Feels Like Breakin' Shit (sometimes stylized as ...Feels Like Breakin' Shit) is the first compilation album by the American pop rock band Self, released for free via Spongebath Records and DreamWorks Records as an internet download in October 1998. It consists of songs scrapped from the band's first two albums along with other demos, covers, and parodies.
Background
After the completion of Self's Subliminal Plastic Motives (1995) and The Half-Baked Serenade (1997), lead member Matt Mahaffey had a collection of songs scrapped from both albums. Concerned that his DATs would corrupt, he compiled the songs onto a single CD-R as a backup. He made several copies, entitled Feels Like Breakin' Shit, and gave the first one to his manager at Spongebath Records, Rick Williams. It spread throughout the label and leaked online with positive feedback from fans, leading multiple colleagues to encourage Mahaffey to put out the compilation. It was then officially released as a free Internet download through Spongebath and DreamWorks Records. The album was later removed and replaced with Self Goes Shopping (2000), the band's second EP.
Content and reception
thumb|left|Self's logo on Mahaffey's cover art.
Feels Like Breakin' Shit widely varies in style through its tracklist, such as techno instrumentation on the opening song "Having Dinner With the Funk", though it primarily follows an alternative punk rock style. Laurent of Indiepoprock praised this alongside the compilation's quality, suggesting that the songs "Pumpkinhead" and "Dog You Are" would've fit on Subliminal Plastic Motives. The track "Dog You Are" was played during live shows beginning in 1996, stated by Mahaffey to be about a critic from Utah who negatively reviewed Subliminal Plastic Motives. Another song on the album, "Breakdancers Reunion", was written about a friend named James who would breakdance on command, with Mahaffey having numerous recordings of him on Bourbon Street. The ending composition of it came from a desire to say "motherfucker" through a vocoder. Self's version contains a light chord progression, intended to contrast the darker instrumentation used by other bands who cover the song. This precedes the song "Titanic", inspired by Mahaffey singing the Pixies' "Gigantic" before watching the film Titanic (1997). Following the experience, he spent 30 minutes writing a parody of the song around the film plot and included Weezer's "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" after realizing the two songs shared a melody.