Last month, Ron Gallo released a new record called FOREGROUND MUSIC that’s equal parts furiously aware of our present historical moment and endlessly playful, frequently working both opposing approaches to songwriting into the same track—which, in the case of the lead single and title track that we shared last November, skirts Parquet Courts–esque wordy post-punk.
Yet to hear Gallo perform these tracks solo with an acoustic guitar is to re-contextualize them, as his recent “Neighborhoods” performance in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood suggests. Strumming through album closers “ANYTHING BUT THIS” and “I LOVE SOMEONE BURIED DEEP INSIDE OF YOU” on a porch, he lends his signature goofy energy to the delivery on the former track, while the sprawling latter song sounds more like an earnest ballad. Watch him play through both tracks in the video below.
