Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile Collaborated On An Album And Are Coming To Chicago

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 7, 2017 3:30PM

Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, photo by Danny Cohen

Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile are making an album together! Barnett has rocketed to critical and public acclaim with her fiery songs that mix rock fury with loping lyricism. Vile practices a more mannered style of music, edging more into the wandering yet gently psychedelic fields of classic rock. The notion of a collaboration between the two is exciting since we have no idea what a blend of those two talents will end up sounding like, but we can't imagine it won't be enthralling. The album was recorded between tour dates, whenever Barnett and Vile could sneak off to the studio together. Unfortunately we all have to wait until later this year to hear the results of this dream team's work.

On the bright side it was announced this morning that the duo will be touring together in the fall, with 3 shows in Chicago: one at Rockefeller Chapel on Oct. 26, one at Thalia Hall on Oct. 27, and one at The Empty Bottle on Oct. 28. Expect tickets for all of those to sell out in about 0.0003 seconds when they go on sale Friday, June 9 at 10 a.m.

The shows will feature a rotating all-star cast of backing musicians, including Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney and Wild Flag, Warpaint's Stella Mozgawa, Rob Laakso of The Violators, and Katie Harkin. In a statement Vile described the touring unit as "a cookin' band and an intercontinental country duo for the ages-minus the country."

The tour is also partnering with Plus 1 so that $1 from every ticket goes to support the ACLU, something we can get behind 100 percent. So you get a good time and you get to feel good about it!

If you need a quick dose of Barnett to tide you over until tickets go on sale, you can hear her on the latest episode of the Slate Culture Gabfest, recorded this week while the podcast visited her homeland of Australia.