It was early 2008, and four 20-something punks from New Jersey were on the road. They didn’t know it then, but that particular journey – all 2,500 miles of it – was about to change their lives forever. 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. It would be their home for the next couple of weeks. The quartet went by the name The Gaslight Anthem and they were there to make an album titled The ’59 Sound. “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 d...
