The musical pairing of indie rockers Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile makes perfect sense. For one, they bear a slight physical resemblance — both lean and attractive, they each slouch toward the microphone under a tousled mass of chestnut-colored hair, peering down at their fingers on the fretboard of the guitar from time to time. Musically, guitar-centric Philly boy Vile likes to stretch out on long, ambling stoner-rock numbers punctuated by his tuneful, nimble solos, while Aussie Barnett’s songs tend to focus on her lyrics, which are clever and conversational but without pretension.
When the Scene catches up with the pair via telephone, Vile says the idea to make a record together, October’s Lotta Sea Lice, didn’t come from any sort of music-biz opportunism — it wasn’t for “some musical-industrial reason,” as he puts it. It’s because the two admired one another’s work. On Thursday, they’ll bring their tour to a sold-out Ryman Auditorium, where they’ll be backed by a world-class band featuring current and former members of Sleater-Kinney, Warpaint, Wild Flag and more. Barnett, Vile & Co. have stuck largely to the same set list, which includes songs from Lotta Sea Lice as well as tunes from their solo catalogs and a couple of covers. Below, find a handful of the standout songs you can expect to hear on Thursday night, along with a little primer on what’s special about each.
“Over Everything”
Lotta Sea Lice’s pleasantly meandering opener “Over Everything” is one of two tracks that stretch past the six-minute mark, and it plays a lot like a Vile solo tune — a bit long, a bit mellow.
“Seeing her work in the studio, she really fine-tunes the lyrics,” says Vile. “I’d be like, ‘Oh, I think it’s great as-is.’ But she would come back and definitely make them 10 times better.”
“When it’s Kurt’s song, or if Kurt’s got a solo or something, I stand back a bit,” says Barnett. “Let him shred out, let him riff. That’s just what you do onstage. Whatever the song deserves is what everyone does. And we’ve got a really cool band that really respects the music and the songwriting. So whatever the actual song deserves is kinda what happens.”
“Let It Go”
With its guitar riffs overlapping like a pair of chiming clocks, its choppy snare-drum rolls and the singers delivering verses in a back-and-forth deadpan, “Let It Go” could be the song that best meshes Barnett’s and Vile’s individual talents. Moreover, it could be the best song on the record. “What comes first, the chorus or the verse?” sings Barnett. “I’m a bit blocked at the moment,” replies Vile.
The chorus features a simple but transfixing phrase, repeated again and again. “You’ve gotta let it go,” the two sing, almost like a mantra, “before it takes you over.” Are they talking about anger? A toxic relationship? A troubling memory? Could be any of those, but when the two perpetually chill performers sing it in tandem, you believe them.
“Continental Breakfast”
“I guess it basically is,” says Vile when asked if the fifth song on Lotta Sea Lice is meta — that is, if it’s a song about the process of writing a song with Barnett. “Especially the actual ‘continental’ line, which came from Courtney emailing me.”
“I cherish my intercontinental friendships,” sings Barnett. “We talk it over continental breakfast in a hotel in East Bumble-wherever.”
“It just felt natural at all times,” Barnett says of working on the record. “I don’t think we’re both majorly ego-heavy.”
“And even if I am with some,” Vile chimes in, “I’m definitely not with Courtney.”
“Untogether”
“It was mine,” says Vile of the idea to cover this song by ’90s jangle-pop band Belly. It’s the last tune on Lotta Sea Lice, and it’s a simple, pleasant one to go out on — chosen, says Vile, as much for the sake of nostalgia as for the song’s simple charm. “I know it’s nostalgic, but it’s just a great song melodically, and quirky lyrically. … We heard it back, and we weren’t doing much but singing and strumming, and it didn’t matter. So that’s what shows it’s just a great song.”
“Elvis Presley Blues”
Throughout the tour, Vile and Barnett have been opening the encore portion of their set with a cover of this 2001 Gillian Welch song, though it isn’t featured on Lotta Sea Lice. It’s a graceful, ruminative folk song — stock-in-trade for Welch and her writing and recording partner Dave Rawlings — that follows Elvis from his humble beginnings to his lonesome end. Videos from recent performances show Vile and Barnett making the tune all their own, slipping naturally into a sort of rustic, Americana mode. When asked if there are any other artists he’d like to collaborate with, Vile references Welch as well as fellow powerhouse songwriter John Prine, both of whom live in Nashville. “Both of them, if they want,” says Vile of a fantasy collaboration. “We’re there for a couple days.”
“Avant Gardener”
The duo has been closing its encore with this one, a Barnett original from her 2014 release The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas, and it’s easy to see why. With its neurotic, lyrically dense, stream-of-consciousness verses and repeating one-line chorus — “I’m having trouble breathing in” — “Avant Gardener” is one of Barnett’s most dynamic efforts, and one of the best songs that either she or Vile has ever released.
