Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile grew up almost 10,000 miles apart from each other, in Melbourne, Australia, and Philadelphia, PA, respectively. In their new video, they never appear in the same shot, making it believable that neither had to leave their hometowns to shoot it. One is a woman, the other is a man. However, that’s where their differences end.
By every other metric, Barnett and Vile are remarkably similar. Both went solo a few years ago after starting their careers as members of other bands (Dandy Warhols side project Immigrant Union and Adam Granduciel’s wildly popular War on Drugs, respectively). Both favor laconic strumming and rambling, stonedly poetic lyrics. Both sing with similar drawls, despite the difference in their accents. Hell, they even have similar haircuts.
That’s why it’s perfect that Barnett and Vile are releasing a collaborative album. Lotta Sea Lice, as it’s titled is out on October 13th. Today, the cross-continental match made in heaven has shared the first single, “Over Everything.” It’s exactly what you’d expect, and that’s perfectly alright. The opener from the upcoming album is an easygoing duet with guitars that only “duel” in the laziest sense of the word, and it takes its time stretching out past the six-minute mark.
For the black and white video, as mentioned before, Barnett and Vile never appear onscreen together, each instead playing their guitar and singing in front of different picturesque backdrops, locations unknown. In keeping with the “misbilled Olivia Newton-John/John Travolta on the Grease poster” trick they pull on the album cover, Barnett lip-syncs Vile’s parts and vice-versa in the video. This helps to reinforce the full-on #twinning effect that’s already pretty obvious, and it’s certainly a cute touch.
Preorder Lotta Sea Lice from Matador Records.
