Landing a record deal was once every rock band’s dream. However, as Absinthe Junk learned, some record labels can do more harm than good.

“There was a label involved on the last album, and they tried to bring in some outside mix engineers,” said Dayton native Patrick Himes, who is lead guitarist and producer for the Nashville-based band. “Without even hearing the mix at all they wanted us by default to use sound replacer on the drums and timeline everything to the grid and all that crap.

“Man, come on, let’s not,” he said. “I don’t believe in that. Eventually, what ended up on the actual last record (“Living Ghost”) was still, mostly, mine, but this record (“Death in the Afternoon”) was completely us.”

Absinthe Junk is thriving on its own. Himes (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Blair Smart (vocals, violin, keyboards), Matt Arseneau (bass) and Ben Bruno (drums) celebrate their new self-released album at Blind Bob’s in Dayton on Saturday.

“We spent two years on the record, which actually turned out to be good timing,” Himes said. “It gave us time to really become a band, and it was nice to not have the stress of getting it done at a certain time. It was a pretty involved record, so we didn’t want to get sick of it.

“We love the record, but I think we do because we were able to spend so much time nitpicking,” he said. “If we didn’t feel like working on it that day, we wouldn’t. We didn’t want to hold a grudge, because we knew we had a really good record here.”

The album does sound great. Where “Living Ghost” offered 10 individual portraits of a band finding its sound, “Death in the Afternoon” is focused, dynamic and thoroughly engaging. Absinthe Junk released the project on CD and vinyl with money raised through an online KickStarter campaign.

“It was overwhelmingly successful,” Himes said. “It’s kind of weird to go, ‘Here, give us money for this.’ You have to look at it like they’re pre-paying for product. They will get it, but you can make it a little bit more fun, and then they feel more a part of the process.

“Out of all the albums I’ve worked on or been part of as a player, this is the first time I’ve ever been in a band that has released vinyl, so I’m pretty excited about that,” Himes added. “I’m not a vinyl snob, but I kind of am. We got them in the other day, and I’m very, very pleased.”