Sidney Gish and Bartees Strange have released new tracks for the latest installment of the Sub Pop Singles Club. They each have contributed two songs: Gish has offered up ‘Filming School’ and ‘MFSOTSOTR’, while Strange has shared ‘Tisched Off’ and ‘Keekee’in’ (featuring Daniel Kleederman). Take a listen below.
“Sometimes, I try to overcome this habit by skipping the ‘ideas’ phase, and improvising a song to completion within a few hours,” Gish explained in a statement. “Both ‘Filming School’ and ‘MFSOTSOTR’ were created this way. ‘Filming School’ was recorded in fall 2021 at my apartment in Brooklyn. The lyrics were freestyled while reflecting on film school, which I did not attend. In 2022, I added bass & synth to ‘Filming School,’ as well as piano, engineered by Lily Wen at Figure 8 Studios. ‘MFSOTSOTR’ was recorded in late summer 2019 at my old apartment on Mission Hill. The lyrics were freestyled while staring at a meme of a buff man wearing high-waisted jeans. No edits were ever made to ‘MFSOTSOTR.’ It has haunted my hard drive for three years.”
Speaking about ‘Tisched Off’, Strange said: “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.”
Of ‘Keekee’in’, he added: “This song is extremely special to me. During our tour with Car Seat Headrest the band had Covid. I was bunkered down with my guitarist Dan at his family’s house in the basement. I figured it would be cool to write something using only the tools we had. All of the instrumentation was done with stuff from that room. Matchsticks, pillows for drums, very random keyboards, etc. I wrote this song to get some feelings out I had about some business people I was considering working with – they ended up being shady and I was feeling very betrayed. I was thinking about how valuable it is to have people you can really trust. And how few those people are.”
Bartees Strange released his sophomore album, Farm to Table, last year. Sidney Gish’s last LP was 2017’s Dogs Allowed.
