In October and November of 1991, in preparation for the “Citizen Self” sessions, San Francisco indie act Myself a Living Torch — singer/lyricist Jeffrey Bright, guitarist/composer Eric Schulz (now Goner Records artist Harlan T Bobo), bassist Chris/Troy Green, drummer Christopher Fisher — recorded a set of demos at Guerrilla Euphonics in Oakland, California. Of the eleven songs captured, two (“Requiem for a Golddigger” and “Life Is Too Short”) were selected by producer Norman Kerner to be re-recorded at Brilliant Studio in early 1992. The remaining songs, though fully embraced by the band, were never released. Now, as a project of the Jeffrey Alan Bright Music Archive, this long-buried material is being recovered and restored, and is slated for release in album form under the collective title “1,000 Mortal Perils,” as well as via a series of select singles.

The first release features two Bright/Schulz compositions, “Make a Wish” and “Airport Lounge Waltz,” and sees the quartet transitioning from the rustic storytelling of Darke County (their previous incarnation) to an edgier brand of literate alt-rock. This new sound retained elements of Darke County’s noir but veered sharply into a kind of postmodern American surrealism — purposely melodramatic, subtly perverse and above all aimed at unsettling an increasingly blinkered world by juxtaposing quotidian existence with overexposed subconscious-ness — by illuminating the potential for satori in the seemingly mundane. Not all of MaLT’s early attempts should be graded as accurately reaching their aim, but amongst the most successful in this conceit are the two cuts here.

“Make a Wish” flips the table on a birthday celebration, turning it into a creepy collage of self-examination, discontent and metaphysical rescue by what might be the most “Californiaic” of all mythological inventions — a motorcycle riding “woman of wings." Is the taleteller’s extraction from life’s insistent advance the ultimate escape — death? Or is that surrealistic getaway a vehicle for commentary on America’s insatiability? A full-throated existential dissent? Or all three? As the band’s interplay — complimented here with an ominous string score — works tension against release, we are left to wonder.

Then further into the breach we go with “Airport Lounge Waltz.” Indeed and unmistakably a waltz-time composition, but more so a pathos heavy episode containing nothing of the elegant dance steps implied. Instead our bound-for-reckoning subject finds his or herself flailing and in flagrant violation of common behavioral mores in that most self-erasing, soul-absent and anonymous watering hole of all, the airport bar. ALW serves as an appropriate showcase for Green’s string bass playing, Fisher’s restrained brushwork and Schulz’s expressive guitar lines, made all the more deliriously tipsy by an odd whirling tone. As a finishing touch, a tickle of electric piano has been mixed into the original recording. Also notable is Schulz’s “Norwegian Wood” quote in the instrumental break after the second chorus. It would serve as the first salvo in a Beatles versus Stones match in the duo’s songwriting. A return volley would come in Bright’s lyric two years later in the 1993 recording of “Show Me a Pearl.”

Together, both tracks cut to the heart of a peculiar, late 20th Century malaise. Not necessarily guided by punk’s nihilism, or post-punk’s minimalist alienation, in terms of musical expression, but instead fueled by a spreading sense of dread and disaffection. Rather than strike back with a snarling visceral sound, MaLT’s attack against culture’s dehumanizing slide — recall, the Gulf War played out like just another video game on television between August 1990 and February 1991, as real people were maimed and blown to bits on the ground — came from a decidedly oblique, literary angle, eschewing wild punches for irony and dark humor. To that end, a manifesto of sorts was written, and the band’s first promotional bio consisted only of the following absurdist word salad:

Bleak romanticism / existential pathos / velvet
Metaphysical naturalism / black comedy
Personal revolution / the politics of living / personal scale
Lust / cosmologically hypnotic and moody / godspeed
Marriage of good and evil
Meaning of love and role of sex in a failing, depersonalized culture
Catharsis / celebrity name dropping / catharsis
Universal arms / zealots for popular mischief / provocation with aplomb
Arch-disco anti-surf rockabilly jazz country tango docudrama
Search for dignity amid compromise, mediocrity and dread
Corruption / life as religion / astral harlotry / drink
What’s my gender role? / white-collar crime / crime
Modern urban romance / noir / sex clown / money
A greener, sexier world
General narcissism / relative reality / choice
Surrealism in California / la luna / environmentalism of the soul
Casting into perdition sanctimonious moral oppressors
Time travel / sadomasochism for fun and profit / sexual psychology
Sympathy and irreverence
Luck

What’s not clear is whether these were “for” or “against” items in MaLT’s platform. What is abundantly evident, though, is Bright, Schulz, et al, were intent on rocking the boat, if not setting the craft into free drift with a well placed wrench in the gears.

For a more complete dissection of Myself a Living Torch and their ideological rabble-rousing, see: www.jeffreyalanbright.com/single-post/2019/05/14/the-curious-case-of-myself-a-living-torch

And keep warmly in your thoughts this dimly lit room where a faint flame still flickers…