PHILOSOPHICAL GARAGE PUNK | Ron Gallo
w/ Twen
Thurs. Nov. 15
9 p.m.
$12/adv., $14/door
Royal American
Ron Gallo has spent the last year making one of the most pronounced, profound, and surprising musical turns one could possibly have expected. When we last left Gallo, he was a rough-around-the-edges garage punker whose album Heavy Meta was all jagged guitars, early-Dylan-style vocal avalanches, and needle-in-the-red distortion. Now, with his new album, Stardust Birthday Party, he’s returned as a far more atmospheric and introspective style of musician. Kicking off with brief, droning two-chord query called “Who are You? Point to It!” Gallo spends 12 tracks digging deeply into his psyche and twisting his no-frills approach into something far darker. The raw rock is still there, but it goes into some odd corners, favoring shifting rhythms and unpredictable chord changes while Gallo’s strangled hiccup takes on questions of life, reality, and identity inspired by a post-tour retreat with a California spiritual leader named Adyashanti, during which Gallo would meditate and try to figure out the answer to the eternal question, “Who am I?” You don’t need to know all this to enjoy the Stardust Birthday Party album, though, because Gallo’s drive to discover himself and his muse makes for compelling music. —Vincent Harris THURSDAY
INDIE POP | Dega
w/ Mechanical River
Fri. Nov. 16
9 p.m.
$8
The Royal American
The ’80s-as-heck pop duo Dega and philosophical folk singer Mechanical River bring their duel headlining tour to Charleston this weekend. The acts are two different flavors that work weirdly well on the same bill. Dega’s retro, neon-lit “Don’t Call It” is a neat foil to the back porch cigar-box guitar riff of Mechanical River’s “Pomelos.” The former is a drum pad bounce and dueling synth bop, while the other sounds like it was handcrafted from the ground up. Dega’s “Right Type of Lover” plays mournful chimes and subtle muted guitar licks apotheosizes the straight blues punch that’s found on Mechanical River’s “I Need Love.” The way the two artists do love songs forms a pretty solid yin and yang. —Heath Ellison FRIDAY
Tribute | Sail On: The Beach Boys Tribute
Feat. members of the Explorers Club
Fri. Nov. 16
8 p.m.
$15-$20
Charleston Music Hall
From the band that Brian Wilson’s own band has collaborated with comes a full-on Beach Boys experience. Based in Nashville, members of the Explorers Club have formed Sail On, a Beach Boys tribute so spot-on you’ll swear you’re cruising through an LA hamburger stand circa 1966. The guys have performed with musicians from not only Brian Wilson’s band but also the Zombies, Earth Wind & Fire, Cheap Trick, and Mark Lindsay, and have produced recordings for the Monkees’ Micky Dolenz. Together as Sail On, they zero in on the prime of the Beach Boys’ career, colorfully recreating masterpieces like Good Vibrations, I Get Around, Wouldn’t It Be Nice, Surfin’ USA, and Sloop John B — all in astoundingly perfect harmony. —Kelly Rae Smith FRIDAY
THROWBACK BRIT GARAGE ROCK | John Seymour
w/ John Brannen
Sat. Nov. 17
6:30 p.m.
$20
Queen Street Playhouse (Queen Street Harmony Series)
You know how the Hives would take that scuzzy British garage rock sound of the 1960s and bring it into a modern-day setting, producing filthy-sounding music that was still somehow immaculately recorded? That’s kind of what John Seymour does. His newest EP, …With Love & Squalor, buries his excitable yelp in a mountain of outdated Farfisa organ, buzzing guitars, and gut-thump drums, and then drops in note-perfect cotton candy choruses with steamroller-sized hooks. It’s mildly grimy power pop that seems to shine all the more brightly in the dirt. But perhaps the most interesting thing about Seymour’s EP is that it happened at all. Seymour went through a debilitating bout of panic anxiety disorder that essentially made him severely agoraphobic after ending his previous project, the Fire Apes. But he came out the other side of that with a strong set of songs and a joyous, throwback rock ‘n’ roll sound. —Vincent Harris SATURDAY
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