From 2010 to 2011, Barnett played second guitar in Melbourne grunge band Rapid Transit. They released one self-titled album on cassette. She recorded many early versions of her songs with a band called Courtney Barnett and the Olivettes, which was later shortened to the Olivettes. They released a live EP demo CD, with 100 copies being produced which were hand numbered. Around this time Barnett featured on a track by Melbourne singer-songwriter Giles Field called "I Can't Hear You, We're Breaking Up" which was released in late 2011. She also has a credit as co-writer on the song. It appeared in 2012 on Barnett's own label,
Milk! Records. In 2013, Barnett played lead guitar on
Jen Cloher's third studio album,
In Blood Memory, which was also released on
Milk! Records. Following the release of her first EP, Barnett signed to
Marathon Artists (via its imprint House Anxiety). In August 2013, Marathon Artists released
The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas, a combined package of Barnett's first EP and her second EP,
How to Carve a Carrot Into a Rose.
The Double EP brought Barnett international critical acclaim, with "Avant Gardener", the lead single, named Track of the Day by
Q Magazine and Best New Track by
Pitchfork in 2013. It was named the album of the week by
Stereogum The track "History Eraser" was nominated for the
APRA Song of the Year.
How to Carve a Carrot into a Rose was released on a limited run by
Milk! Records as a standalone EP in October 2013.
Marathon Artists and House Anxiety partnered with
Mom + Pop Music for the U.S. release of
The Double EP in 2014.
Milk! Records released a compilation EP,
A Pair of Pears (with Shadows), on 10" white vinyl in September 2014, following a crowd-sourcing campaign in July that year. The EP included a Barnett track, "Pickles from the Jar", the song was voted in at number 51 in
Triple J's Hottest 100 for 2014. On 30 January 2015, Barnett released details on her upcoming full-length album, recorded in April 2014 with
Burke Reid, along with two singles, "Pedestrian at Best" and "Depreston", and accompanying music videos. The music video for "Pedestrian at Best" features Cloher and Fraser A Gorman. Her debut album—
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit—was released worldwide via Milk! Records (Australia), and
Mom + Pop Music (US) on 23 March 2015, and was accompanied by tours in the UK and Europe, America, and Australasia.
Sometimes I Sit and Think was met with critical acclaim,
The Times,
Pitchfork and the
Chicago Tribune. Up until the release of
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, Courtney Barnett, Bones Sloane, and Dave Mudie toured as Courtney Barnett and the Courtney Barnetts. In August 2015, Barnett's UK label, Marathon Artists, in partnership with
Mom + Pop Music and
Milk! Records, launched a global guerilla campaign for the release of her single "Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go to the Party". Billboards and posters bearing the song's title went up in London, New York, Los Angeles, Melbourne and Sydney. The campaign garnered a lot of interest online and across social media and culminated in a surprise busking gig in Camden, London. In concert,
Dan Luscombe (of
The Drones) has often played lead guitar and keyboards, having featured on both,
How to Carve a Carrot Into a Rose and
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, the latter of which he co-produced. When Luscombe was not available, the band performed as a
trio, with Barnett playing guitar. Luscombe did not play on Barnett's 2015 tours, however, and she now refers to the band as the "CB3" on her Facebook page. The CB3 moniker features prominently on drummer Dave Mudie's bass drum. Barnett was nominated in eight categories at the
ARIA Music Awards of 2015 and won four trophies:
Breakthrough Artist,
Best Female Artist,
Best Independent Release and
Best Cover Art for
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. At the end of 2015, Barnett was nominated for a
Grammy Award in the
Best New Artist category. She was later nominated for Best International Female in 2016 for the
Brit Awards. On 21 May 2016, she was the musical guest on the season finale of
Saturday Night Lives
41st season, hosted by
Fred Armisen. Some of the album collaborators include
Stella Mozgawa,
Mick Harvey and the
Dirty Three's
Mick Turner and
Jim White. On 12 February 2018, Barnett teased a new album on her social media accounts, featuring her trying out various musical instruments with the clip ending with the tagline "Tell Me How You Really Feel". Barnett released the singles "Nameless, Faceless", "Need A Little Time", "City Looks Pretty", and "Sunday Roast" from her sophomore solo album, which was launched at a private function at Sydney's Lansdowne Hotel in April 2018 and emceed by ex–
The Go-Betweens Lindy Morrison. The album was eventually released on 18 May 2018 and titled
Tell Me How You Really Feel. The album dealt, in part, with Barnett's thoughts about isolation in the social media age. "City Looks Pretty" was featured on the soundtrack of the video game
FIFA 19. In 2019, Barnett was added to the bill of
Woodstock 50, but the festival was cancelled in May. On 7 July 2021, Barnett released "Rae Street", the lead single from her third studio album—
Things Take Time, Take Time—which was released on 12 November 2021. On 3 July 2022, Barnett supported
the Rolling Stones at their concert at
Hyde Park in London, UK. In July 2023, Barnett confirmed
Milk! Records will be disestablished at the end of 2023, after 12 years. The final album released on the label was the instrumental
End of the Day, released on 8 September 2023. The album features 17 tracks written to score the 2021 documentary,
Anonymous Club. In October of 2025, Barnett released her first new music video and vocal single in two years, "Stay in Your Lane" - which was later performed on
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. In January 2026, Barnett released a new single, "Site Unseen" featuring
Waxahatchee. Her fourth studio album,
Creature of Habit, was released on 27 March 2026. ==In film==