here they are:
"Avant Gardener" by Courtney Barnett: The title says it all!! Well, kinda. No, you're not going to hear a Captain Beefheart or Frank Zappa tune here, but you could expect something that sounds a little "noise-pop"-ish along the lines of, say, Flaming Lips, Built to Spill, or Yo La Tengo. Courtney's deadpan vocals and wordy lyrical refrains even recall avant-pop legends like Lou Reed. Lyrics like "the paramedic thinks I'm clever 'cause I play guitar/I think she's clever 'cause she stops people dying" seem like something that might have come out of a real-life version of "Daria"! I wonder what Courtney grows in that "avant-garden" of hers. Some "weeds", perhaps?!
"Ghost" by Jeremy Messersmith: The only other song of the week is yet another where the title explains the song. That is to say, the lyrics (and mood) of the song feel "haunted", as if by a ghost. "Ghost" was apparently inspired by a trip Jeremy took to his childhood home while he was touring a couple years ago. His home just didn't have the same feel as it did when he was a kid, and the mysterious emotions and emptiness he felt when he last visited it are summed up nicely in "Ghost", a minor key folk-rock song with a "stomp-along" rhythm that recalls both Phillip Phillips "Home" and Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zero's "Home". I think somebody needs to take me home now!!
