Somehow I'd never heard of the Gaslight Anthem before reading what Jon Caramanica wrote about them here, and I have to say I feel like a tool right now. Because The 59 Sound is absolutely kicking my ass right now and I can't believe I was missing out on something so completely up my lane. I'm pretty much going to like any punk band who does that burly grown-man belted-out quasi-folk Bouncing Souls/Alkaline Trio/Against Me thing. But the Gaslight Anthem do it with a real sense of sweep and style; the young-Springsteen comparisons Jon throws around are completely on point. And some of their songs are so sad, like great country songs. They get a little cute with the fuzzy-dice Americana imagery maybe, but holy shit this band rules. And I can't stand the idea that there's a whole world of bands like that out there and I just don't know about it since I stopped paying attention to these shitty Warped Tour Myspace emo bands. So do I just have to start reading punknews.org now? Is that the only way to keep up?