Released in February 2024, The Sleeveens’ self titled debut launched the band in largely great style. In a little over half an hour, potential fans were reeled in with the help of eleven punk ‘n’ roll numbers that, in the main, fused high octane riffs with a knowing sense of humour. ‘Give My Regards To The Dancing Girls’ provided the perfect opener with its combo of old school punk riffs and distorted vocals; ‘Aretha Franklin’ added a little more of a punk ‘n’ roll feel via a harder sounding guitar, and ‘Metallica Font’ served up pleasingly trashy riffs on an ode to teenage love. Best of all, a cover of The Undertones’ ‘Get Over You’ – dressed in a cloak of distortion – ended up sounding like The Sleeveens had dug up an old Real Kids track and given it a welcome kick. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the perfect debut: the over-long, mid tempo ‘Dry Cider’ did some serious damage to the middle of the album, not just through dragging the mood, but also due to offering some unwelcome lyrical content: a weird, outdated reference to “The Handicap Association” suggested that The Sleeveens really did believe they were still living in 1977. [According to the band, the lyric is based on a real life story from several years ago which puts things in a clearer context, but it doesn’t stop archaic words jarring with a modern ear.]
A few months later, the band returned with a pair of non-album cuts that also showed great promise, and in the case of the lead track, showed a little branching out, musically speaking. ‘UFO’s’ takes the mid tempo chug of ‘Dry Cider’ but improves on it with the help of a second guitar dropping angry fills against the chugging backdrop. In addition, the band work a second vocal against the rough lead, which adds an echoing quality, almost as if Suicide have been an influence. Like ‘Dry Cider’, it feels a little too long, but unlike that track, the way things build to an effects drenched coda actually gives the feeling of something with momentum. Often sounding like an unholy collaboration between The Real Kids on half speed and Indonesian Junk tapping into something semi-sinister, the bulk of the track works some raw garage rock, but it’s quickly outshone by its counterpart…
The second track is a full throttle cover of The Four Tops’ ‘Bernadette’. The distortion applied detracts from a vocal melody that should feel familiar, but also really doesn’t allow for anything that feels as passionate as the original cut. However, taken on its own merits, it’s fab. It’s got a rough and ready quality that fits very neatly alongside the best tracks from the Sleeveens LP, and the chiming guitar sound – delivered at breakneck punky speed – is superb, as is the driving rhythm applied to the whole performance. If not directly compared to the original version, the vocal has a great fury of its own, too, with “The Mighty” Stef Murphy’s vocal summoning a lot of punk ‘n’ roll fire that’s perfect for the job in hand. A couple of spins actually makes this sound even better on its own terms, but some listeners might find themselves wondering how this might’ve turned out in the hands of an even more confident band like The BellRays. Still, there’s no denying that, as spirited covers go, this is great fun, and for collectors of the Detroit Series 7”s – where this made its debut – it’ll certainly be a welcome recording.
In some ways, it would have been great for The Sleeveens to drop another high octane banger on the A-side of this disc – that’s certainly where their musical strengths really lie – but settling for what’s offered, both ‘UFO’s’ and ‘Bernadette’ are solid additions to the catalogue of a punk band who were still “new” on the scene at the time of release. These tracks certainly cement any feelings that Stef and the lads mean business, and even by the Summer of ’24, were more than ready to shake up the US punk underground in their own trashy way.
January 2025