Chicago’s weather this weekend felt like a hug from a very large, sweaty man, with rain looming over nearly every set at Pitchfork Fest; and when the sun made a rare appearance, it was brutal. Fortunately, it didn’t stop anyone from taking the stage: Acts big and small blew us away this weekend, from hometown hero…
Courtney Barnett’s debut full-length, 2015’s Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit, established the Australian indie-rocker as a potent musical force. With its tumbling guitars, ragged vocals, and grunge-punk tones—all of which coalesced on the scorching, sassy “Pedestrian At Best”—the album exceeded the…
In addition to highly anticipated releases from Courtney Barnett, Tee Grizzley, and The Body, May holds some of our early favorites for 2018: Jon Hopkins’ follow-up to 2013 breakthrough Immunity, DJ Koze’s extremely fun Knock Knock, Beach House’s enigmatic seventh record, and Parquet Courts’ most politically direct…
Exactly one week after announcing an initial wave of acts led by Tame Impala, Raphael Saadiq, and DRAM, Pitchfork has announced a second wave of artists for the 13th edition of its Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago’s Union Park. They did so by literally asking viewers to watch paint dry, as an artist painted the…
Last week when Courtney Barnett dropped “Nameless, Faceless,” the first track from her upcoming album, Tell Me How You Really Feel, it turned out to be exactly what I didn’t know I wanted to hear. The Aussie’s sardonic address to internet trolls is delivered in her signature chill, witty style but with an added bite…
The Saga Continues is the best Wu Tang-related effort since 2010’s Wu-Massacre, while Long Island punks Iron Chic channel the loss of their founding guitarist into an explosive third album. These plus Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile, King Krule, and more in this week’s notable releases.
Every Friday, dozens of new records are released into the wild. Some make big splashes, and others sink almost immediately. For most music consumers, it’s almost too much information, and save for those precious few who spend their hours glued to review sites and release calendars, it’s hard to know what’s coming out…
In what seems like it could be half of an indie rock Avengers lineup, Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile announced earlier this year that they were joining forces to fight back an alien invasion in New York and also record an album together. Now, they’ve actually announced that the joint LP will be called Lotta Sea Lice,…
Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett have already been pretty busy in 2017 with their respective touring schedules, but much like certain failed presidential campaigns, they’ve decided to be stronger together. The musicians (and A.V. Club favorites) teamed up to record a collaborative album, and are now taking the resulting…
As you’re likely well aware, summer festival season is in full swing. This weekend, while Americans are celebrating Independence Day/pretending nothing is wrong, the Danish will be partying it up at the Roskilde Music Festival. Touted as “the largest music festival in Northern Europe,” the event has been bringing an…
“I’m not an actor, I’m a [former SNL and my own weird version of SNL] star!”
Last week, Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National announced a ridiculously huge Grateful Dead tribute album called Day Of The Dead. “Album” isn’t really the right word, though, because Day Of The Dead actually comes on five CDs that are divided into three volumes, and it features 59 Grateful Dead covers performed by…
Celebrating several years of great music (and several decades of aimless, sometimes-enjoyable noodling), Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National have announced the track listing for their massive, music-star-studded tribute to the Grateful Dead. Titled—with a touch of near-literalism—Day Of The Dead, the six-hour set…
If you were still clinging to the hope that Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett could remain your personal thing—even after her debut studio album, Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit, wound up on numerous Best Of 2015 lists (including one from a small, up-and-coming website called The…
It might sound cliché at this point, but in 2015, the music industry bounced back. Maybe not all the way back to its mid-’90s peaks of excess, but relatively speaking in today’s terms. Taylor Swift made buckets of money touring her 1989 record, Adele broke long-held sales records with 25, and everyone with a radio and…
Australian songwriter Courtney Barnett—who we’ve hung out with a couple times, not to name-drop—has been on a viral marketing rampage recently, putting up posters and billboards all over the world with the same uplifting message: “Nobody really cares if you don’t go to the party.” Now we finally now what she was…
No, it’s not A.V. Undercover—though Courtney Barnett joined us for a Breeders cover last season. Today we’ve got an exclusive video of Barnett covering The Lemonheads’ “Being Around,” from the band’s 1993 album Come On Feel The Lemonheads. There’s an Australian connection to the song: At the time, main Lemonhead Evan…
The praise that Australian songwriter Courtney Barnett received for her early EPs—repackaged for American release after resoundingly successful 2013 CMJ performances —tended to settle on her unique portrayals of everyday life. What’s become clear on Barnett’s proper debut album is how her ability to convey those…
For the 29th year, thousands of artists, industry types, music bloggers, drunk kids, and corporations who would love to profit from all of them descended on Austin for the annual South By Southwest festival. And for at least the 10th year, give or take two we can’t really remember, The A.V. Club was among them,…
The Onion and A.V. Club present (Just Another) Manic Monday, a beautiful blowout at Austin’s Red 7 on Monday, March 16, featuring Courtney Barnett, Real Estate, Wooden Wisdom: Elijah Wood & Zach Cowie, METZ, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Hamilton Leithauser, East India Youth, Hippo Campus, and more. From 4 p.m. until midnight…
