• Follow @RollingStone

10 New Artists You Need to Know: April 2014

  • News
  • Video
  • Music
  • Politics
  • TV
  • Movies
  • Cannabis
  • RS Country
  • RS Hip-Hop
More
  • News
  • Video
  • Music
  • Politics
  • TV
  • Movies
  • Cannabis
  • RS Country
  • RS Hip-Hop
  • Lists
  • Galleries
  • Sports
  • Interviews
  • Long Reads
  • Artists
  • Ram Report
  • Album Reviews
  • 50 Years of Music & Style
  • Movie Reviews
  • American Beauty
  • Live Reviews
  • Coverwall
  • Podcasts
  • 50th Anniversary
  • Subscribe
  • The Photo Issue
  • Rolling Stone Newsletter
Trending
Verne Troyer, Mini-Me in 'Austin Powers' Series, Dead at 49
Verne Troyer, Mini-Me in 'Austin Powers' Series, Dead at...
EDM DJ-Producer Avicii Dead at 28
EDM DJ-Producer Avicii Dead at 28
A Brief History of Michael Cohen's Criminal Ties
A Brief History of Michael Cohen's Criminal Ties
Hear J. Cole's New 'KOD' Album
Hear J. Cole's New 'KOD' Album

10 New Artists You Need to Know: April 2014

Meet the rising stars of rock, hip-hop, EDM, country and more acts shaping your tomorrow

Load Previous
Courtney Barnett
10
Tajette O'Halloran5/10
April 10, 2014

More News

CMJ 2013's 10 Best Discoveries
All Stories

Courtney Barnett

Sounds Like: Melancholy and the infinite slackness – loose, easygoing alt-rock with the sense of gentle self-awareness that many first-gen alt-rockers lacked

For Fans Of: Juliana Hatfield, the Go-Betweens, Lou Reed

Why You Should Pay Attention: One of Rolling Stone's best discoveries at last year's CMJ, Courtney Barnett has little more than two EPs to her name, collected together on the comp, The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas, due in America on April 15th. Yet she has lined up appearances at Coachella, Lollapalooza, Primavera and more – not to mention gigs with MGMT, Phosphorescent and Sharon Van Etten. She writes whole-hearted, often-funny confessionals about everything from writing her best songs when she's asleep in a drunken stupor ("History Eraser") to masturbating to get to sleep ("Lance Jr."); and does it all with imaginative, quasi-psychedelic guitar playing and a sweetly sublime vocals.

She Says: "I think anything that influences you for the worse you've just gotta use and turn it into something good – like Guernica," she says, joking. One of the bad experiences Barnett turned into something positive was the very true event she sings about in "Avant Gardener." On one especially hot day (104 degrees, according to the lyrics), she suffered an anaphylactic panic attack while gardening and needed an adrenaline shot à la Pulp Fiction. "That is a real story," she says emphatically. "The only untrue part is that I actually got adrenalin to the thigh, not the heart."

Hear for Yourself: Barnett's easy, breezy panic attack number, "Avant Gardener," dramatized in the video as a tennis kerfuffle. By Kory Grow

Back to Top
  • Previous Slide
  • Next Slide

Trending

Ranked on a scale from 1 to 10, the trending score reflects the number of users reading a story in real time.

What is this?

Verne Troyer, Mini-Me in 'Austin Powers'...

Verne Troyer, Mini-Me in 'Austin Powers' Series, Dead at 49
9.3

EDM DJ-Producer Avicii Dead at 28

EDM DJ-Producer Avicii Dead at 28
8.7

A Brief History of Michael Cohen's Criminal...

A Brief History of Michael Cohen's Criminal Ties
8.2

Hear J. Cole's New 'KOD' Album

Hear J. Cole's New 'KOD' Album
7.6

Hear Fiona Apple's Tender New Song 'I Can't...

Hear Fiona Apple's Tender New Song 'I Can't Wait to Meet You'
7.3

More News

CMJ 2013's 10 Best Discoveries
All Stories
  • © Rolling Stone 2018
  • Digital Edition
  • Subscribe
  • Give a Gift
  • Coverwall
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your California Privacy Rights
  • Your Ad Choices
  • Terms of Use
  • Customer Service
  • Advertise
  • Confidential Tips