Melbourne’s Courtney Barnett is a 25-year-old guitar player and singer-songwriter who has captured the hearts of music lovers with her unique sound. A miscellaneous mixed bag of charming indie and slacker garage pop, Barnett’s tunes are difficult to pigeonhole. Her recently released video, Avant Gardener, is the perfect example of this genre-defying nature.
Relaying the story of an anaphylactic panic-attack during an Australian heatwave, the track is clever, compelling and riddled with tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Unsurprisingly, the accompanying video is just as quirky and captivating as the track. Directed by Charlie Ford, the video features Barnett and her bandmates playing a particularly pathetic game of doubles tennis whilst an uncanny Bob Dylan lookalike referees. Although it does not follow the lyrical storyline of the song, the vintage tennis gear and inter-team punch up at the end (spoiler alert) go surprisingly well with the vibe of the track.
During 2012, Barnett launched her own label, Milk! Records, and released her first EP I’ve Got A Friend Called Emily Ferris. After receiving stellar reviews, Barnett dropped her sophomore EP How To Carve A Carrot Into A Rose in 2013. In an interesting move, Barnett then combined the two releases into one and titled it The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas to be released internationally via House Anxiety/Marathon Artists.
With a no-frills approach to recording, a conversational singing style and a knack for unabashedly honest lyrics, Barnett is a breath of fresh air in a music industry drowning in heavily melodic and overly produced tunes.