This is one Bear Family disc that's a bargain any way you slice it, containing 30 songs cut between 1956 and 1963, covering his sound from the hard, raspy rockabilly of the title track to slightly bluesier slow numbers like "I Ain't Goin' Nowhere." At his best (and he was always at his best in the recording studio), Self could rock as hard as Elvis in his wildest Memphis days, edging into Little Richard territory -- "You're So Right For Me" is almost scary in its echoes of the latter -- or hand...   [ read more ]

CD $21.83

Order The Century of Self and get this awesome 7"x12" poster for FREE! (while supplies last) The Century of Self is epic, and was clearly made without the gimlet eye of a major label A&R person overseeing it. From the soaring instrumental opener, "Giants Causeway," to the album's closer, "Insatiable Two," which starts off with the sounds of a demented circus and ends with an echoing sing-along about Conrad Keely's lack of monstrosity, the record is a work of tremendous scope and ambition. Fi...   [ read more ]

CD $15.99

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In kicking off the new millennium, Matt Mahaffey and Self decided to try a novel (some might say novelty) approach, recording the entirety of Gizmodgery on toy instruments. Most of them are electronic: toy guitars, keyboards, and drums, plus various talking and beeping items like animals, robots, phones, and the like. Knowing how the music was created definitely adds to the enjoyment, but even if you didn't know what the gimmick was, you'd still hear a record full of charmingly low-budget electron...   [ read more ]

CD $44.63