Brooklyn’s art-punk oddballs Tea Eater returned in March with I Don’t Believe in Bad Luck, a blistering sophomore album that blends grit, humor, and distortion into a sharp, noisy ride. Fronted by Tarra Thiessen, the band takes messy emotions and reworks them into fuzzed-out punk anthems.
Ahead of the album’s release, the band dropped “Cecilia,” a track packed with scuzzy guitar riffs and deadpan vocals reminiscent of Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon. The song arrived with a DIY video, filmed by Viviane Black on a DV camcorder, featuring surreal desert vignettes in Joshua Tree—hot tubs, oversized dominoes, and plenty of wine. The visuals matched the song’s themes, which explore the role of the “other woman” in breakups. “People love to talk shit about her,” Thiessen explained. “But without her, they’d have no one to project their own baggage onto.”
I Don’t Believe in Bad Luck tells the story of a burned-out psychic fed up with hearing everyone’s problems, including her own. It’s a fitting concept for a band that thrives on chaotic energy. The album builds on the raw power of their February single “Little White Dog (In a Gated Community)” and expands their offbeat obsessions to include waffles, bugs, and misfortune. Produced by Vanessa Silberman and Jasno Swarez, the record delivers layers of distortion, blown-out percussion, and warped hooks, pushing Tea Eater’s sound further into abrasive, unfiltered territory.
To accompany the album, Tea Eater released a limited-edition tarot deck inspired by its themes, swapping traditional suits for waffles and bugs. The deck offered fans a playful way to engage with the record’s surreal vision.
The band celebrated the album’s release with a show at Alphaville in Brooklyn on March 28—Thiessen’s birthday—bringing their raucous, high-energy performance to a packed room.
With I Don’t Believe in Bad Luck, Tea Eater proved once again that they excel at turning disorder into something magnetic. Their mix of scuzzy punk, sharp wit, and unpredictable storytelling makes them one of Brooklyn’s most compelling DIY acts.
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