Ron Gallo “Stardust Birthday Party”

sfilzen — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 18:55:36 +0000

Ron Gallo “Stardust Birthday Party” 2018. New West Records, signed, limited edition yellow with pink splatter vinyl (“Bday Cake variant”).

Ron Gallo performed last night at High Noon Saloon in Madison, but – sadly – we didn’t go (weather has been horrible and the drive didn’t seem safe) so I’m consoling myself with a spin of his latest release, which we preordered for its October ‘18 release. Starburst Birthday Party is Gallo’s second full-length album and has him going deep. Apparently he’s out of a relationship with a heroin addict and is doing some serious introspection (as Allmusic states he’s “examining his own neuroses and looking for spiritual and philosophical truths as he bashes away at his electric guitar”), but still with a hearty dose of humor (we saw him perform in 2017 at Mile of Music and he was hilarious). The lyrics to the song “Always Elsewhere” are inspired by philosopher Alan Watts and spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle but then on the track “Do You Love Your Company?” (one of my favorites on the LP) he sings “When you think of yourself when you drink with yourself; self-help book on the couch, do you love your company” indicating that he’s not taking his navel gazing too seriously. Same goes with the track “’You’ Are the Problem” which I love and am in total agreement with (“because 9 out of 10 times ‘you’ are the problem). Side B’s “Om” is so damn funny – yogic “om” chanting with an irreverent little voicemail from the mind reminding the meditator – Ron – that “you can never, ever stop me. I cannot be stopped, I cannot be silenced. But you can sort of change your relationship with me and not believe everything I say.” Gallo then promptly explodes into a hard-stomping garage punk shred on the excellent ass-shaker “It’s All Gonna Be OK.” Just as great is “I Wanna Die (Before I Die)” which, despite its title, is super-uplifting in a raucous 60′s garage-rock style. He channels – sort of – John Coltrane on “Love Supreme (Work Together)” though with significantly more funk. I’m guessing he played most if not all of these songs last night, I’m just hoping he’ll be coming back this way again soon.

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Ron Gallo “Heavy Meta”

sfilzen — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 17:30:54 +0000

Ron Gallo “Heavy Meta” 2017. New West Records. So back in August after writing about our marathon 16 bands in 29 hours I promised to revisit several of the artists we saw during that whirlwind of music. Ron Gallo was one of them and Heavy Meta is his latest release: fuzzy garage guitar, heavy beats – when we saw him play at Mile of Music the bass drum literally vibrated my clothes – and clever, irreverent and often scathing lyrics (i.e. “Why Do You Have Kids?” and “All the Punks Are Domesticated”). Allmusic says, “the fusion of Gallo’s dirty but melodic melodies and waves of lyrical swagger suggests how Bob Dylan might have ended up if his primal influence had been Black Francis instead of Woody Guthrie.” From Nashville via Philly, Gallo incorporates some southern blues-rock flavors into several tracks on Side A, the “Bright Side” (i.e. the raucous rocker “Please Yourself” and the CCR-meets-Rolling-Stones’ Sympathy For the Devil-esque “Young Lady, You’re Scaring Me”). Side B, the “Dark Side,” slows things down considerably but it’s not mellow, think more the burning intensity of bands the Black Angels or Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Some of Gallo’s best lyrics appear here: the aforementioned “All the Punks Are Domesticated” – “All of the punks are domesticated/all of the freaks have gone to bed/all of the pioneers are saved for information tech/Now every room is sterilized/All risk is paralyzed/ Meanwhile the pop tarts climb the pop charts/the blood clots block your heart parts and no one really has anything to say” and “Don’t Mind the Lion” – “Oh, she smoked herself into oblivion/Oh, her teeth are like the daisies in the yard/ Colors pouring out her eyes/with hips and a heart on trial…”

Here is a photo from the show we saw in August at Mile of Music, Gallo’s pants as cheeky as his writing.

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Ron Gallo “Stardust Birthday Party”

Ron Gallo “Heavy Meta”