End of a Year - Split with Three Fifteen

What can I say folks, I have been a busy bee this past week. Hence the lack of updates. I will also being going on a Northern Expedition of sorts this weekend, so I am hoping I can jam a few more updates in before I part ways. Onwards and Upwards.

I am not going to lie here, this past weekend I tried to stay up to date with the ongoings of Krazy Fest 2k11. A diverse lineup with many bands I would have enjoyed seeing, coupled with the shenanigans of the infamous aftershows. But the one band I would have loved to see more than any other would have been the End of a Year Self Defense Family. Or Self Defense Family as they are going by these days. Their set, in which the whole weekend was streamed through the Alt. Press website, was wonderful. Per usual, the band stuck to the new material, two (maybe three) songs off of You Are Beneath Me, one track off of the Deathwish 7in, and the rest was brand spanking new joints. The new songs played have a slower pace, akin to some of the later era sounds of the band, but still on par with intensity. And it seems that the only gripe people ever have with this band is that they seem to refuse to play anything old, whatsoever. This only makes me wish that I payed more attention to them years ago when I first caught them at a local hardcore band's record release in Chicago. They blew me away then, and the blow me away now.

This split is from that era when I first saw the band, right before (or as) Sincerely on Revelation came out. Three tracks that, for me, stand out from the band's vast and impressive catalog. These three songs are heavy, not only in production, but as if they put a dark twist to their early DC Revelation Summer sound. End of a Year was an already well-oiled machine at this point, so it only makes sense that this is where their first experimentations, though minute, are heard. "Beleaders" sounds somewhat completely different, sonically, from the later version found on Sincerely. This record intrigues me, as well, due to the band promoting their next material as "heavy music". There was a wonderful metaphor involving Nuerosis and Lungfish, and I can only assume the music will be wonderful. Not the heavy like this split and their older DC sound, but heavy in the way of reinventing a band each and every step of the way. Self Defense Family really are the leaders in innovation within underground music.

Tracks:

1. Beleaders
2. Girls
3. Choppers

All that's left is drugs or God.

Note: I am completely ignoring the Three Fifteen side, it's been sometime since I have listened to it, but I remember the feeling of indifference.