Self Defense Family
Try Me

Patrick Kindlon is a strange character. A lanky guy who, under his long ash-blond hair and intense blue eyes, hides a punk face, a body covered in tattoos up to his neck.

After ten years of career with End of a Year, Patrick and his musician friends decided to change the game. They change their name, becoming Self Defense Family. They change label, joining the big family of Deathwish Inc., and start from scratch.

The debut under the name Self Defense Family is from January 2014, when Try Me is released. The sound of the New York band essentially doesn't change, it remains that post-hardcore offspring of the '90s punk and the intellectual post-punk of late '80s NY. A substantial, intense, muscular, intelligent album. An album that smells of underground clubs packed with sweaty people, of busy, moist nighttime streets, of true life lived.

"Tithe Pig" has the relentless progression of the Fugazi punk, with lyrics narrated by Patrick with a broken and rusty voice. A true confessional of his own experiences and emotions, a flow of words akin to La Dispute's style. But while the latter is more "novelistic," in Self Defense Family nothing is novelized, everything is extremely realistic and harsh, like a punch straight to the face. "Nail House Music" screams in bold letters Drive Like Jehu. A lashing and metallic anthem, hardcore rhythms, and guitars that vent in the more strictly punk final tail.There are also more reflective moments, like in the slow yet sharp "Turn The Fan On", which vocally at times recalls the Lou Reed of the seventies.

The successful formula of Self Defense Family lies in encapsulating in each song real-life moments, with lyrics that are never trivial and are indeed always aggressive and ironic. The strong personality of leader Patrick Kindlon does the rest, giving each piece an irresistible decadent and urban aura. In the long "Apport Birds", there is a definite grunge echo, winking at the early days of Nirvana in rainy late '80s Seattle. A lopsided and drunken blues, with a dragged voice from excessively high tones. "Aletta," on the other hand, is proof that the band's roots are hardcore punk.

The only flaw of the record is the endless interview, split into two distinct parts, with former porn star Jeanne Fine (also featured on the cover and in the inner booklet). A forty-minute interview in which the actress (who, on the record, is called by her birth name Angelique) strips everything away and tells her story. A story that is indeed interesting, at times fun and at times moving, but once listened to, it doesn't make sense to hear it again from the beginning a second time. The two tracks, in fact, each twenty minutes long, placed one in the middle of the tracklist and one at the end, weigh down the record and make the listener press skip.

In conclusion, Try Me is a successful album. Self Defense Family has a unique style, made of real, crisp accounts, free of any rhetoric and unnecessary embellishment. They are fiery, powerful, satirical. They are urban and intellectual punk. Try Me is the story of two real lives, two realities laid bare. The life of Patrick, a young punk singer, and Angelique, an aged porn star.After numerous EPs released over this year and a half (noteworthy splits with Creative Adult and Touché Amoré), they are ready to release the new album, which will come out at the end of June, and I’m sure it will be another great album from Deathwish.