Lovely Lovely (2018 mix), by The Pleasures Pale

Lovely Lovely (2018 mix)

by The Pleasures Pale

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Get all 17 The Pleasures Pale releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of No, Joy (Not the Same Story), Twitch, Happy Love Ghosts (It Haunts Me Now), Lovely Lovely, How I Dreamt of You, Daily Living Is a Herculean Art, Champion My Cause, Happy Love Ghosts (2019 mix), and 9 more. , and , .

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1.	Lovely Lovely (1985 version) 02:47	lyrics	buy track
Lovely lovely To me you cling Sometimes I'm dry And I thrive on your sting Oh, lovely lovely In love with my mind Oh, lovely lovely This torture of mine Do you know how to face the night? With memories beautiful in black and white? I'll hold back my cries from indecency I'll borrow a few smiles from hypocrisy Lovely lovely I crawl on your floor With you above me insisting on more Oh, lovely lovely, love me no more Lovely lovely, it's you I deplore Please tell me how to face the night With memories beautiful in black and white Dying in photographs my strength decays I'm sick and tired of memories and remains Lovely lovely, I crawl on your floor With you above me insisting on more Oh, lovely lovely, love me no more Lovely lovely, it's you I deplore Please tell me how to face the night My memories come vivid in black and white Should I get dressed, get out of this town? I'm too mad and it's too bad / Now, wait 'til you're gown... Lovely lovely Lovely lovely
2.	Whipsaw Children 03:35	lyrics	buy track
There was a boy with crooked teeth Who lived inside his dreams Child-boy devil, neighborhood bully Pushed him around for laughs A snowball in the face, a fist in the kidney Hey, aren’t you playing with me? Whipsaw, whipsaw You have not seen the last of me Those dreadful summer days On a backlot baseball field A ball at the head, push in the back A laugh and he'll take you down There was a boy with crooked teeth Who lived inside his dreams Child-boy devil, neighborhood bully Pushed him around for laughs A snowball in the face, a fist in the kidney Hey, aren’t you playing with me? Whipsaw, whipsaw You have not seen the last of me A trip and you’re trapped with your arms tightly wrapped 'Round your neck and you want to go home A kick, swing, makeshift wrestling ring Hey, aren’t you playing with me? No, no, no, no…. Downcast boy with bashful lips Devil-boy bully with mashing fists Whipsaw, whipsaw Whipsaw Whipsaw, whipsaw Don’t run, don’t fall Whipsaw, whipsaw Hey, aren’t you playing with me? Hey, aren't you playing with me? Hey, aren’t you playing with me? Hey, aren't you playing with me? Hey, aren't you playing with me?

about

In September of 1985, singer/lyricist Jeffrey Bright began meeting for songwriting sessions with bassist Luis Lerma and guitarist Mitchell Swann in Bright's rented house on Marcella Avenue in North Dayton. Lerma was already established as a prominent rockabilly figure in the Dayton underground, having played in The Lucky Strikes, among others, and Swann was loosely associated with the burgeoning Bob Pollard/Guided by Voices Northridge scene. Swann's friend and then occasional GBV drummer Timothy Payton Earick sat in on a series of 4-track recording sessions and soon the band had a name and a demo tape.

Among those early recordings, two songs stand out for their curious twists on 1950s- and 1960s-era American pop music flavors:

"Lovely Lovely" is an Elvis-style rave up featuring guitarist Swann's fleet picking (on a 12-string electric, no less) and a Lerma/Earick hyper-charged, locked-in hillbilly stomp. The song would become a set list staple and appear on the band's vinyl LP in early 1987, with then-drummer Jeff Keating providing a different feel.

"Whipsaw Children," in horror-film fashion, emerges from murky, small town vapors in the shape of a psychotic surf-rocker. Earick's loose, primal drumming manages the song's tension and release and Swann's varied guitar figures aptly express the tale's shifting theme.

On both cuts, Bright hews open memory's feral beast with a jagged blade. "Lovely Lovely" is a lover's lament doubled down, its narrator haunted into a state of incapacitation, unable and unwilling to let go the pangs of desire, fearing an inevitable emptiness. And "Whipsaw," reinforced with field recordings, plots out the often cruel nature of childhood play. For the hair-raising backstory of that song's genesis, listen first, then see the blog post at: www.jeffreyalanbright.com/single-post/2017/11/27/arent-you-playing-with-me

What these now-completed demo recordings lack in fidelity, they make up for in spirit. Their value as markers of an era — the first rush of punk and DIY-inspired "alternative" or "indie" rock — should not be underestimated. Digitized from cassette and finished in 2018, both songs on this digital release stand now as testament to The Pleasures Pale's vital regional contribution to the genre and to what would eventually become a thriving indie music scene in Dayton.

Don't forget to remember: Leave a window open for more sweet, stylish lament from one of the Gem City's most memorable musical ghosts.

credits

released August 29, 2018

voice – jeffrey bright
6- & 12-string guitars – mitchell swann
bass guitar – luis lerma
drums – timothy payton earick

initial recording:
produced & engineered by the pleasures pale
marcella house
dayton, ohio
1985

additional recording:
san francisco, california
2017–2018

cover design - jeffrey bright

c) 1985 The Pleasures Pale
p) 2018 JABMA
Fugitive Music Publishing / BMI

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about

The Pleasures Pale Dayton, Ohio

The Pleasures Pale was an influential indie quartet based in Dayton Ohio active from 1985 to 1987. Oft-compared to anglo groups such as The Smiths, TPP's influences can now be read as more diverse — taking cues from postpunk, rockabilly, swing, Motown and Dayton funk. A band for misfits, their extensive, lyric-driven output sought to light a way through the rust belt's post-industrial bleakness. ... more

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