In Defense of Ska Ep 67: Brian Fallon (The Gaslight Anthem, The Horrible Crowes, Lanemeyer, Molly and the Zombies)

Last year, singer/songwriter Brian Fallon tweeted that Slackers lead singer Vic Ruggiero is "one of the greatest songwriters and lyricists of our time." This isn't the only time that Brian tweeted about his love for ska during the pandemic. We've seen him praise Mike Park, Catbite and express his love for New York band The Abruptors' ska cover of his song "Forget Me Not." 

On today's episode of In Defense of Ska, we dig into Brian's past and learn about how he discovered ska, why Asian Man Records mail order was so important to him as a young music fan, and we discuss the details of his cover of Spring Heeled Jack's "Pop Song (Green)." He also tells us about seeing Laurel Aitken at Wetlands, and we find out which Slackers song Brian would cover if he was going to play one on tour. 

We also get the full story behind a tweet Brian sent last year about getting a surprise phone call from Bruce Springsteen and then spilling cat food everywhere during the call. 

If you’d like to support us and listen to early access, ad-free episodes with bonus content, check out our Patreon! 

If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music. 

Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024. 

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023. 

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.