Ron Gallo Enters the VR Realm for Band Practice in New “FOREGROUND MUSIC” Video

The track precedes a new album of the same name planned for release on March 3 via Kill Rock Stars.
First Listen

Ron Gallo Enters the VR Realm for Band Practice in New “FOREGROUND MUSIC” Video

The track precedes a new album of the same name planned for release on March 3 via Kill Rock Stars.

Words: Mike LeSuer

Photo: Dylan Reyes

November 15, 2022

In the wake of his last LP expanding the scope of his sound in the directions of left-field hip-hop and gentle psychedelia, Philly-based songwriter Ron Gallo is announcing his follow-up to last year’s PEACEMEAL today with a single that transfers that chaotic approach to songwriting over to its lyrical focus. “FOREGROUND MUSIC” arrives ahead of a new album of the same name planned for release in March, and its tight and talkative garage-punk energy draws comparisons to contemporaries like Parquet Courts. 

“Should I get a haircut or should I cut my whole head off?” Gallo queries early on in the absurdist track, which he explains is a stream-of-consciousness tour through all the anxieties of the present moment. “[It’s] an ode to all the 3 a.m.s I woke up in a panic over everything from the end of the world to regretting everything I’ve ever said or made in my entire life,” he shares. “Probably one of the more fun-sounding songs on the record, too.”

The track arrives with a video that incorporates his performance of the song within a VR headset as a woman gets lost in playing a Guitar Hero–type game while burglars walk off with all of her possessions. Adds Gallo: “Maybe something wrong with me or perpetual existential dread is a side effect of America, but when the directors, Ryan Bender and Jordan Hahn, came to me with the idea of ‘a person’s house gets robbed while they are in VR world’ I thought it was [a] perfect summary of where humans seem to be headed.”

Check out the video below, and anticipate more anxieties being expressed on FOREGROUND MUSIC upon its March 3 release via Kill Rock Stars.

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