Bartees Strange Takes Aim At Inequality In The Scene With New Single “Tisched Off”

Even pissed off, there are few artists with the warmth and humanity of Bartees Strange. The DC songwriter’s latest speaks the unspoken truths everyone in the Brooklyn music scene knows in their bones: the game is rigged. “Tisched Off” calls out a culture of artmaking that rolls in manufactured authenticity, the bands who play at realness while masking long-digited bank accounts. The song casts off sharp lines with aggressive guitar swimming through his band’s characteristic expansiveness. It’s driving and to the point, but without losing any of the heart that’s kept his first two releases in constant rotation.

The B-side, “Keekee’in” digs deeper. With a stunningly swirling guitar line and quarantine-necessitated handmade percussion, Bartees Strange crafts a song about the importance of having folks you trust in your life. All too often a B-side is just a spare song the band wasn’t sure where to put, but here it’s a companion piece to the first. A reminder that if the game is rigged, the only way forward is to make sure you have folks you really trust on your team.

Bartees explains the track, saying: “As an up and coming musician, there’s a very special pain that comes with realizing a huge chunk of the artists you’re competing with have way more money and resources than you. This song takes little digs at them. It’s cute. Tisch is like the fashion school at NYU. When I was living in BK I ran into a bunch of young punk bands and experimental acts that rose quickly from that school. I remember feeling like damn – how do you compete with people like that? They’ve got some very real resources. Anywho – it’s just me making fun.”

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