Who's The Boss

Against Me!'s White Crosses and The Gaslight Anthem's American Slang

by J. Edward Keyes

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Published: Jun 23, 2010

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The new records from Florida punks Against Me! and Jersey blue-collar bar rockers Gaslight Anthem seem to have been composed, if not within miles of one another, at least within the same relative headspace. "Do you remember when you were young?" asks Against Me!'s Tom Gabel in "I Was a Teenage Anarchist." To which Gaslight Anthem's Brian Fallon responds, "You're never gonna find it like when you were young." Considering the ghost of an old lover, Fallon says, "I've got your name tattooed inside of my arm." Standing over the body of a departed friend, Gabel remarks, "If something I said hurt you, I swear it was not my intention/ With your name tattooed into my skin." The old generation of bar rockers was content to merely wear its heart on its sleeve — clearly, the younger crew is looking for something a little more permanent.

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Against Me! and Gaslight Anthem are just two of a whole slew of bands earning lazy comparisons to Bruce Springsteen simply because they have bleeding hearts and a gravel throats. The similarities are many: Both bands came up in punk rock — Against Me! as snarling political rockers spitting songs like "Baby, I'm An Anarchist"; Gaslight on the label SideOneDummy, alongside 7 Seconds and MxPx. Both bands are following up records about records: Against Me!'s New Wave was a brutal and brilliant excoriation of the music industry while Gaslight Anthem's The '59 Sound — which opened with the sound of a needle finding the groove on vinyl — reveled in nostalgia. Those opposite approaches reveal much. Against Me! is a three-hour polemic; Gaslight is a flickering old home movie.

Against Me! had the more varied record last time out, but they've fumbled the follow-up badly. For all its early promise, White Crosses is weighted down with too many ballads and the fact that Gabel's million-syllables-a-minute lyric-writing doesn't wear as well this time out. American Slang tries less but succeeds more, incorporating bits of R&B and gospel music into the group's rugged blue-collar songwriting. Next time, Gabel and Fallon should try a more direct collaboration.

(j_keyes@citypaper.net)

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