October is a time of emotional appraisal, when summer’s indifference has finally faded and the dramatic obligatory pull of the winter holidays has not yet consumed our souls. As we take mental inventory, we note the things we have gained and the things we have lost, and soundtracking the latter is a swirling fit of shoegaze, post-punk, and dark-psych from Taleen Kali called “Crossed.”
The track and its mystical gothic mood, which dropped late last month via Dum Dum Records and manages to somehow feel both soaring and grounded at the same time, sets up the Los Angeles band’s upcoming appearance at Deep Cuts in Medford this Thursday (October 9).
“The opening lines of the song are ‘Rose is a rose’ which is from my favorite Gertrude Stein poem Sacred Emily,” says Taleen Kali, the artist. “It’s meant to convey ‘it is what it is,’ or ‘things are what they are.’ I wanted to write about how matter of fact things are in life when the only choice you have is to ride the waves of grief. I lost my grandmother in 2023, the year we released our debut album, and the song ‘Crossed’ is a personal exploration where I’m just trying to make sense of the loss. Missing my favorite person on Earth and wishing I could find a way to commune with the dead. The artwork features an Ethiopian cross that my grandmother always used to wear from her hometown of Addis Ababa, which she passed onto me.”
Take it with you this week, and well into the beyond, and open a portal to your senses.
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