While I’m on the subject of punk (or punk-inflected rock, anyway): any of you folks who like the Gaslight Anthem should check this band out. They’ve got roughly the same sort of thing going insofar as they’re all about combining earnest, soaring Bruce Springsteen ballads with a dash of punk rock grit. Incidentally, the first single from their upcoming album seems to be trending more than ever before in the punk rock direction. Not to say that they didn’t telegraph that a little bit with the previous album; check out that one’s title track, which I believe is supposed to be something of a hardcore manifesto:

Sadly, keyboardist Franz Nicolay, he of the epic mustache, departed from the band before they started recording the new album. But I’m still excited, and I hope I can get some of you excited too. I suspect most people have that one band that helped them survive high school; this one is mine.