I’ve always felt it’s much more difficult to get something great out of the fewest layers than the other way around. For all the music nerds, yes, diminished chords, modulation, etc: all cool too, but you’re just showing off at some point. If you can catch that “hell yeah” feeling with just a few tools then you’re cooking with gas, in my completely unwanted opinion.
The Sleeveens seem to have figured that equation on their debut self-titled full-length, release in 2024 via Dirtnap Records. Based in Nashville with frontman from Dublin, the locations seem to have informed the sound. There’s a healthy dose of 70s Irish punk bands like Stiff Little Fingers (bassist James Mechan is also the guitar tech for the legendary band and also produced this record) and The Undertones (whom are covered here on the album with a ripper version of “Get Over You”) mixed with the American garage punk style found on Goner Records and, well, a number of bands from Dirtnap Records, so the landing place for the release makes sense.
Outside of the cool pedigree and name drops, the tunes are simply great. There is a timeless quality to the songs. To those who haven’t wasted most of their brains on learning recording technique and guitar tone, I could say this came out anywhere between 1978 and yesterday and it might make sense. That mostly speaks to the simplicity and resilience of the punk rock n roll style. It always has and likely always will sound really cool! But, really what matters here is that it just sounds perfect. It’s big and loud coming through some good speakers while still sounding nice and lo-fi, hardly any edges smoothed down. It has the trappings of garage with the simple, buzzing riffs and the microphone-might-be-inside-this-guy’s-mouth vocals.
Though it feels fresh and doesn’t come out as a pastiche or hero worship like a lot of power pop or punk bands often can, you hear some influences. All good ones, too, so it works. The riff of “Metallica Font” has a bit of pub rock in the vein of Dr. Feelgood. “Aretha Franklin” makes me think of Australian garage icons Royal Headache. Let It Be-era Replacements is once again brought to mind, always a good thing in my mind. For instance, a real burner on the record, “Haunted Neighborhood”, has some echoes of the Minneapolis band’s “Unsatisfied” in its refrain.
What stands out the most on this record is Stef Murphy’s songwriting style. Thematically, garage punk often leans into the nihilistic or satirical. That exists here (“Gloryholes”), but the best songs, for me, are the ones that lean a bit more romantic. Dare I say, poetic. Many of the songs feel like they would only need slight tweaks and they’d sound just fine on an old country record, or a Billy Bragg-style troubadour record. The song that represents that the most and the jewel of the record is the opener, “Give My Regards to the Dancing Girls.” Within seconds of my first listen, I started it over and paid attention. I’m likely to have said to myself, “yes, now we’re talkin’.” I initially thought it must be a cover of an old standard Celtic tune, with the lilting melody and feel-good vibe of a tune sung in a bar I’m imagining is a real place somewhere. While it’s more Pogues in spirit than in practice, unplug the guitar amp and turn the Chuck Berry lead line into a fiddle and you’ve got a song right off of an alternate reality Rum Sodomy & the Lash. I don’t have a better superlative than that.
