To listen to the available tracks, use the player below. (You probably want to pause the player to the right first!) If you are interested in purchasing SPR’s 2011 LP “Postcards from Purgatory”, click here.

Chances are that, if you’re reading this page, The Self-Proclaimed Rockstars are somewhat new to you, so we’ve taken the liberty of trying to put together an overview of what SPR’s music is all about. We write songs about our lives in suburban purgatory, and we write about the ambitions, disappointments, comforts and obstacles that we and our peers experience every day.

You will notice that we put all of the tracks from our latest CD (in order) in the player for you to test drive- even though we’re now a five-piece, we were actually just a trio when we put out our first studio LP, “This is rock.”, in 2008. We think we’ve come a long way since then, so we wanted to give you an opportunity to hear for yourself. We’ll even do the honor of giving some background on a few of the songs. (Note that, for now, some of the descriptions are from the first record, which is available on iTunes.)

Whisky
We figured that Whisky was a good place to start…when we first wrote it, we probably should have guessed it would grow into SPR’s flagship song since…well…who doesn’t want to shoot Whisky on stage? (See here for some video evidence.) We really do love this song, especially since the concept of the tag line: “I just took a bullet, now I’m gonna take a shot” is a concept we all identify with and really embodies what SPR is all about.

Suburban Kingpin
Second up on the list is Suburban Kingpin, which is probably our favorite of the new songs. It’s super fun to perform, and it really captures our frustration in seeing people that we all grew up with take the “easy” route and not live up to their full potential. (Again, see here for the related video.)

Bad Romance
Like we try to convey in our bio, SPR takes pride in not taking ourselves too seriously. Part of what we’ve learned playing in dive bars over the years is that wacky covers are a big win for everyone, band and audience alike. We’ve tried Material Girl, Gangstas Paradise…even the Fresh Prince theme. So our latest cover, Bad Romance, was the next logical tune for us to tackle. (Trust us, it’s even better with the visual.) We even made a studio version of it for you, since we liked it that much.

Hollywood (Anne’s Song)
SPR has two tracks that mean a lot to Mick and Johnny, respectively. The first one, Hollywood, is a holdover from the studio album, and it’s the only song so far where Mick takes over on lead vocals (and harmonica). In Hollywood, Mick tells a very Capra-esque tale of being trapped in his hometown and the very sad consequences for him and for someone he cared for.

Haymaker
Haymaker, on the other hand, is a very new song for SPR. In case you were wondering, a Haymaker is a type of powerful punch. It has the advantage of being particularly likely to land a knockout blow, but it leaves the puncher vulnerable in the event that the other guy doesn’t go down. This concept represents the theme of the song, since SPR is trying their best to gear up and make the biggest impact that we can on the music scene.

No Faith
Moving on from there we have No Faith, which is our song that says “hey - thanks, but no thanks” to the lives most folks end up with where we’re from. (We even have some cool video, with some former band members even, here)

Thanks for reading this far- our music means a lot to us, and we hope it will mean something to you too.

Love,
The Self-Proclaimed Rockstars