Tea Eater (photo by Viviane Black)

Brooklyn’s own “surf-rock-on-Neptune grooves” art punk extraordinaires, Tea Eater, had a BIG 2023: gigging all around town, releasing their excellent debut album, Obsession, and embarking on their first European tour, spreading their special brand of noise that filters through the anxiety of modern life while “inviting you to shed your baggage and transmute your neurosis into something worth dancing about.” Wasting no time and keeping busy, they are heading right into the action in 2024, hitting us with a brand new video from one of the stand out tracks from the album, “Has Been,” which was shot, directed and edited by their past collaborator, Emily Hughston Hoffman.

Frontwoman Tarra Thiessen had this to share about the song/video:

The song is based on the movie Ladies & Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains and some of the verse lyrics are taken from lines from the movie— ‘Who get s a cut when there is no pie,’ and ‘Who do you trust when in line to die,’ and the ‘suckers’ bridge is inspired by this scene. Basically relating that picture of being a new band in the music industry in the early 80s to today and seeing how not much has changed (with how the industry is still set up to exploit artists, the pressure to have growing numbers on social media/Spotify, and stay ‘buzzy’ even if it feels like they’re only there for surface level internet points and don’t always have the utility value to get people out to shows or support you financially). The song is also a play on the word ‘has been’ since the internet content machine makes everything you create feel so disposable and makes you feel like a ‘has been’ faster than ever.

But it’s also totally fine! Brooklyn really has been fine, fun, and has a very special and supportive community. There are also so many positive ways to connect with people more directly these days on other platforms like Twitch/Discord/E-mail lists. So even though the lyrics of this song lean towards the snarky side, I am very grateful!