this hit me like a fist like a brick, grabbed me by the collarbones and pulled me to attention, sounding like it coulda come from Boston 1974 or Dublin 1978, maybe somewhere around Surrey or Essex, but actually this coming from right now and where all the music comes, down in the Southern states of the United States, bring it back home, borrowing some shuffle of the sneakers and pedal-pushers and head flips licks and kicks from folks like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Al Perkins, and Eddie Cochran yanked through the innards of some of the more important rock idols of the 1970s and blasting into the present tense, the vocals by Stef Murphy helping to bring this through his homeland Ireland, the songs wrapping around your shoulders like the arms of a friendly stranger, the rest of the band likely from Tennessee, Ryan Sweeney (Cheap Time), Jamie Mechan (Pink Spiders), and Eli Steele (Sweet Knives), the album action-packed with a grip of songs that all fit together but moving through the curves and into the straightaways, a bunch of cynical 1-2 punches of punk rock along with good times two-chord 1-2-3-4 shout outs "as we dance this mess around...never lose your sweetness in the face of hate......we'll have the sweetest time and the kids will rock n roll forever!" Amen. -- winch
"Hey Marty, remember my last email when I said I wasn't feeling inspired? That band The Sleeveens just sent me their just-recorded LP, and it's blowing my mind!" -- Ken Cheppaikode (Dirtnap Records)
“Fav new band STEF & the SLEEVEENS... LOVE THIS MYSTERIOUS BAND!” -- Quintron
“Murphy sings with tremendous passion and conviction while The Sleeveens rock out like there's no tomorrow... You can’t ask for a better debut record than this.” -- Faster and Louder
When Irish-born Count Vaseline/The Mighty Stef songwriter Stef Murphy met Stiff Little Fingers guitar tech Jamie Mechan in Nashville, Tennessee, it began a musical partnership of the highest order. After cranking out a few tunes at Mechan’s fledgling studio, 302 Sound, the duo started recruiting other musicians. The band was rounded out by drummer Ryan Sweeney (Cheap Time) and Eli Steele (Sweet Knives.) Dubbing themselves The Sleeveens, an Irish term for a trixter, the band got to work. After recording and releasing their highly-touted “Give My Regards To The Dancing Girls” 45rpm single on Sweeney’s Sweet Time Records, they finished off their 11 track debut LP. The quartet were soon approached by longrunning punk label Dirtnap Records (Marked Men, Exploding Hearts) for the album’s 2024 release.
The resulting LP is an homage to the kind of classic punk Chiswick, New Rose and Stiff Records were releasing 45 years before The Sleeveens existed. With earworm melodies and screaming guitars, the foursome have crafted one of the best albums of the year. Murphy’s penchant for charmingly brilliant, matter-of-fact lyricism has a similar poetic quality as Mark E. Smith or Jonathan Richman. With expert mastering by Jim Diamond (The White Stripes, The Dirtbombs) to put the finishing touches on the sound, The Sleeveens is a record that is simultaneously uncompromisingly raw and thoughtfully crafted.
