Courtney Barnett contributes cover of Loose Tooth's "Keep On" for new compilation

Milk On MIlk is a compilation that sees the Melbourne label's roster covering each other's tracks.

Courtney Barnett's cover of Loose Tooth's "Keep On" is the first cover to be shared from the compilation.

Barnett says of her choice, "We took Loose Tooth on tour around Europe in Mid-2018 and every night I sat in my hotel room teaching myself how to play "Keep On". This was before their album had come out but the song already felt like an old classic to me. I sat in bed with my guitar every night n I had to slow the song down and pull it apart a little bit n in that process it gained a certain weight where I heard the words differently. The chorus became a mantra and shook me up a bit."

She adds, "Loose Tooth have this incredible talent for churning out the sweetest pop songs with these biting lyrics, all whilst maintaining this charming n disarming onstage banter n crowd surfing to the bar for a beer mid-song. The lyrics to this song are particularly powerful n nostalgic to me. The band performing with me is Jen Sholakis on Drums, Dave Mudie on Bass n Me on Guitar. I didn’t let them rehearse cos I knew they’re too good and they’d work better n looser under the pressure. We recorded it in a few hours with everyone on vocals at the end plus a little added angel, Anika AKA Hachiku."

The compilation will see Evelyn Ida Morris cover Barnett's "Nameless, Faceless", as well as including other contributions from Tiny Ruins, Hachiku, Jen Cloher, The Finks, Jade Imagine, East Brunswick All Girls Choir, and Loose Tooth.

Producer Anna Laverty says of the compilation, "I originally turned down my dream gig of producing the Milk on Milk album because my baby was due that week, I literally had no other choice. But when I heard back from the Milk crew saying we could move the recording schedule a week earlier I knew it was meant to be. There were two songs on the album (Courtney’s version of Keep On and The Finks’s DOG FM) where I worked on the original version and then also the new cover so it was an interesting challenge to bring new production values to the same song but with a different band. We recorded seven of the bands over four days sharing backline and in true Milk fashion a bunch of the musicians. It was a career highlight for me and an album I’ll cherish forever."