— spotlight releases —
B Pictures
I Want to Hold It So Close
July 29, 2022
streaming
A neo-psychedelic post-punk time machine melding raw compositions and rehearsal sketches of a fledgling basement band in 1984 with 38-years-later vocal performances and arrangement flourishes. I Want to Hold It So Close includes 11 tracks featuring future members of Guided by Voices and The Pleasures Pale. Performing but six times, all at the Gem City's beloved Canal Street Tavern, B Pictures made a brief but vibrant mark on the mid-1980s Dayton OH indie music scene.
Jeff Bright & the Sunshine Boys
Kill off the Night
March 11, 2022
streaming + limited edition vinyl
In 1994, Myself a Living Torch became Jeff Bright & the Sunshine Boys. Marking this radical departure, Kill off the Night collects their first recordings. Its "western noir" sound is a subtle nod to the melancholy elegance of 1960s cosmopolitan “crossover” music — not country, not pop, not rock, not blues — the kind that, for those of a certain age, lingers in memory's corners long after the phonograph ceases to play. Limited edition of 50 numbered retail copies includes photos, liner notes, lyrics and 180-gram 33 RPM stereo pressing in classic black vinyl.
The Pleasures Pale
Twitch
January 7, 2022
streaming + limited edition vinyl
Previously unreleased 4-song EP of The Pale's final ReFraze Studio recordings from the summer of 1987 captures them at peak form reaching for a more expansive sound and embracing ever more challenging lyrical themes — misfit revolution and sexual confusion, no less. Features the anthem, "Only the Rich" and the long-running favorite "Most Precious Things" on the A-side, "Not Fey" and "Punishment Place" on the flip. Limited edition of 25 retail copies includes complete liner notes, photos, lyrics and 180-gram lathe-cut clear vinyl 45 RPM stereo disc.
Myself a Living Torch
Instant Karma Cannot Get Me
June 4, 2021
streaming + deluxe edition CD
Apocalyptic pop like no other, Instant Karma Cannot Get Me is a doomsday catalog presented in 10 swelling guitar symphonies — surf music for an astral tsunami, speeding toward an unreachable, unknowable shore. Conjoined with its (forthcoming) sister LP, The Human Condition, IKCGM can be seen as the zenith as well as the beginning of the subsequent phase-out of the darkly humorous project that was Myself a Living Torch. Gatefold eco-wallet includes 10-song disc, full credits and liner notes, plus 12-page lyric/photo booklet.
The Pleasures Pale
Daily Living Is a Herculean Art
December 1, 2020
streaming + deluxe edition CD
In the fall of 1985, in the basement of a largely empty and surely haunted house in North Dayton, The Pleasures Pale came into being. A collection of demos and rarities, Daily Living Is a Herculean Art is a motion study of inception, representative of a rich idea unfurling — and it is, even more so, a vision of that idea projected 35 years into the future. Gatefold wallet includes 16-song disc and 6-panel insert with lyrics and historical liner notes.
Darke County
Edge of Night
July 23, 2020
streaming + deluxe edition CD
Begun in 1990, buried in 1991, exhumed in 2019 and finished in 2020, this uniquely rich material has been restored, complimented with further recording, and at last given the exposure it justly deserves. Time has only rendered this concoction of styles more fascinating, poignant, and oddly brilliant — a trove of artifacts from the waning days of San Francisco's bohemian era. Digipak wallet includes 20-song disc, full credits and historical liner notes, plus 6-panel lyric/photo insert.
The Pleasures Pale
The Pleasures Pale! (Remastered)
February 22, 2019
streaming + deluxe edition CD
Remaster of debut LP from influential Dayton, Ohio indie quartet, The Pleasures Pale. Recorded 1986-87 at ReFraze Studio and originally released in January 1988 — three months after the band's breakup — on Cincinnati's Heresy Records. Transferred from pre-master cassette, restored, selectively edited and mastered. Gatefold wallet includes 12-song disc, 8-page lyric/photo booklet and extensive liner notes.
Myself a Living Torch
Citizen Self
September 1992
streaming + original CD & cassette
Bammie-nominated six-song EP recorded in 1992 at Brilliant Studios in San Francisco. Available on CD and cassette in original '90s-era packaging. Produced by Norman Kerner, graphic design by G2DK, photography by LN Cavendar, and hand-in-glove modeling by Rodney O'Neal Austin. Citizen Self exists as a prescient commentary on the state of the young adult American psyche in the waning years of the 20th Century, and the only crystalline rendering of the enigma that was Myself a Living Torch.
— streaming & vinyl singles —
