C/D : The Gaslight Anthem

and you're slow like motown souuuul

Between this and the new Against Me! it's a great year for post-warped tour rock.

my favorites are "american slang", "orphans", and "the spirit of jazz" but i'm feeling this whole thing. not sure about that retarded mayer affect he's putting on for "the diamond church street choir" but the song picks up eventually.

really? people who like some music i like seem to like this band. i just find them so grim.

Grim? Grim is about the furthest adjective that comes to mind when I think of these guys, I actually find most of their stuff to be uplifting.

maybe i need to give them another chance. they seem like "blue-collar springsteen rock" without his sharp lyrics and insight -- but again, maybe i judged too quick/harshly.

I think this one is certainly, well, grimmer than the last, at least. Lots of bittersweet, getting older, rearview mirror stuff. Don't know how much "insight" I'd cite in them, but they do capture the same sort of innocently myopic desperation that Springsteen did. "We have to get out of this dead-end town to make a record!" sort of stuff. Lots of riffs on the healing/escapist power of listening music, too, when you're living in said podunk. Mean streets of New Brunswick?

Okay, I haven't heard anything off the new one yet, so maybe I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss "grim".

the music itself is anything but grim

No, the music is exultant. The lyrics are a tad grim. But barely.

and you're slow like motown souuuul

― my two percent's worth (k3vin k.), Sunday, April 25, 2010 5:10 PM (5 days ago)

Was listening to this tonight and the second track, "Stay Lucky" is freaking fantastic. They've got amazing narratives, and I love the very end when he whispers something like, "if you're in new york over the next eight days, let me know," like their protagonist has been waiting inside, dreaming about when he was younger, but when Gaslight Anthem is in town, let them know and they'll reignite his youth. (At least that's what I got from it.) I love this Rock + Roll redemptive stuff, esp whispered at the end like it's a guilty secret that Rock n Roll will save you.

The Spirit of Jazz is my favourite so far. I don't think this one quite has the rush and momentum you get from the first few tracks on The 59 Sound but it's still so so great.

"Queen of Lower Chelsea" is their "Straight to Hell."

just listening to that EP for the first time now, "blue jeans and white t-shirts" is slaying me

― k3vin k., Saturday, October 31, 2009 6:10 PM (6 months ago)

this is such an incredible song...it's not 'stripped down' as much it's like, a monday practice in the NFL. no pads, half-speed

Loved 59' Sound. Didn't know there is a new one coming out soon. I'm Stoked!

Gaslight (the flick) is on PBS atm. Probably unrelated, but there's no Gaslight thread.

keep thinking this thread is about the gaslamp killer

rip gaslamps

this new not-even-out-yet album is great in the car, unsurprisingly

can see as how 59 sounds would be catchy, rousing and affecting as hell, if you listened often enough to get the hooks planted in your brain. problem is there's nothing that makes me want to listen more than once, if that. it's not a bad record. in fact it's pretty damn good for what it is. but i don't like being told i'm supposed to feel ecstatically wistful unless there's something in the sound & lyrics to separate it from the post-soul-asylum pack. and i don't like the feel of emo americana (or whatever this kind of thing is called) unless it's hitched to a version of cheap retro pop i can relate to.

Emo Americana!

Btw, I felt the same way about 59 Sounds. American Slang distinguishes its hooks much earlier and much quicker. They've become, imo, much more deft songwriters since 59 sound.

contenderizer instead of wondering what you would feel like if you listened more than once, try listening more than once. i think i felt similarly after the first time i heard it, and now it's easily one of my ten favorite records of the past 3 years

yeah, after grumping about it, i noticed that i still had bits of it bouncing around not unpleasantly in my head. and i suspect that part of my reticence is simple jadedness. i'm a replacements fan from way back when and even dug the early soul asylum records, esp made to be broken, so maybe it's just hard listen w/out prejudice. still, i think i would like it more if it had angry banjos and drunk yelling into a single room mic.

Can't believe there is still over a month until this comes out and I hear the whole thing.

xp which songs were your favorites, if you remember?

mine was "great expectations" for the longest time but i think i like "high lonesome" the best now

great expectations and meet my by the river's edge are the ones i remember best now. plus a line about "high-top sneakers and sailor tattoos" from what song i don't know, but it stuck in my craw in the sense that it seemed to draw too clear a box around the whole thing.

why does the dude go from the line about "southern accents on the radio" directly to the i'm on fire reference? seems confused. i'm resistant to the lyrical angle as a whole, the pileup of outlaw-country-classic-cars-sailor-jerry-runawaywithmebaby WE COOL ROCK BAND signifiers. still, i get that he's not just kissing yesterday's ass. in part he's talking about the desire to adopt a tougher/cooler alternate identity of some kind, an internal escape vehicle that parallels springsteen's muscle cars. which is cool, but i dunno. though he confronts it, he's still wrapping himself in and never really moving outside those colors. love when he lets his voice howl a little though, like towards the end of the miles davis song. wish they'd let the music get a little weirder, wilder, rawer on occasion, but maybe that'd kill the vibe. seriously torn here cuz I dig almost every song here on a gut level, but i'm also almost constantly cheezed out. monroe hips and all. i'm on fire in the jersey rain...

okay, i'm giving up and just deciding to like this. i blame the slower stuff like "even cowgirls get the blues" and "here's looking at you kid", which on this second pass stick out as the most endearing & affecting tunes. like "here comes a regular" and "skyway" on those replacements albums.

yeah "here's looking at you, kid" is great, probably their second best slower song after "blue jeans and white t-shirts"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cunR6Jz0ARQ

I think the new album is better than The '59 Sound. Much less samey sounding. From reading the reviews I thought I was going to hate the "reggae" song "The Queen of Lower Chelsea," but no the song is great. Smart lift of "Straight To Hell." Everything about this band is so corny and bombastic but I love it.

"Bring It On" is a killer track.

― Mordy, Friday, April 23, 2010 10:32 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark

it's definitely not on the same level as the '59 sound, but it's a very good follow-up. still haven't gotten into a couple songs fully and the highs aren't quite as high (though the title track, "orphans", and "the spirit of jazz" are all incredible). too short, too!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/arts/music/20gaslight.html?ref=arts

yeah that was sweet, also cool to see my two favorite artists on the same page (in the print edition - the-dream and gaslight) when i hardly read the NYT music section

jordan have you even listened to this? where u been?

yeah i listened to this -- probably top 10 of the year -- incredibly solid and often thrilling -- prob will get better as the year wears on

Yeah, J0rdan likes it a lot, from what I know.

This grew on me so much from the initial spins. It went from a "this is nice, albeit derivative, i guess" to HOLY SHIT I CAN'T STOP LISTENING TO THIS ALBUM.

Surprising, because two listens in, I still haven't totally fallen for the '59 sound.

i still love the '59 sound more and more every time i listen to it - it will be v high on my 05-09 ballot

Other way 'round for me. Two listens in and I'm still not head over heels for the new one the way I was with the last, but then that one was a bit of a grower for me as well. Still think the new Against Me! is a little better than this.

Seeing these guys tonight and am kinda psyched. Still listening to 'American Slang' at least once a week. I picked up the first album and can echo what's upthread: kind of a dud, but what an amazing jump in songwriting ability from the first album to '59 Sound.'

i've been listening to the senor and the queen EP more recently and it's really a nice warm-up for the '59 sound

I have that one as well but haven't gotten a chance to listen to it yet.

first three songs are nice and show the direction they're about to go in, songwriting-wise, but are a bit stripped-down compared to the 59 sound. the fourth song I consider to be among their best

Wow. This show was pretty fucking terrible. Kind of shocked but not really surprised I suppose. If you think the albums sound corny and bombastic (which I mentioned upthread), the cheese factor is just amped up by 10 for the live show. While they did not play some tiny club, it wasn't a stadium so why put reverb on the singer's vocals? I think he might have even stolen some of Springsteen's onstage banter. Basically all they were missing was Clarence Clemons on sax and pulling a girl up on stage to dance with -- which actually could have happened because my wife and I left with probably about 30 minutes left in the show. I just couldn't let the show ruin my enjoyment of the albums. So disappointed.

Reverb on vocals is a pretty common thing ime?

let's do this

http://www.myspace.com/thegaslightanthem

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, March 23, 2010 7:17 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

<333 this band

― k3vin k., Tuesday, March 23, 2010 7:58 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ayyyyyyyyyyyyyy

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, March 24, 2010 12:52 AM (6 months ago) Bookmark

go team btw