Breakfast with Girls

For his debut album, Subliminal Plastic Motives (1995), Self's leader Matt Mahaffey focused on guitar arrangements and incorporating rock music. Following its release, he frequently appeared at rock radio stations, performed at venues within the genre, and received invitations to strip clubs from radio personalities and other music industry colleagues. Mahaffey's strong disinterest in this lifestyle led him to drop his guitar usage on his second album, The Half-Baked Serenade (1997), citing the first album as a bad first impression. He continued to hold the mindset when making his third album, declaring the project to be "anti-rock". Before recording began for Self's third studio album, Mahaffey attended a Failure show in Nashville. Through a mutual friend, Mahaffey met with lead member Ken Andrews, proceeding to play a concert with Failure as a part of Self at the Exit/In some time later. ==Production==

After signing to DreamWorks Records, a larger budget allowed Mahaffey to work with various acclaimed engineers and producers for the album, including Andrews, Richard Dodd, and Hugh Padgham. He additionally recorded with a full orchestra for some songs, led by the Nashville String Machine. Sessions primarily took place at Ocean Way in Nashville, Tennessee, with additional recording done at the Bennett House in Franklin, Tennessee, Mahaffey's home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Treasure Isle in Nashville. Mahaffey composed each song's instrumental before writing lyrics, prioritizing a wide range of expression. Mahaffey spent his weekdays working on Breakfast with Girls while allotting weekends to work on Gizmodgery (2000), which is dubbed as "a toy instrument album" due to being recorded completely with toys. Mahaffey occasionally sent songs recorded during these sessions to DreamWorks, with them becoming interested in one and asking him to re-record it for inclusion on Breakfast with Girls, he subsequently re-recorded the song with a full band, wishing to contain toy songs to Gizmodgery. The song "Uno Song" was Mahaffey's first project in Pro Tools, and thus the album's only non-analog song. The label chose "Meg Ryan" as a single, a love song centered around the actress of the same name. ==Music and lyrics==

Style and influences Breakfast with Girls primarily uses a pop rock and hip hop soundscape, additionally featuring a hip-hop inspired beat. "Kill the Barflies" is primarily a rock song, with Mahaffey's vocals heavily distorted until they are ineligible. "Meg Ryan" is sung in "white-boy" whiny vocals, and heavily samples the New Kids on The Block album ''Hangin' Tough'' (1988) into its beat. aswell as incorporating a surf rock aesthetic. It features an organ, and is mixed with a synthesizer and punchy drums. Lyrics Self based Breakfast with Girls on a novel. "Suzie Q Sailaway" was originally written and recorded by Mahaffey for inclusion on Gizmodgery, but he was requested by DreamWorks to release it on Breakfast with Girls. Late in development, DreamWorks executives told Mahaffey that the album did not have any viable singles. In retaliation, he wrote "Uno Song" in two days as the "prettiest pop song" possible. Named after the card game Uno, it was intended to appeal to the band's female audience and become a hit single. "Paint by Numbers" is a meta song written about songwriting, with Mahaffey penning the track after seeing Smash Mouth's success with their debut single, "Walkin' on the Sun," mixed with anti-mainstream lyricism. "Fliptop Box" consists solely of indirect references to smoking. Mahaffey struggled with a cigarette addiction at the time, so he wrote the song in a failed attempt to quit. ==Marketing==

Marketing for Breakfast with Girls was handled by DreamWorks, who later launched a website for the band in promotion of Breakfast with Girls, advertised to feature new MP3 files daily. alongside a playable flash game, in it, players would have to defeat Self's members to gain access to different sections of the website. Upon completion, players would gain access to a free MP3 download of ''Feels Like Breakin' Shit (1998). DreamWorks additionally sent VHS tapes to the press, which showcased and detailed the bands activities during the creation of Breakfast with Girls.'' Upon its release, DreamWorks advertised Breakfast with Girls as "a mix of - um, everything". It released through MTV and DreamWorks Records on July 21, 1998. Director Alan Cohn picked the song as a theme for the main character, Josh Miller (Tom Everett Scott). "Meg Ryan" was released as the album's third and final single on May 25, 1999, marketed as the album's main single. Self appeared live for LAUNCH magazine in January 2001, performing the song "Uno Song" for LAUNCH's "The Lot." ==Release==

Breakfast with Girls was delayed multiple times, first reported by CMJ to have a release date of August 25, 1998. In later issues, the magazine projected release dates of March 2, June 29, and July 14, 1999. It is the only studio album Self released through the former. Breakfast with Girls was distributed on CD, cassette, and vinyl. The latter was delayed in production due to a lack of commercial demand. In a 2014 interview with the Alternative Press, Mahaffey stated he was unsure who published the album on streaming services. Artwork The cover artwork of Breakfast with Girls shows Mahaffey and a woman walking together, largely obscured by the band's logo on a black background. Physical copies feature numerous more photos, each focusing on different band members. This design was conceived by Brian Bottcher, who previously did artwork for Subliminal Plastic Motives. He was inspired by the 1968 film The Party and its promotional cardboard lobby cards to make Breakfast with Girls artwork resemble a film poster. ==Reception==

The album received mixed reviews upon release. Gabe Besecker of Woof Magazine stated that the rock focus of Subliminal Plastic Motives led Breakfast with Girls to initially receive a negative reception for its power pop style, but that it is regarded as "a masterpiece" by fans. Barry Walters of Spin reviewed Breakfast with Girls with a 7 out of 10 rating, complimenting Mahaffey's creativity and style fusions alongside the project's emotional vulnerability and quirkiness. but lost to Faith Hill's "This Kiss". ==Track listing==

Sample credits • "Kill the Barflies" contains samples of "T-Boz Tried to Talk to Me!", written by Dwight Conroy Farrell, as performed by Count Bass D. • "What Are You Thinking?" embodies portions of "Chew, Chew, Chew, Chew Your Bubble Gum", written by Ella Fitzgerald, Buck Ram, and Chick Webb, as performed by Ella Fitzgerald. • "Sucker" contains samples of "Exactly Like You", written by Beverly Laine, as performed by Beverly Laine, and samples of "Day by Day", written by Sammy Cahn, as performed by Bing Crosby with Mel Tormé and His Mel-Tones. • "Breakfast with Girls" contains samples of "It Gets No Rougher", written by Hank Shocklee, Keith Shocklee, Eric Sadler, and J.T. Smith, as performed by LL Cool J. • "It All Comes Out in the Wash" contains samples of "Moanin' at Midnight", written by Chester Burnett, as performed by Howlin' Wolf. ==Personnel==

Self • Matt Mahaffey – lead vocals, instruments • Mike Mahaffey – electric guitar, acoustic guitar (all tracks), bass (6, 12, 13), xylophone, clarinet samples (8) • Mac Burrus – bass (all tracks), toilet (1), harmonica (2), double bass (9), trombone (11) • Chris James – piano (1, 4, 6, 7), B-3, vox (2, 6), toy piano, xylophone (4) • Jason Rawlings – drums (4, 7, 11), percussion (6, 12) Additional musicians and arrangement • Nashville String Machine – strings (7, 13) • Richard Griffith – saxophone (9) • David Jellema – horns (11) • Chuck Lee – string arrangement (7) • Ron Huff – conductor (7) • Chris McDonald – string arrangement, conductor (13) Technical • Matt Mahaffey – production, engineer (all tracks), mixing engineer (5) • Hugh Padgham – mixing engineer (1–3, 6–13) • Csaba Petocz – mixing engineer (4) • Bob Ludwig – mastering engineer • Richard Williams – executive producer • Richard Dodd – engineer • Bobby Dufresne Jr. – engineer • Jeff Balding – engineer • Ken Andrews – engineer (all tracks), production (13) • Shawn McLean – engineer (all tracks), string engineer (13) • Joe Baldridge – engineer • Chris James – engineer • Glenn Spinner – assistant engineer • Aaron Swihart – assistant engineer • Joe Costa – assistant engineer • Brian Garten – assistant engineer • John Saylor – assistant engineer • Allen Sides – string engineer (7) Other • Michael Ostin – artists and repertoire • Brian Bottcher – art direction and design, photography • Brooke Niessner – art and photo assistance • Kathy Morgan – photography • Doug Payne – photo assistance • Zumwalt, Almon & Hayes – legal ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==References==