I think, in a lot of ways, Kindlon embodies parts of my personality that I wish were more amplified. Or, rather, I think he is parts of my personality that are amplified but don't have the type of audience I want or that he has. He talks about culture and subcultures in a way that I find engaging and also pretty sympathetic to my own view of those things. Also, maybe I wish I was in a prolific punk band and said witty and insightful things to large crowds of people who enjoyed my music.
And prolific they are. This year alone, Self Defense Family has released a full-length, a single from that LP, a collaboration 7" with Touche Amore, and a split 7" with Creative Adult. Loss Leader released a 7" this year, too. In 2014 they released five 7"s. In 2013 they released even more music than that. They produce music at an insane clip, and I've purchased nearly all of it. I'm missing three of their twenty records listed on Discogs, and I'll probably remedy that sooner rather than later.
So how do you qualify it all? As reductively as possible, of course! Decrying lists (and listicles) as faux-intellectualism has itself become faux-criticism. I like lists. I think if you like looking at stat sheets, you'll never have a hard time with lists. Do lists and listicles sometimes leave something to be desired? Sure, but plenty of articles do. Lists aren't inherently positive or negative. They're just a (possibly overused) format for organizing thoughts about numerous (un)related things.
I will say this about lists: they are inherently hierarchical, and hierarchical thinking is at the bottom [ha!] of a lot of bad Western philosophy and theory, so I get that. But they really are convenient for writing and talking about media.
With all that said, let's rank these fuckers!
Third place:
Yeah. The LP is in 3rd place. Heaven is Earth is a potent mix of deliberation and exhaustion. It's both the body lying in the middle of the park and the steady hand holding the camera that frames the image. It's the play of light in a black and white photo that enlivens the fixed composition. There are no bad songs on it. There are good songs on it. There are maybe even one or two great songs on it. It does everything you want a Self Defense Family album to do: it loops lyrics and riffs, it drifts about aimlessly for longer than you think a punk band would be comfortable drifting, and it speeds up after you've all but convinced yourself it'll never speed up. The lyrics are right in Kindlon's wheelhouse and Duggan's guitar work is sparse but fully developed. After all of that, though, it lacks something. I haven't obsessed over it like I did Try Me or any of the EPs they've released in the last few years. I've enjoyed it - but not obsessively. I'm not even sure what it's missing. Maybe I'll figure that out. Maybe.
Second place:
As if there weren't enough bodies in the Self Defense Family family before, the band collaborated with Touche Amore to produce a two-song EP that really does capture each band's essential sound in a way that demands space for itself and allows space for its partner. "Circa 95" is frantic and fast-paced and plays like Touche Amore borrowed Kindlon's lyric book and SDF borrowed Clayton Stevens' tablature. "Low Beams," my favourite of the two songs," quickly devolves into feedback-sparked post-punk emotional disarray that then picks back up into a back-and-forth sing-along release that is all sweat and spit and catharsis.
First place:
Is it kinda bullshit that the EP I'm putting in first place only features one Self Defense Family song as the B side to the Creative Adult A side? Probably. But "Somerton" is the best Self Defense Family song of the year, and Creative Adult's "Americans" is just another ridiculously incredible song from another band that can't seem to release anything but gold over the last couple years. "Somerton" is a lethargic dirge that predicts and outperforms the direction of Heaven is Earth. Kindlon's vocals fade in and out over minor chords slowly picked and strummed with a slight build-up of light noise. (It actually makes a ton of sense for "Somerton" to play alongside "Talia" and "Taxying" from the single, so I'm glad iTunes has it queued up like that [I left off the single from this list on purpose].) It's lackadaisical and downtrodden and seems pretty happy to be blue. Not for nothing, Creative Adult's "Americans" is a sparse piece of anti-nationalistic aggression that'll get you fucking stoked on being furious.
I feel kinda destined to continue to obsess over this band by myself. I'm (not actually) tired of talking about how much I'm obsessed with this band with my friends who should like them just as much as I do but don't feel as compelled to do so. I hope they release a bunch more music soon. I'll wax poetic to my naked mirror self about it all.
Here's a song that's not even from this year:
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