Self-ish

Prior to release, Will Wood described Self-ish to be "about identity, ego and lack thereof".{{cite web|last=Olivier|first=Bobby|url=https://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/2016/07/inside_the_wondrous_piano-rock_chaos_of_will_wood.html|title=Inside the tortured soul and chaotic sound of Will Wood and the Tapeworms|website=NJ.com|language=en|date=July 1, 2016|accessdate=August 25, 2024|archive-date=July 7, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707221357/https://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/2016/07/inside_the_wondrous_piano-rock_chaos_of_will_wood.html|url-status=live}} He aimed for boldness and a lack of subtlety to strengthen his own honesty on the album. It was produced, mixed, and mastered by Kevin Antreassian of The Dillinger Escape Plan. During the creative process, Wood was unmedicated and new to therapy, which resulted in frenetic writing sessions and intense emotional experiences.{{cite web |last=Hsu|first=Caitlin|url=https://nyunews.com/arts/music/2022/04/29/will-wood-interview-in-case-i-make-it/|title=Will Wood wants to be authentic, whatever it takes|website=Washington Square News|language=en|date=April 29, 2022|accessdate=August 25, 2024}}

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|Description = Will Wood in 2017 with a painted third eye, referencing the cover artwork of Self-ish.

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On July 8, 2016, "Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancer's Prosopagnosia / Pareidolia (As Direct Result of Trauma to Fusiform Gyrus)" was released as the lead single of Self-ish. Alongside it was a music video co-directed by Will Wood and Adam Nawrot, featuring the band performing nude in a monochromatic room.{{cite web |last=Shrum|first=Tony|url=https://newnoisemagazine.com/will-wood-tapeworms-capgras-video/|title=Will Wood & The Tapeworms Release "Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity" Video|website=New Noise Magazine|language=en|date=July 8, 2016|accessdate=August 25, 2024}} "Dr. Sunshine Is Dead" released on July 28 as the second single,{{cite web|last=Juvinall|first=Michael|url=https://www.horrorsociety.com/2016/07/28/exclusive-will-wood-tapeworms-premiere-bombastic-single-dr-sunshine-dead/|title=Exclusive: Will Wood & The Tapeworms Premiere Bombastic Single "Dr. Sunshine is Dead!"|website=Horror Society|language=en|date=July 28, 2016|accessdate=August 25, 2024|archive-date=August 25, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240825202115/https://www.horrorsociety.com/2016/07/28/exclusive-will-wood-tapeworms-premiere-bombastic-single-dr-sunshine-dead/|url-status=live}} followed by "2012" as the third and final single on August 9. The latter had a music video published the same day, directed by Wood with Jesse Lazarus and Maddie Schwartz. It presents the band performing in an evidence room and a party, intermittenly cutting to Wood with body paint and various pieces of oversaturated or desaturated footage.{{cite web|last=Shrum|first=Tony|url=https://newnoisemagazine.com/will-wood-tapeworms-2012-video/|title=Will Wood & The Tapeworms Release "2012" Music Video|website=New Noise Magazine|language=en|date=August 9, 2016|accessdate=August 25, 2024|archive-date=August 25, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240825202114/https://newnoisemagazine.com/will-wood-tapeworms-2012-video/|url-status=live}}

Self-ish was released as Will Wood and the Tapeworms' second album on August 23, 2016.{{cite web|last=Olivier|first=Bobby|url=https://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/2017/01/35_nj_bands_you_must_hear_in_2017.html|title=35 N.J. bands you need to hear in 2017|website=NJ.com|language=en|date=January 13, 2017|accessdate=August 25, 2024|archive-date=September 24, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240924210931/https://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/2017/01/35_nj_bands_you_must_hear_in_2017.html|url-status=live}} On May 26, 2017, a music video was released for "Hand Me My Shovel, I'm Going In!". Recorded in one shot and directed by Mark Jaworski, it features the band performing in a busy and cluttered room through a fisheye lens.{{cite web|last=New Noise|url=https://newnoisemagazine.com/will-wood-tapeworms-hand-shovel-video/|title=Video Premiere: Will Wood & the Tapeworms – "Hand Me My Shovel, I'm Going In!"|website=New Noise Magazine|language=en|date=May 26, 2017|accessdate=August 25, 2024|archive-date=August 25, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240825202114/https://newnoisemagazine.com/will-wood-tapeworms-hand-shovel-video/|url-status=live}} This was followed years later by a music video for "Dr. Sunshine Is Dead", released on September 30, 2019. It shows the Tapeworms performing on a psychedelic background while Wood shaves his head, eats waffles in a patient gown, wears body paint, and digs a hole in the ground in a thunderstorm.{{cite web |last=Nelson|first=Joshua|url=https://bleedingcool.com/pop-culture/will-woods-white-noise-resonates-harmonious-a-review/|title=Will Wood's "White Noise" Resonates Harmonious – A Review|website=Bleeding Cool|language=en|date=July 19, 2022|accessdate=August 18, 2024}} On December 25, 2020, Self-ish was remastered and re-released by independent record label Say-10.

Self-ish contains the title tracks "Self-" and "-Ish", piano ballads that open and close the eight-song album, respectively. They discuss Wood's amnesia caused by his recreational drug use. The track "2012" additionally elaborates on this,{{cite web|last=Makin|first=Bob|url=https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/how-we-live/2016/08/28/makin-waves-chevonne-and-fuzz/89228960/|title=Makin Waves with Chevonne and The Fuzz|website=My Central Jersey|language=en|date=August 28, 2016|accessdate=August 25, 2024|archive-date=September 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240909131148/https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/how-we-live/2016/08/28/makin-waves-chevonne-and-fuzz/89228960/|url-status=live}} a funk-oriented track with lyrics about spirituality and psychedelics. Its composition revolves around saxophone, piano, and kazoo, while the song's lyrics are sung at a fast pace. Tony Shrum of New Noise Magazine labeled it as "sarcastically-cheery drug-addled babbling", while Bob Makin of My Central Jersey referred to it as a "jazzy acid trip". In an interview with the latter, Wood stated that the year marked Quetzalcoatl's return and a tabula rasa of existential nihilism.

"Cotard's Solution (Anatta, Dukkha, Anicca)" was described by Makin as a "zany, cirque de l’enfer revelry", likening it to Danny Elfman. "Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancer's Prosopagnosia / Pareidolia (As Direct Result of Trauma to Fusiform Gyrus)" is fourth on Self-ish, which uses a swing-punk melodic pattern. It was later included in "Weird Al" Yankovic's 2024 summer playlist.{{cite web|last=Sandstrom|first=Emily|url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/weird-al-shares-his-zany-summer-playlist-with-us|title="Weird Al" Shares His Zany Summer Playlist. And His Social Security Number.|website=Interview|language=en|date=July 18, 2024|accessdate=August 25, 2024|archive-date=August 26, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240826193918/https://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/weird-al-shares-his-zany-summer-playlist-with-us|url-status=live}} "The Song with Five Names a.k.a. Soapbox Tao a.k.a. Checkmate Atheists! a.k.a. Neospace Government (a.k.a. You Can Never Know)" follows as a "{{-'}}50s-spirited, gospel-inspired" song, featuring Alex Nauth of Foxy Shazam.

Dianne Miranda of Gauntlet included "Hand Me My Shovel, I'm Going In!" in a playlist of songs intended to put the listener in a state of numbness,{{cite web|last=Miranda|first=Dianne|url=https://thegauntlet.ca/2024/05/01/gauntlet-mixtape-vol-24-brain-rot/|title=Gauntlet Mixtape Vol. 24: Brain Rot|website=Gauntlet|language=en|date=May 1, 2024|accessdate=August 25, 2024|archive-date=September 2, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240902180528/https://thegauntlet.ca/2024/05/01/gauntlet-mixtape-vol-24-brain-rot/|url-status=live}} while Makin called it an "insane funeral march", overall describing the album as "a circus from hell". "Dr. Sunshine Is Dead" is a progressive rock song with latin inspiration. It focuses on dramatic instrumentation with saxophone, guitar, and piano, additionally including trumpet by Alex Nauth. Shrum related it to "Bohemian Rhapsody" and detailed it as a mix of My Chemical Romance and the Mars Volta,{{cite web|last=Shrum|first=Tony|url=https://newnoisemagazine.com/will-wood-tapeworms-dr-sunshine-dead/|title=Will Wood & The Tapeworms Stream New Single "Dr. Sunshine is Dead!"|website=New Noise Magazine|language=en|date=July 29, 2016|accessdate=August 25, 2024|archive-date=August 25, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240825202114/https://newnoisemagazine.com/will-wood-tapeworms-dr-sunshine-dead/|url-status=live}} while Shawn Macomber of Fangoria described the track as a "gleefully deranged sonic ambience", comparing it to Gogol Bordello, Mr. Bungle, and Tom Waits.{{cite web |last=Macomber|first=Shawn|url=https://www.fangoria.com/new/exclusive-premiere-will-wood-the-tapeworms-wicked-new-music-video/|title=Exclusive Premiere: Will Wood & The Tapeworms' Wicked New Music Video!|website=Fangoria|language=en|date=July 8, 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160711074432/https://www.fangoria.com/new/exclusive-premiere-will-wood-the-tapeworms-wicked-new-music-video/|archive-date=July 11, 2016|accessdate=August 25, 2024}}

{{Track listing

| headline =

| total_length = 33:28

| all_writing = Will Wood

| title1 = Self-

| length1 = 2:35

| title2 = 2012

| length2 = 4:04

| title3 = Cotard's Solution (Anatta, Dukkha, Anicca)

| length3 = 5:05

| title4 = Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancer's Prosopagnosia / Pareidolia (As Direct Result of Trauma to Fusiform Gyrus)

| length4 = 3:43

| title5 = The Song with Five Names a.k.a. Soapbox Tao a.k.a. Checkmate Atheists! a.k.a. Neospace Government (a.k.a. You Can Never Know)

| length5 = 4:27

| title6 = Hand Me My Shovel, I'm Going In!

| length6 = 5:51

| title7 = Dr. Sunshine Is Dead

| length7 = 5:24

| title8 = -Ish

| length8 = 2:15

}}

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.

;Musicians

{{div col}}

• Will Wood – lead vocals, piano, kazoo
• Mike Bottiglieri – guitar, theremin, power drill
• David Higdon – tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
• Matt Olsson – drums, percussion
• Jonathon Maisto – bass guitar
• Alex Nauth – backing vocals (5), trumpet (7)
• Mario Conte – drums (demos)

{{div col end}}

;Technical

{{div col}}

• Kevin Antreassian – production, recording engineer, mixing, mastering
• Jonathon Maisto – additional engineering
• David Higdon – demo engineer
• Gabriel Francis – demo engineer
• Will Wood – album art graphic design
• Jesse Lazarus – album art photography
• Adam Nawrot – logo design
• Polo Itona – inner sleeve photography

{{div col end}}

;Additional vocalists

{{div col}}

• Reese Van Riper – backing vocals
• Dylan Jacobus – backing vocals
• Chris McRae – backing vocals
• Cheska Columbo – backing vocals
• Lizzie Rowe – gang vocals
• Kellyanne Zeleny – gang vocals
• Timothy Simpson – gang vocals
• Mike Vablon – gang vocals
• Robby Stern – gang vocals
• Bobby Sanner – gang vocals
• Rebecca Paddon – gang vocals
• Bianca Teresi – gang vocals

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Discogs release|17313544|Self-Ish {{noitalic|(2020 Remastered Version)}}|type=album}}

{{Will Wood}}

Category:2016 albums

Category:Will Wood albums

Category:Pop rock albums by American artists