Offering a loose blend of subtly trippy country-rock, folk, and AM pop, Dark Tea is the project of New York songwriter Gary Canino. He issued the debut album Dark Tea in 2019, following it two years later with a more-personal second full-length of the same name.

Born and raised in Huntington, Long Island, Canino took in shows in Manhattan by the likes of Leonard Cohen and the Walkmen as a teen in the 2000s before heading to the University of Virginia. By that time, his sister and main childhood guitar influence, Mattie Canino, was playing in punk group RVIVR. He moved to Brooklyn in 2011, later joining post-punk revivalists Rips as bassist. They recorded an eponymous album with Parquet Courts' Austin Brown. Before it saw release in 2017, Canino launched Dark Tea. The project's first album included guitar contributions from Hand Habits' Meg Duffy and was mixed by Jarvis Taveniere of Woods. Titled Dark Tea, it arrived on Fire Talk Records in 2019. Dark Tea's second long-player included sessions with Walkmen drummer Matthew Barrick, who was among a half-dozen producers credited with various tracks. With Canino describing its lyrical approach as stream-of-consciousness, and also titled Dark Tea (aka II), it arrived on Fire Talk in 2021. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi