Courtney Barnett Songs - Avant Gardener Lyrics

Courtney Barnett - Avant Gardener

Courtney Barnett - Avant Gardener Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas
Released: 2013

Avant Gardener Lyrics

I sleep in late
Another day
Oh what a wonder
Oh what a waste.
It’s a Monday
It’s so mundane
What exciting things
Will happen today?
The yard is full of hard rubbish it’s a mess and
I guess the neighbors must think we run a meth lab
We should amend that
I pull the sheets back
It’s 40 degrees
And i feel like I'm dying.
Life’s getting hard in here
So i do some gardening
Anything to take my mind away from where it’s supposed to be.
The nice lady next door talks of green beds
And all the nice things that she wants to plant in them
I wanna grow tomatoes on the front steps.
Sunflowers, bean sprouts, sweet corn and radishes.
I feel pro-active
I pull out weeds
All of a sudden
I’m having trouble breathing in.
I’m having trouble breathing in.
I’m having trouble breathing in.
I’m having trouble breathing in.

My hands are shaky
My knees are weak
I can’t seem to stand
On my own two feet
I’m breathing but I'm wheezing
Feel like I'm emphysemin’
My throat feels like a funnel
Filled with weet bix and kerosene and
Oh no, next thing i know
They call up triple o
I’d rather die than owe the hospital
Till I get old
I get adrenalin
Straight to the heart
I feel like Uma Thurman
Post-overdosing kick start
Reminds me of the time
When i was really sick and i
Had too much psuedoefedryn and i
Couldn’t sleep at night
Halfway down high street, Andy looks ambivalent
He’s probably wondering what i’m doing getting in an ambulance
The paramedic thinks I'm clever cos i play guitar
I think she’s clever cos she stops people dying
Anaphylactic and super hypocondriactic
Should’ve stayed in bed today
I much prefer the mundane.
I take a hit from
An asthma puffer
I do it wrong
I was never good at smoking bongs.
I’m not that good at breathing in.
I’m not that good at breathing in.
I’m not that good at breathing in.

Writer/s: COURTNEY BARNETT
Publisher: THIRD SIDE MUSIC INC.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Avant Gardener

This song about a slacker who has a panic attack while cleaning up her yard was penned by Barnett on the beach. She told NME: "As a song I was really proud of it. But I thought everyone would hate it! Just because, aw, it's a really stupid song. It's so long and has no chorus and it's not catchy, you know?"

The lyrics of this half-spoken song describe an event that actually happened. Barnett was feeling ambitious one day and decided to do some gardening. It went horribly wrong when she started having trouble breathing and had a panic attack. An ambulance was called and she ended up in the hospital. She explained to Uncut magazine: "'Avant Gardener' is all true, apart from the adrenaline into the heart, like in Pulp Fiction. I just got adrenaline in the top of the thigh... But in the heart sounded so much more exciting."

Although this song recounts a real experience, Barnett does it with a sardonic wink, as it expresses that feeling you get when you finally find ambition and it fails miserably, making you wonder if you're better off staying in your comfort zone.

The music video quickly got over a million views on YouTube and led to an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The video is a non sequitur, with Barnett playing an awkward match of tennis with her band.