The Gaslight Anthem Inject Some Fuel and Fire Into Billie Eilish’s ‘Ocean Eyes’

The New Jersey band have prepped a hard rock cover of the track for their upcoming EP, History Books — Short Stories

The Gaslight Anthem will cover a Billie Eilish smash and give one of their own deep cut classics a new spin on the upcoming EP, History Books — Short Stories, out this Friday, March 22. 

The four-track project will be anchored by a rendition of Eilish’s breakthrough hit, “Ocean Eyes,” which frontman Brian Fallon learned about from his daughter. “I was driving my daughter to school and she played it for me on the way and I really took to the song,” he said in a statement. “Then one day we were talking ideas for a cover with our friends and I said, wouldn’t it be cool to do a heavier version of ‘Ocean Eyes’? I tried it out and everybody loved the idea.”

(The full version isn’t out yet, but you can catch a snippet on an EP teaser the Gaslight Anthem shared.)

Along with “Ocean Eyes,” Short Stories will boast a ramped up version of “Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts,” a favorite from the Gaslight Anthem’s 2008 EP, Señor and the Queen. There will also be new acoustic recordings of tracks from the band’s 2023 album, History Books, including the title-track and “Positive Charge.” 

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The Short Stories EP comes ahead of the Gaslight Anthem’s extensive summer tour, which kicks off July 26 in Denver and wraps Sept. 15 with a set at the Sea.Hear.Now festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey. During their headlining dates, the Gaslight Anthem will receive support from Joyce Manor, the Dirty Nil, and Pinkshift on select dates.

History Books, which arrived last October, marked the first new Gaslight Anthem album in nearly 10 years, following 2014’s Get Hurt (the band announced a hiatus in 2015). The band announced their return with “Positive Charge,” then released the studio version of the title track, which featured vocals from noted fellow New Jersey rock star, Bruce Springsteen.