yes, otm indeed.
― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Monday, 15 June 2015 16:36 (nine years ago) link
hoping she goes for a Globe Sessions vibe on this one.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 15 June 2015 16:38 (nine years ago) link
*on the next one.
So she'll solicit an unheard Dylan song?
― Love, Wilco (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 15 June 2015 16:47 (nine years ago) link
and date Don.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 15 June 2015 16:49 (nine years ago) link
I like her weird noun-verb compounds (or whatever you want to call this).
"Fair evades his way down the 96 tram line"
"Headphone wielding to the Nicholas building"
"Big business overtaking, without indicating"
― jmm, Monday, 15 June 2015 17:11 (nine years ago) link
Dog latin and I were emphasizing that LIVE she is much more rock than pop. She speeds her tunes up, mumbles the words, and puts her guitar near the amp shaking it and creating feedback. As far as I can tell, Crow doesn't do that. I also don't think Crow has ever covered the Breeders "Cannonball".
― curmudgeon, Monday, 15 June 2015 17:21 (nine years ago) link
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/06/14/australian-guitarist-and-singer-courtney-barnett-gets-grungy-and-gnarly-at-930-club/
But onstage Saturday, the first of two sold-out nights at the 930 Club, Barnett and her band were more gnarly and grungy than sly and subtle. Barnett’s electric guitar tangled with bassist Bones Sloane and drummer Dave Mudie in a hour-long set that channeled burly 90’s alt-rock as much as it followed up on the buzz surrounding her latest album.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 15 June 2015 17:25 (nine years ago) link
If I were to trace the influence of "All I Wanna Do" on popular music, I'd locate it more within the realm of "bro country" than Barnett. Like, I get where she got the conversational phrasing from the earlier song (as Easy ID'd above), but her phrasing is a lot knottier than Crow's. And her words are infinitely less banal.
― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Monday, 15 June 2015 17:27 (nine years ago) link
Mostly it's the "All I Wanna Do" conversational phrasing
great comparison... and also a little disturbing
― skip, Monday, 15 June 2015 17:28 (nine years ago) link
y'all are way too sensitive about this comparison
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Monday, 15 June 2015 17:31 (nine years ago) link
Eh, not being sensitive. Just wondering why this awesome, punkish, wordy new record that I like keeps getting compared to Sheryl Crow.
― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Monday, 15 June 2015 17:33 (nine years ago) link