Their Garden State hero, Bruce Springsteen, would become a fan, and join them onstage at Glastonbury the following year. The group would appear on the front of Kerrang! – having never even been written about in the magazine before – with the words: ‘The Best New Band You’ll Hear In 2008’ splashed across the cover. But they never anticipated what these 12 soulful punk songs would do for them. The Gaslight Anthem believed in the material they’d brought to producer Ted Hutt. “It’s kind of a romantic story what I was about to do next was the beginning of the next 10 years of my life.” “When we pulled up, I had zero dollars in my pocket, and $30,000 of credit card debt,” reflects bassist Alex Levine, looking back on a body of work that not only dragged him away from a time of struggle, but gave his bandmates – Brian Fallon (vocals), Alex Rosamilia (guitar) and Benny Horowitz (drums) – experiences that would exceed their wildest dreams. The quartet went by the name The Gaslight Anthem and they were there to make an album titled The ’59 Sound. It would be their home for the next couple of weeks. Arriving at their destination in a van that they were yet to pay off, these hopeful young men had made a cross-country trip to the address of their new record label’s offices, SideOneDummy, to pick up the keys to LA’s Oakwood apartments. They didn’t know it then, but that particular journey – all 2,500 miles of it – was about to change their lives forever. It was early 2008, and four 20-something punks from New Jersey were on the road. The Gaslight Anthem is: Brian Fallon (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Alex Rosamilia (lead guitar, backing vocals), Alex Levine (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Benny Horowitz (drums, percussion, backing vocals). The band made its last live appearance at the UK’s Reading Festival on August 30th, 2015. THE ’59 SOUND earned The Gaslight Anthem rapturous reviews around the world. “THE ’59 SOUND is an answer to a prayer,” enthused Pitchfork. “When the guitars turn into chorus-firepower, it just kills because it’s been so long since we’ve heard anyone pull that off with such panache.” “Wearing their influences as badges of honor,” wrote Q, “the New Jersey quartet blast out affecting, soulful punk rock strewn with bittersweet memories of small-town blue-collar America.” Perhaps PopMatters said it best:”Oh hell, the whole damn thing is great!” The Gaslight Anthem’s fifth and final studio album, GET HURT, made top 5 chart debuts in both the US and the UK upon its August 2014 release via Island Records. Songs like Old White Lincoln, Great Expectations and the worldwide smash title track proved transcendent modern rock classics, fueled by heroic hooks, huge choruses, and lead vocalist-guitarist-songwriter Brian Fallon’s masterful chronicles of love, loss, and the broken hearted, of summers gone and dreams still to be met. Released by SideOneDummy Records on August 19th, 2008, THE ’59 SOUND officially saw The Gaslight Anthem break out as one of the most electrifying groups, marrying their punk roots with classic FM radio scale to craft a soulful and exhilarating vision of American rock ‘n’ roll. I’m so happy to share this moment of our existence. I can’t think of a better time to try and create the most significant thing of your life when it was the most significant time of all our lives. “The journey a band goes through is complex,” says The Gaslight Anthem’s Benny Horowitz in THE ’59 SOUND SESSIONS’ accompanying Photobook. “We were perpetually on the road and in a state of constant motion. THE ’59 SOUND SESSIONS is highlighted by the first-ever release of songs recorded in the months before entering the studio for THE ’59 SOUND itself, among them nascent versions of album favorites like Great Expectations, Miles Davis & The Cool and the milestone title track alongside such rarities as the previously-unheard Placeholder, Our Fathers Sons (last heard on The Gaslight Anthem’s 2011 iTUNES SESSION), and a singular cover of the folk traditional, “God’s Gonna Cut You Down,” made famous by artists including Odetta and Johnny Cash. The New Jersey-based rock ‘n’ roll band will mark the momentous occasion with the release of THE ’59 SOUND SESSIONS, a new companion to the classic LP featuring nine rare and previously unreleased songs as well an all-new 60-page booklet. THE ’59 SOUND SESSIONS will be available digitally and physically as CD, LP, and Limited Deluxe Photobook LP via SideOneDummy Records on Friday, June 15. The Gaslight Anthem has unveiled further plans commemorating the 10 th anniversary of their landmark second studio album, THE ’59 SOUND.
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