Song of the Day: Courtney Barnett - Pedestrian at Best

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, is "Pedestrian at Best" by Courtney Barnett from the forthcoming album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit due March 24th on Mom + Pop Music.

Courtney Barnett - Pedestrian at Best (MP3)

Considering the two past consecutive years Courtney Barnett has ended up on KEXP fans' and DJs' and international critics' "Best of" lists, it's hard to believe that the young Australian artist has still yet to release an actual LP. Her terrific 2013 entry, The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas (rereleased in 2014), is really just that, two EP's joined to create an album, and, as seamless as it seemed, wasn't conceived as a whole. While A Sea of Split Peas captures the early songwriter, clever and lyrically loquacious as she is, it's not what she's since become. Through constant touring after the double EP's release, Courtney Barnett and her band, The Courtney Barnetts, have toughened their sound and play energized garage-y jams that have yet to be captured on album - that is, until now.

Today's featured song, the newly released "Pedestrian at Best", really packs a punch. This first single from her forthcoming album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, tears out of the 90's with a Nirvana-esque guitar riff, squalling feedback and grungy distortion. Fortunately, the aggressive delivery doesn't bury Barnett's quick-fire delivery as she spews defiance of those who would unnecessarily elevate or place expectations upon her ("Put me on a pedestal / I'll only disappoint you"). But even if this is Barnett's most vitriolic song to date, it's not without her typical humor ("My internal monologue is saturated analog / It's scratched and drifting").

So, is this the sound we can expect from the rest of Courtney Barnett's new album? She's played two other new songs recently at shows, one rockin' and one solo, so we'll just have to wait until March 24, when Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit is released, to find out. Also, be sure to tune in to The Midday Show on KEXP on March 24th at noon, as you'll hear four new songs as she performed them live in-studio when she was at KEXP last Halloween. Until then, you can find more music on her website and Facebook page, pick up tickets to see her at Sasquatch on May 25, and watch this raw live performance of "Pedestrian at Best", performed live at The Triple Door last summer as part of KEXP's VIP Club concert series: