O-D-EX “Breaker” and The Sleeveens “s/t” both out now!

Introducing…..The Sleeveens

December 8, 2023

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, please give a warm Dirtnap welcome to The Sleeveens!

We here at Dirtnap were IMMEDIATELY bowled over when this unknown-to-us band sent in their album to us for consideration! We dispatched our crack A&R team to Tennessee, and following a high level summit meeting, we’re ecstatic to announce that The Sleeveens have joined the illustrious ranks of the Dirtnap family of bands!

The Sleeveens (an informal Irish term for someone who is underhanded, sly or a bit of a trickster) hit exactly at the intersection of high energy pub rock and classic ’77 punk (with some modern flourishes sprinkled in), with hooks for MILES, and great lyrics that are more thoughtful and original than many in this style of music.

Existing for less than a year, this Nashville/Dublin band has hit the ground running, releasing a 7″ and going on an extensive tour within a few months of forming, recording a full length, getting picked up for Dirtnap, and booking ANOTHER big tour for early 2024!

February 9th will see the release of their debut, self titled LP on Dirtnap. The first 200 will be on yellow vinyl (black vinyl also available), and will only be available via mailorder through Green Noise Records.

Preorder your copy HERE.

We’ll have music from the album to share soon, in the meantime, check out their debut 7″ (released as Stef And The Sleeveens on Sweet Time Records) HERE.

Keep your eyes open for track premieres, tour dates, and lots more! 2024 will be the year of The Sleeveens!

O-D-EX “Breaker”

November 17, 2023

Fort Worth’s O-D-EX has joined the Dirtnap roster, and we are happy to announce that their debut LP, “Breaker” will be released on January 26th!

This will be a one time only pressing of 500, with 300 on black vinyl and 200 on white. White vinyl will be exclusively available through our friends at Green Noise Records.

Preorder your copy here! By preordering, you’ll automatically be entered to win a copy of a test pressing of the LP! (edition of 5)

Direct Hit / Decent Criminal Split 7″ and Beacon Comic #1

March 7, 2023

OUT NOW! ORDER HERE: https://bit.ly/3FDGfZT

On April 28th, Dirtnap Records will publish the first installment of Beacon Comics, packaged with a 7″ record featuring a taste of Direct Hit‘s (Milwaukee, Fat Wreck Chords) dubiously-forthcoming album (“Wasteland”), and new Decent Criminal (Santa Rosa, Diised/Gunner Records) songs “Time” and “Dream” – each an alternate take, and a B-side off their forthcoming album, respectively.

At some point during quarantine – with an album of new material shelved, and a month-long European tour all but canceled – Direct Hit singer/songwriter Nick Woods found himself working on a story about the future.

‘I’d get on video calls with my friends Dylan [Brown] and Jenny [Lapham], and we’d joke about being locked up with nothing to do – just like everyone else was,’ he says. ‘At some point, I got it into my head that this was all training for some kind of future where virtual reality would be the only way to experience the universe. And since I had nothing else to do at the time, I figured I’d start writing some of that stuff down.’

Together, Nick, Dylan, and Jenny – along with long-time Direct Hit collaborator and illustrator Walker Dubois – pieced together the first half of BEACON from Woods’s notes, producing a science fiction comic about a person named Doro, and their robot caretaker Partner, as civilization is reborn from apocalypse.

“Wasteland” was a tune I wrote and recorded by myself in a couple hours in June of 2020, a couple months after we canceled all our scheduled shows, and right around when I admitted to myself that I wasn’t gonna be able to be in a full-time band for a while,’ Woods says. ‘This was also right after when George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis police. So I was angry, and depressed, and embarrassed, and felt like I had to do something to express that mindset, and show some solidarity. The original version is really nasty-sounding – this one is too, but a lot more listenable. And Dylan, Jenny, Walker and I had the first part of this book lying around. So we figured it was good a time as any to try something far-out, with a label that wasn’t scared to experiment.”

This lavishly packaged comic/7” combo is a one time only pressing of 500 (300 on black, 100 on red, 100 on blue) and will only be available for a limited time. Get yours today! 

Listen To Direct Hit’s “Wasteland” HERE

Martha “Please Don’t Take Me Back” LP/CD Out Now!

October 28, 2022
ORDER LP (White vinyl sold out, black still available!)
STREAM/DOWNLOAD on Bandcamp


Durham indiepop-punks Martha return with their fourth album, and it 
might just be their best one yet. With their endlessly radiant hooks 
dialled up to maximum setting, paired with another heart-rending and 
relatable lyric sheet that reflects on the universal scars of the 
pandemic years, Please Don’t Take Me Back is the work of a band in the 
form of their life. It’s also an instant classic – one that’s both 
smartly prescient and warmly addictive.

Recorded at Nottingham’s JT Soar by ‘Bad’ Phil Booth (The Cool 
Greenhouse, Rattle, Grey Hairs), Please Don’t Take Me Back is a timely 
collection of deliciously catchy pop songs about ‘resisting the 
feeling that the good days are behind us’.

Two things set these songs apart. Firstly, the sense of resolution the 
band provide by working through these fears to find what positivity 
they can – making this the go-to record for your ongoing existential 
crisis in 2022. Secondly, there’s the effortless brilliance which 
ensures every melody cements itself to your memory from the very first 
listen – album closer “You Can’t Have A Good Time All Of The Time” might 
be their breeziest singalong moment yet, all wrapped up in a song 
about the planet’s ongoing environmental catastrophe. You’ll hear 
echoes of The Housemartins, The Weakerthans, Cheap Trick and Heavenly 
in their sound, but ultimately it sounds like Martha found a way to 
turn their strongest features all the way to 11. What better way to 
process the aftermath of the past two years?

While their previous record – 2019’s Love Keeps Kicking – saw them 
remaining defiant in a world that seemed to be breaking apart, Please 
Don’t Take Me Back explores the scattered fragments of what followed 
and tries to make sense of how we navigate the smoking remains.

First formed in the small village of Pity Me, Durham, in 2011, Martha 
released their debut EP the following year on guitarist Jonathan 
Cairns’ DIY label, Discount Horse. Tours on both sides of the Atlantic 
soon followed, along with two albums for the UK’s much-missed indiepop 
stable Fortuna Pop: 2014’s Courting Strong (also released in the 
United States by Salinas Records) and 2016’s sophomore effort Blisters 
In The Pit of My Heart (via Dirtnap Records in the US). In the 
meantime, the band became figureheads for the UK’s DIY pop scene by 
balancing their obvious talents with a clear set of ethics – 
anti-capitalist, first and foremost – and an open-hearted warmth 
that’s often absent from the foreground of punk rock.

Please Don’t Take Me Back is a fine addition to Martha’s discography; 
their most life-affirming yet and a welcome ripple of light at a time 
when it’s often difficult to see past the darkness. Listen and love: 
the beat perpetual drives on.



TRACK LIST:

1. Beat, Perpetual
2 Hope Gets Harder
3. Please Don’t Take Me Back
4. Irreversible Motion
 5. Baby, Does Your Heart Sink?
6. FLAG//BURNER
7. Neon Lung
 8. Take Me Back To The Old Days (Reprise)
9. Total Cancellation Of The Future
10. I Didn’t Come Here To Surrender
11. You Can’t Have A Good Time All Of The Time

Outside North America? Order from Specialist Subject Records (UK)

More Kicks “Punch Drunk” LP Out Now!

September 16, 2022

ORDER LP (1st 150 on Yellow/Black Smoke, mailorder exclusive!)
STREAM/DOWNLOAD on Bandcamp
STREAM on Spotify
STREAM on Apple Music

“Punch Drunk” is the second album from London-based trio More Kicks, released on 16 September on Dirtnap
Records (USA) and Stardumb Records (EU). The band’s self-titled debut album was a concise and ragged lesson in pop songwriting dripping in melody, cynicism and energy.
 
‘Punch Drunk’ marks a new era for the band. Heavier, more expansive, more twists and turns. It veers from sparkling harmonies to fearsome riffing in the blinkof eye, with never a second wasted. As with the first record, it was recorded live on to 2” tape. It’s bottled lightning and the sound of a band firing on all cylinders.
 
James Sullivan (Sulli) – vox/guitar; Kris Hood – drums; Paolo Mantovani – bass/vox have cooked up a rare alchemy. The result: a More Kicks song can touchon classic 60s garage, 70s NYC rock and roll, jagged 90s guitar pop – all wrapped in a razor sharp bundle. A glance backwards and a decisive step forwards.
 
 “When the world collapsed in 2020, I realised more than ever how much I rely on music and More Kicks,” says Sulli. “This album became a total obsession and a lifeline. Stuck in one place, the songs all came from
heartbreak, frustration, anger, hope. It feels like a unique set of circumstances that produced this record and I’m really proud of what we’ve done.”
 
FOR FANS OF:
Buzzcocks
Kinks
Exploding Hearts
Guided By Voices
The Replacements

Track List:

1. Hurts Like Hell

2. In Love

3. Animal

4. Terminal Love

 5. Seven Ways

6. Got Lucky Side

7. Come Home

 8. Colour Me Stupefied

9. Good Enough

10. Phoney Middle Aged Art

11. Rest Of Our Lives

 12. Goodnight Goodnight

Outside N. America? Order from Stardumb Records!