By Alex Brenner
While many spent 2008 believing the Fleet Foxes hype, I was actually listening to my pick for record of that year – The ’59 Sound by The Gaslight Anthem. My girlfriend and I spent all summer rocking to The 59 Sound via a bootleg my friend had given me. Since then I’ve bought then copies. By September 2008, the girlfriend grabbed two tickets to see The Gaslight Anthem for me for my birthday. I met the guys (all super cool) and then they let us backstage at the Tabernacle because I was low on alcohol and had to pee really bad too.
It’s too easy to just say the GLA sound like Bruce Springsteen, but isn’t that what they said about The Hold Steady and Lucero? I don’t get it. Sure, they sing songs about girls named Maria, Bobby Jean and Sandy and, well, yes they are from New Jersey.
Frontman Brian Fallon is more like Joe Strummer or, dare I say, even Paul Westerberg (and they do a great cover of “Left of the Dial”). Although they are on a punk label (SideOneDummy) they are only punk in the “classic” sense. I’d say they are more like Lucero if they could play their instruments and were mixed with old Motown soul and The Clash.
When the opening track starts off with the sound of scratching vinyl you know where The Gaslight Anthem is coming from. That track – “Great Expectations” – starts with “Mary/the station/is playing/every sad song” and from there Fallon’s gift for storytelling comes to life. With choruses like “everybody leaves/so why wouldn’t you” you might think this album would be all doom and gloom. Well sure, the next song does go into a story about a car crash, but for some reason desperation and longing never felt so good. By the time they hit the bridge “ain’t supposed to die/on a Saturday night” you realize that your fist is pumping in the air, really pumping – like Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap style.
The album really takes me back to The Replacements Let it Be or Jawbreaker’s 24 Hour Revenge Therapy. It’s punk with heart and soul. That’s what really separates this band from so many other rock bands today.
It’s not all in your face rock either. Half way through, the GLA slow things down with the country shuffle of “Film Noir”. “You’re sugar and spice/everything nice/you got Marlboro hips/poison lips and knives” is one of the coolest lines I’ve ever heard.
Do these guys know how to write hooks or what? Every song stuck in my head like [insert sticky substance here]. The highlight of the album hits half through the tracklist – “Miles Davis and the Cool”. This is hands down one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. Yeah, even better than Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone”. I can see the Springsteen thing here a little bit. Fallon namedrops just about every great soul song and ends with hand claps “down down down/from our youth/to the ground”.
“The Patient Ferris Wheel”, “Casanova, Baby” and “Meet Me by the River’s Edge” continue to drive this record. That’s right folks, the iPod has not skipped a song yet. By the time they get to the second to last song, “Here’s Looking at You Kid,” I’m out of breath from singing along. Thank god it’s a slow tear jerker; these guys are tough but they can wear their hearts on their sleeve too. Fallon’s gruff voice and matter of fact delivery make you hang on every word.
So how do you follow up 11 great songs? Easy. “The Backseat” kicks in and it’s time to roll the car windows down and sing as loud as you can. Even as we head for the winter months, it’s the perfect summer song “in the back seat/we just try/and find some room/for our knees.”
See The Gaslight Anthem, October 24 at the Masquerade. Listen to “The ’59 Sound” here.
MP3: Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound
by Gunter Grass. All are welcome.
