Bartees Strange, a Stereogum Artist To Watch way back in 2020, has had a hugely busy few years. He’s released two albums, 2020’s Live Forever and last year’s Farm To Table, that have established him as a vital and creative voice, an indie rocker who draws ideas and inspiration from anywhere and everywhere. And Strange has also been a big collaborator. In the past few months, he’s dropped random covers and collaborations. This year, he’ll curate the Sled Island Festival and tour with boygenius. And now he’s got two new songs out in the world.

Bartees Strange’s new tracks “Tisched Off” and “Keekee’in” are coming out as part of Sub Pop’s singles series, and they’re both winners. “Tisched Off” is a discordant, rap-adjacent riff on Strange’s privileged indie rock peers, while “Keekee’in” is a home-recorded track that Strange made with his guitarist Daniel Kleederman. On “Tisched Off,” Strange has this to say:

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.

And here’s what he says about “Keekee’in”:

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.

Listen to both tracks below.

“Tisched Off” b/w “Keekee’in” is out now on Sub Pop.