The Gaslight Anthem

This has been a big year for the New Brunswick-based band The Gaslight Anthem. After releasing its latest album, "The '59 Sound," in August, the group became the subject of rave writeups in the pages of Rolling Stone, NME, the New York Times and England's Kerrang! magazine, which declared the quartet "the best band you'll hear in 2008." 

The Gaslight Anthem will be performing at New York City's Roseland Ballroom on Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 13 and 14), and lead singer Brian Fallon, a Red Bank native, recently spoke to Metromix Jersey Shore about the album, discussed the power of Miles Davis and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and explained what, exactly, "The '59 Sound" is.

How was it playing Vintage Vinyl in Woodbridge on the day the album came out?
It was cool. We did the same thing last year, but that's when you start to realize that something's actually going on. Last year we played there and there weren't that many people -- maybe there were 50 people at the most. But then, when we got there this time, there seemed to be an excitement and there were like a lot of people there. I guess they had to buy the album beforehand, and that was pretty cool; it showed that people really cared, so your work is paying off. That always feels good. 

The album is full some of the great music names, like Mary, Virginia and Sandy. What is it about some names that give them a musicality, and are there some names that you would never use?
Well, you would think you wouldn't use a name like Matilda, but that kind of found its way in there on the last record (in "I Coulda Been a Contender" from 2007's "Sink or Swim"). 

A lot of it, I think, comes from the people who said them. Bob Seger said those kind of names and Tom Petty said those kind of names. I don't know, those are the names you don't really hear too often anymore, either. You're not gonna meet a Virginia at a bar, really. My grandmother's name was Mary, so that kind of came, and they're just good classic names. I think if you grow up in the States, you kind of associate those names with a kind of classy lady. Like, you don't see too many Marys tearing it up at the bar, kicking bottles and chairs over. We'll leave that for the Rosies. 

What is "The '59 Sound"? I know it's the title of the album, but what is sound you're referring to?
Well, truth be told, because you're from the Shore area and I'm from the Shore area, I'll tell you the truth. The inspiration of it came from (when) I was really into old amplifiers from Fender, and I was really getting into like these sounds for recording and just playing live, and I was really interested in old sounds that matched an old style of music. I found out that Fender made this amp called "the Bassman," and the re-creation of this amp was the 1959 Bassman. (ed. note: On the tape of this coversation, it sounded as if Fallon said "Basement.")

Then I started looking around at all these pictures of Elvis (Presley), Sam Cooke, all these guys, Wilson Pickett, and all these guys had the same amp. I was like, "Wait a minute. Maybe this thing's magic or something like that." 

It was a reference to the (fact that) that's the sound you hear on all those records -- like Roy Orbison, all those guys: They all used the same amp. But, it also came from just the style of music and that kind of time, so it was a mixture of me being a nerd about amplifiers and the kind of majesty of the time, too. ... It was more about the mystery of the sound. You would hear that sound, and you know that classic sound any time you hear it on the radio. ... It's full of everything; it's just full of possibilities. 

Can you tell me a bit about the track "Miles Davis and the Cool"? With all the references to classic rock in the album, it's interesting the one artist who gets a track named after him is a jazz legend.
That song, it's about trying, you're gonna get out, you're gonna leave. It's a classic story: A guy's sick of his town, wants to get out of here, gotta take his girl with him. And who better to convince a lady if you can't think of the right words? Well, you just bring a tape deck to blast the Miles Davis and hope he does the talking for you. And that's what that's about, using Miles as a backup plan. You give her your best speech, and then at the end of it you hit play and you let Miles Davis do the rest. I figured, to me he's like the epitome of like, if you're gonna say something, just let Miles talk for you because it's gonna come out right. 

On this album, you guys also brought in Dicky Barrett from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones on "The Patient Ferris Wheel."
He was kind of a hero of ours growing up, like Dicky had a different thing. I guess the ska music was real popular when I was growing up in high school and it wasn't something I was too into, but there were like a few bands that came out of that that mixed that Jamaican sound with other things, like the Bosstones and that band the Slackers from New York, where they did it in a songwriting style.

And if you read Dicky's lyrics, it's like he is telling stories, I think, up to par with a Springsteen or a Dylan. Like, he's got some real things to say, and when you hear that voice he's got, it's one of a kind. 

It was kind of an idea -- "It would be great to have Dicky come down and do this" -- and our producer (Ted Hutt) had known him through some mutual friends and he called him up, and Dicky was like, "Yeah, of course I'll come down." He came down and it was like a presence walked into the room, it was very strange. He ... was totally excited about it, and we were just like, "I can't believe we're standing here watching Dicky sing." It was really, really one of those high points in your career.

Shown: The cover of The Gaslight Anthem's "The '59 Sound," out now on SideOneDummy Records. Brian Fallon is in the foreground.