The Sleeveens “National Anthem” 2026. Goner Records, limited edition white vinyl variant. The latest from Dublin/Nashville punks – love these guys! We’ve been fans since even before their debut LP (on Dirtnap Records) was released having gotten the inside scoop from Dirtnap Ken back in late 2023 or early 2024. National Anthem is a raucous garage soaked good time, reminiscent of the 70s punk sound (The Clash, Ramones, Buzzcocks and Stiff Little Fingers — I think two of the Nashville-based band members still do tech for SLF tours – here’s a photo of Sleeven bassist, who also recorded and mixed National Anthem – doing guitar tech before the Stiff Little Fingers set at Punk Rock Bowling in 2024 ): fun, melodic and a bit snotty. There’s even a bit 60s-style girl group energy (which is of course also like the Ramones) meets jangly power pop (think early Elvis Costello) on “My Pretend Girlfriend” and some country twang on the title track “National Anthem” (though it is sarcastic AF). As usual, my top tracks are the bangers like the opener “If I Was a Casual,” “Six Counties Punk” and the snappy “Cowboy Queen.” Despite the album’s name, there’s just one song that I’d describe having an anthemic sound: the hypnotic, driving “Town of Horseheads” that definitely leans into heavy garage psych territory.  There’s just one cover on National Anthem – “The Rat” originally by The Walkmen (2004) and since I’m not familiar with that indie rock band I’ll just go ahead and say The Sleeveens version is great.

Duran Duran “Violence of Summer (Love’s Taking Over)” 1990, 12″single. Today, June 8th, is Nick Rhodes’ birthday (b. 1962). Funky “Violence of Summer” was the lead single off of their 1990 LP Liberty: it went to #20 in the UK and to #64 in the US. Honestly (and regretfully) I wasn’t paying much attention to D2 in ’90 so I’m woefully unaware of this single and that LP. This was the time period where both Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor had left the band and Warren Cuccurullo was on guitar and Sterling Campbell was filling in on drums. There were several variants of the single released: this one is the US 12″ with four versions of “Violence” plus “Throb,” a previously unreleased track which is an instrumental remix of “My Antarctica” (also on Liberty). The four remixes are pretty similar: lots of throbbing dance beats, Simon vocal samples, sci-fi(ish) voiceovers, etc. which make it difficult to pinpoint a favorite. The Story Mix is kinda cool as it starts out with Simon doing a beat-poet-like thing which is kinda awesome and hilarious. The Power Mix is super ass-shaking and segues seamlessly into the Dub Mix. I’d say my least favorite (though it’s still good!) is the Rock Mix with the train horns but the beat is crazy infectious and hypnotic which almost balances out the horn blast. The radio single/album track isn’t on the 12″ but it is here:

The Bags “All Bagged Up” the collected works 1977-1980. Artifix Records. Last night we had the immense pleasure of seeing the Alice Bag Band at Anodyne Coffee here in Milwaukee – omg she is still so fantastic: vibrant, intelligent, a great storyteller, lovely but still a pissed off punk at heart. A US punk pioneer, Alice Bag led The Bags, a first-wave L.A. punk band that didn’t really receive the national (underground) attention as they’re LA contemporaries like the Germs and Black Flag. All Bagged Up is a compilation of original Bags that Artifix says is “After years (Literally) of hunting, researching, tracking down and finageling, Artifix is proud to present ALL BAGGED UP…the collected works 1977-1980. This 12″ LP represents everything we could dig up by L.A.’s infamous BAGS.” (from Artifix’s website). On it are The Bags first single “Survive” and “Babylonian Gorgon” which, along with “We Don’t Need the English” and “We Will Bury You” were recorded in 1978 at the Dangerhouse recording studio. Last night “Survive” was the encore (video Joe recorded below) and Alice told a delightful story to introduce “We Don’t Need the English” – former Bags bassist Patricia Rainone (Pat Bag) had married The Damned’s Dave Vanian and while the song was not written about him, the band decided it would be funnier to introduce the song saying it was definitely about him. Four tracks were recorded live at The Masque on February 24th, 1978 – this show just 2 weeks after their debut performance at the Masque (at which The Germs Darby Crash – then going by Bobby Pyn – was there and rushed the stage yanking off the bags from The Bags’ heads). Recorded live in 1979 in Oregon are the songs “7 and 7 is” – a Love cover, “1, 2, 3,” “Gluttony” (which Alice played last night, introducing it as a song written by an original Bags member who suffered from an eating disorder – can’t remember if she said which one but it was one of the guys; this song also appears in The Bags appearance in the 1981 Penelope Spheeris directed concert/documentary film Decline of Western Civilization)  plus “In Love with Romance” and “Survive.” There’s also a few studio rehearsal recordings and their first demo “Bag Bondage.” Finding any Bags on vinyl has always been a challenge so having some of their classic tracks compiled in one place has been a long time in coming.