Courtney Barnett's debut Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit is out next week via Mom+Pop Music.
The Aussie indie rocker and her band—which includes Dan Luscombe on guitar
and the surprisingly nimble rhythm section of Bones Sloane on bass and
Dave Mudie on drums—recorded the album at Head Gap Studio in Melbourne
during the fall of 2014.
“We’d start midday and work until quite early
in the morning,” says Barnett in her bio. “Of course, half the time is sitting around
waiting for the engineer to get a mic into place or something like
that.” The band used the downtime to take these songs apart and put them
back together again. Nothing was taken on faith; every note and every
word was parsed.
“We didn’t just go in and bang it out. We mucked around
with it. There was the panic of not having the songs prepared, but I
think that energy works for the album. And we were drinking a lot of
coffee.” (The process was documented by photographer Tajette O’Halloran,
whose images are included in the liner notes.)
Drastic measures were taken to make sure every song came
out as perfectly imperfect as possible. When “Pedestrian At Best” wasn’t
working out in the studio, she took the backing tracks home with her
and listened to them over and over and over, trying to get the right
words to come out of her mouth. “I had some words on paper and a
half-assed melody that I hated,” she recalls. “I rapped over it until I
found something I was happy with. It’s an embarrassing process, though,
and the first time I sang that song was when I recorded it. I had to
make everyone leave the room, because I felt really vulnerable.”
Barnett and her band just made their Ellen TV talk show debut, alongside First Lady Michelle Obama and gave a rendition of her song "Depreston"
Stream the album at iTunes Radio First Play
05.18.15 - The Sinclair - Boston, MA *
05.19.15 - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY *
05.20.15 - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY *
05.21.15 - Bowery Ballrom - New York, NY *
05.22.15 - 05.25.15 - Sasquatch Festival - George, WA
05.27.15 - Red Rocks - Morrison, CO **
05.29.15 - 05.31.15 - Bottle Rock Napa Valley - Napa, CA
05.30.15 - The Roxy Theatre - Los Angeles, CA *
05.31.15 - The Roxy Theatre - Los Angeles, CA *
06.02.15 - Casbah - San Diego, CA *
06.05.15 - The Mohawk - Austin, TX *
06.06.15 - Club Dada - Dallas, TX *
06.07.15 - One Eyed Jacks - New Orleans, LA *
06.09.15 - Vinyl - Atlanta, GA *
06.10.15 - Koka Booth Amphitheater - Cary, NC #
06.11.15 - 06.14.15 - Bonnaroo Music Festival - Manchester, TN
06.13.15 - 9:30 Club - Washington, DC *
06.15.15 - Union Transfer - Philadelphia, PA *
06.18.15 - Uptown Theatre - Kansas City, KC ^
07.19.15 - Pitchfork Music Festival - Chicago, IL
07.24.15 - 07.25.15 - WayHome Music & Arts Festival - Oro-Medonte, ON
07.25.15 - Newport Folk Fest - Newport, RI
* w/ Chastity Belt & Darren Hanlon
** w/ Spoon + The Decemberists
# w/ The Alabama Shakes
^ w/ Belle & Sebastian
Track listing:
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
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