{"id":20103,"date":"2014-01-17T14:31:57","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T22:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=20103"},"modified":"2014-01-17T15:02:28","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T23:02:28","slug":"aussie-time-the-australian-open-and-courtney-barnetts-avant-gardener-tennis-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2014-01\/aussie-time-the-australian-open-and-courtney-barnetts-avant-gardener-tennis-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie Time: The Australian Open and Courtney Barnett’s “Avant Gardener” Tennis Video"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CB\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s that time of year:\u00a0 all-hours are being spent watching the Australian Open<\/strong> tennis tournament.\u00a0 We are hopeless tennis addicts dating back to the days of Stan Smith, Rod Laver, John Newcombe<\/strong>, et. seq.\u00a0 So after a Major absence following the U.S. Open<\/strong> in August, we’ve sat in abeyance waiting for the Aussie Open<\/strong> and its heat treatment.\u00a0 And now we’re all good again.<\/p>\n

In addition to being Aussie Open<\/strong> addicts, we’ve also been big fans of Australian music starting with The Saints<\/strong> and Radio Birdman<\/strong>, moving into The Go-Betweens<\/strong> and The Church,<\/strong> and (most recently) the (part-)Australian band Allo Darlin’<\/strong> (which released our Best Album of 2012<\/strong><\/a>).\u00a0 And recently, while properly preparing for the Australian Open<\/strong>, we stumbled across Courtney Barnett<\/strong><\/a> and her song Avant Gardener<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 The tennis motif in Barnett’s<\/strong> official video for the song (see below) also provided the perfect tie-in with the Open<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Barnett<\/strong> is a 25-year-old singer-songwriter guitarist who last year combined several recordings into the well-received The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 That recording’s lead single Avant Gardener<\/strong><\/em> tells the story of an anaphylactic panic-attack in the midst of an Australian heatwave (such as happened this week at the Open<\/strong>), with clever lyrics such as \u201cThe paramedic thinks I\u2019m clever cos I play guitar, I think she\u2019s clever cos she stops people dying.\u201d\u00a0 We’re just getting to know Barnett<\/strong>, but it’s clear in Avant Gardener<\/strong><\/em> that she shows great promise as a songwriter, lyricist and performer.\u00a0 We love her deadpan delivery and the instrumental flourishes in the song.\u00a0 Check it out below (the song’s lyrics follow the video).\u00a0 We’ll have more about Courtney Barnett<\/strong> in the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n