Made not long after he attended a week-long silent meditation retreat, Ron Gallo‘s excellent new album of Zen punk, Stardust Birthday Party, arrives at a crucial time in history when the rich are getting richer, the middle class is disappearing, the poor are being left behind, and people are still clinging to material and mental things that ultimately mean nothing.
“Who Are You? Point to It!” is the short, existential question that opens the record. Can any of us answer this question without words? It jumps into the Alan Watts and Eckhart Tolle-inspired “Always Elsewhere.” It’s one of the best singles of the year and has been my mantra since hearing it. Everyone nowadays seems to be somewhere other than where they really are in space and time. The song is a wild, blaring diatribe against this practice that will make you want to throw away your cell phone, take a breath, and experience the miracle happening right in front of you at this moment.
“Prison Decor” reveals Gallo’s love of Devo with the snappy sound and his playful and slightly weird vocals. “Party Tumor” brings forth Joe Bisirri‘s fat bass as Gallo sings about someone (himself, perhaps?) who constantly needs to be heard and craves attention (“I just need to be heard anytime, anywhere.”) even though this attention will bring no true satisfaction.
“Do You Love Your Company?” starts with a Tibetan meditation bowl clang and then asks if you truly enjoy being in the moment alone or if you seek verification from the illusionary world around you. Gallo’s guitars squawk and chug as much as his intense vocals. “‘You’ Are the Problem” is a wake-up call to everyone who thinks the world is against them but doesn’t realize the issue is within them.
“OM” has the universal chant layered over police sirens, wine bar chatter, and a warning from Gallo’s mind that the mind can’t be stopped, but his relationship with it can be changed. After all, “It’s All Gonna Be OK.” That track is full of fuzzed guitar riffs and some of Dylan Sevey‘s biggest rock drumming on the record.
“I Wanna Die (Before I Die)” is a Zen riddle. “It’s the point of my life,” Gallo sings. It’s the point of all our lives, really. Dying to illusion and freeing the true self is the only goal of all of our lives. Caroline Rose guest stars on “Love Supreme (Work Together),” which has her and Gallo singing about the nature of love, what it means to each of us, and how “God loves it when we work together.”
“Everybody’s trying to be some kind of something,” Gallo sings on “The Password” – a quirky track that reminds me of one of Frank Zappa‘s work. “I don’t even know the password to my own heart,” Gallo says. We all know the passwords to multiple social media accounts, bank accounts, and shopping clubs, but we don’t know how to unlock our inner treasure house.
“Bridge Crossers” discusses how the fear of death is irrational and seems to be a salute to one of Gallo’s teachers of spirituality. The album ends with “Happy Deathday,” a celebration of the end of illusions. “How hard we have to work for a false sense of worth…” Gallo sings. We all tend to lose sight of the joy inside us and right in front of us because it’s easy to succumb to fear. It’s relentless and will overwhelm your life if you let it.
If, like the alien mentioned in “Happy Deathday,” you’re wondering “what the fuck happened” to you, your family, your friends, and the world in general, then this album will be a welcome pleasure. It will remind you that you have what you need within you. You always have.
Keep your mind open.
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