Premiere: Aidan Giuffre Finds Quiet Clarity On “Stupid Town”
The world places such heavy emphasis on meaning. Figure out where you’re headed, professionally and personally. Read between the lines, extract every detail and emotion you can. Make every day count with something new… important… meaningful. It’s exhausting, so much so that we build in rest days during our vacations–respites from the respite it seems. Because of this, we tend to overlook the little moments that can quietly leave a mark: a well-made sandwich eaten at the exact right moment of hunger, a beloved song coming on just as traffic clears allowing you to cruise along with the melody, a passing conversation that feels trivial but still echoes in your mind days later. Life isn’t built on major milestones and dramatic breakthroughs. It’s shaped by these everyday moments, stitched together into a personal rhythm that subtly guides us forward, each unassuming moment becoming its own occasion without us ever realizing it.
“Stupid Town,” the new single from lo-fi rocker Aidan Giuffre, embraces this concept, finding motivation in the blithe routine itself. This mindset offers plenty of reasons to keep moving forward in the quiet spaces between life’s bigger goals, the unforgettably forgettable moments that, in the end, are the ones who make us who we are, for better or worse. Set for release on Saturday, March 22, the song features a grainy reverb sound that delivers luminous clarity through a direct and resonant melody. Today, The Auricular is excited to premiere this new song, with an exclusive stream below along with a deeper dive into its subtle impact.
A jangle-indie track with a forward drive, “Stupid Town” finds Giuffre recounting his days through a voice that drifts and blends into the track’s lo-fi haze. It captures a casual encounter, one filled with inane dialogue and ordinary card games that ends up uncovering joy in the unremarkable. Grand revelations aren’t needed. Big events are wasted. Here, the connection is the meaning. Not how profound it feels or how fleeting it is. Leave that deeper meaning aside. It’s about the moment as it is, one that is probably to repeat in a slightly altered form, yet still contributes to the sum of a life lived. Well-lived, that is.
Recorded this past January by Logan Williams, the song was written shortly after Giuffre became sober, with the song’s lyrics pouring out in a rush of newfound clarity. That sudden lucidity shapes the song’s stream-of-consciousness verses, where passing observations and fragmented recollections are stitched together into a lo-fi revelation, one that’s less a grand statement than a tentative direction forward, pieced together one moment at a time. “Stupid Town” plays out both intimate and adrift in this sense, akin to how a smile from a stranger can stick so clearly to the front of your mind in the right context. We can’t know the intention behind it or the grand-scale context that spurs it. All we know is as it is and how it makes us feel in the moment.
That, in the end, is what makes this observation on meaning and importance so affecting. It’s not a photograph in time that leaves you guessing. It’s a moving embodiment of the fluidity of the world around us, one that never stops despite our desires and aches, and one that will keep moving long after we pass. Nothing we do individually will make it speed up or slow down, feel even the slightest bit different. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t meaning to be felt in the insignificance. For every moment can’t be significant, and every significance itself can’t be enduring. What shapes things is almost out of control, so we might as well ease up on the gas and drift here and there when we can, hopefully uncovering some happenstance that nudges in the right direction.
Aidan Giuffre has been a fixture of Richmond’s shifting indie scene dating back to the late-2010s, releasing his first single, “forget me not.,” under his own name in 2017. In addition to releasing lo-fi-driven guitar rock, Giuffre has also released music under the name diana cha$ma and performed with bands like Blunt, The Dangling Legs, and, most recently, Tight Rope. “Stupid Town” is his first single since the dark pop track “Little Baby” was released last August, a sharp track defined by its trancelike atmosphere. This new track signals a burst of creativity for Giuffre, with more songs on the way as well as a possible EP, his first actual release since the loop record mystery jams in 2019. If it’s anything like “Stupid Town,” it will give us plenty to deliberate over, in passing curiosity of course, less we get distracted again with deeper meaning in a world that is abundant with shy wonder.
“Stupid Town” is set for release on Saturday, March 22. The day before, Aidan Giuffre is playing Bandito’s alongside Charm Offensive, Roslin, and Jr., which you can find more information on the concert flyer below. To stay informed on future updates and releases, make sure to follow Aidan Giuffre on social media by clicking here.
