Taupe and the beautiful pain and communal love of "Castelvetrano" (Still the Same) - Official Video

 

"it's 4 o'clock in the morning / I'm trimming the bignonia / It's 2 pm on a Tuesday and I'm at the bar / I probably should of taken that job in Chicago / since I been young / the Midwest only broken my heart..."


Some songs are so stirring, feel so communal and full of real feelings that you want to be absolutely sure, absolutely fucking sure to have gotten your drink at the bar and shimmy up to the front of the stage before it starts. "Castelvetrano" (Still the Same) by Echo Park, Los Angeles based Taupe is that kind of song. It swings for the lights from the get go beginning with a potent vocal countenance and acoustic guitar. It immediately has a sort of 'Tex Mex' Mexican folk song sway which is even more apparent a mere 12 seconds in when the whole band joins in. A slapping drum, big bass anchor and percolating staccato electric guitar pushes the whole lovely affair along. 

That big push, that movement is a big part of "Castelvetrano" as is the big dramatic down beats, folk orchestral ascensions and sinewy harmonies. The song does, at one beautiful point whittle away to plaintive guitar picking, ethereal sounds and sweet whistling. It is a wonderful moment / outro and as 'liner notes' reveal: (the song is) "inspired by my own feelings of inadequacy and my obsessive tendencies".

"Castelvetrano", to an outside observer, does sound pained, full of regret, full of long stares in reflective surfaces, full of life's shit. and as a result, is a survivorship song and thus very relatable to most. It is artful, emotionally wrought with it's poetry served up by a beautiful gritty, earnest voice. Something to raise a glass to and commiserate with.  This track is a sequel to Taupe's 2022 EP "In the Gloaming". 

   
-Robb Donker Curtius

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THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://www.instagram.com/taupeband/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/65cqpM6Ecoytkh0LccRdKy


Taupe’s atmospheric folk and midwestern emo influences weave together in a clanging symphony of melodies and melancholic lyrics. The band is influenced by Californian nature and the music of George Harrison, David Bazan, Big Thief and Twain.

Taupe, indie rock, folk indie, singer songwriter, folk rock, Echo Park Los Angeles, mid-western emo, Americana rock, melancholia, earnest storytelling, "Castelvetrano" (Still the Same) - Official Video,