Aim + Porch Songs
Year of Kings. Day 166. The aim? I have one year to get The Dark City Kings to open for Lucinda Williams. And how do we get there? Write good songs. Record good songs. Play good shows. Get played on the radio. Get a few write-ups in the music press. But… also…. find a way to be friends with Lucinda Williams booking agency!
Year of Kings. Day 167. We are a light-hearted bunch, goofy, laughing. But underneath the surface this has meaning. Our songs tell stories. They’re about moments in our lives. Feelings that are true. Our covers resonate. Our originals are all anchored in the world. A line, a chorus, a story - shimmers and glows. We are conjuring energy. Our laughter and our tears are just an outpouring of this energy, that we can no longer contain in our vessel.
Year of Kings. Day 168. We released four singles from the album - and we have four additional tracks on the album. I want give these tracks a little attention. Catch A Train is song about a person who can’t even seem to get on the train and get out of this small lawless town. I was always fascinated with the narrative of one person leaving and one person staying - like the 1950s movie “Billy Liar” with Julie Christie and the short story “Trilobites” by Breece D’J Pancake. I sent a few lines over to JR - a bit of a verse and a bit of a chorus - and then he came over to my porch with a fully written song. It’s excellent - https://thedarkcitykings.bandcamp.com/track/catch-a-train
Year of Kings. Day 169. Sometimes you strum G, C and D chords and open your mouth and see what comes out. I guess the song “Catholic School” is about how being an adult feels a lot like middle school these days and being on stage is just like being the naughtiest kid in the class and showing off for a girl and a lot of my friends are ex-Catholics and they are all badly behaved. Craig and Colleen sing it because they are the biggest cut-ups in Dark City Kings. Catholic School: https://thedarkcitykings.bandcamp.com/track/catholic-school
Year of Kings. Day 170. We practice in Craig’s old home, on a dirt road in the Swannanoa Mountains, with his BB gun collection on the wall. Drinking? Drinking? Drinking was a song before Dark City Kings was formed. I’d been to a Skunk Ruckus show and heard how they brought traditional sounds into their songs. I was a punk who also adored The Waterboys - so I wanted to try that sound too. I’d been living in the mountains for 20 years and this was the first song I was brave enough to talk about living in the mountains. Drinking: https://thedarkcitykings.bandcamp.com/track/drinking
Year of Kings. Day 171. The last song we released with the “Porch” Ep is “Trails.” Trails? It was part of that burst of songwriting about Black Mountain being a lawless town. This is a ghost story - of seeing a girl up on a trail in a snow storm and wandering those trails to find her again. The song nearly didn’t happen. It’s a C-chord, a little F-chord, and back to C-chord. It’s so simple. But JR kept pushing for it. https://thedarkcitykings.bandcamp.com/track/trails
Year of Kings. Day 172. Show 18. Black Mountain Brewing. Code name: Valhalla. Me and my friends have renamed this bar Valhalla. The hall of the brave. Who is to say that this is not heaven? And that when we meet over a drink or a meal that this is not Valhalla? That we were not brave warriors in a previous life? Black Mountain Brewing - 2pm. In my head I’m promising that we will be well behaved. In my heart I know we will be rowdy and laughing and having too much fun.
Year of Kings. Day 173. You can almost see it - right behind Merlin - he’s building his own amp out of different parts and different kits. It’s also a metaphor for our music - for just inventing, trying things out, finding a space and a gang that’s like - yeah - sure - try it - go for it - we’re excited to see what happens next.
Year of Kings. Day 174. I say this is all just processing life. I feel sorry for people who don’t have music or don’t have art. I feel sorry for those people with yachts that search for hobbies and ways to spend their money. I’m always just trying to find pockets of time to create. Trying to be open and then sharing it with my friends and then being a gang up on stage. The greatest act of resistance is to choose to do something foolish, to spend our time doing something that has no value.
Year of Kings. Day 175. We’re playing with the metaphor of color. Our recent release “Porch” was claiming the mountain stories and mountain sounds as our own. It was referencing the history and the legends of the region. Color is the next question - but what does this music and this sound mean today? Our new songs are reporting on what is happening right now. Brighter. Poppier. Going from black and white and sepia tones into the technicolor of today and tomorrow.
Year of Kings. Day 176. Show 19. The Railyard. Kicking off a little early - with a 6:30 start. Running though 8pm. We’re gonna just stand in a corner like an Irish pub band and go acoustic. Have a couple of drinks and a couple of laughs. Come join us.
Year of Kings. Day 177. We played at The Railyard from 6:30 to 8. It was so warm that we played outside on their big stage. Then Kevin Moloney came along and we moved over to a side room and played him our new originals from 9-11. I have a personality type that is always looking for - what’s next? But I have to pause this morning and drink some coffee and think - yeah - such a nice kind gang - playing on a big stage - playing songs for Kevin Moloney into the night. Yeah. That’s good. Yeah.
Year of Kings. Day 178. So what happened? After the show on Thursday night we gathered in a side room with Kevin Moloney. Some of us sat and some of us stood. We have about a dozen new originals. 3-4 are in good shape, 3-4 are like 75%, and 3-4 are just being formed. There’s a bunch of beer being pushed around. It’s low power. No mics. Acoustic violin. Kevin moves to sit next to Kyrie to hear the violin. Leans forward to hear the melody and words when Colleen is singing. He takes notes in his book. Some songs hit better than others. He asks questions about the songs that seem to be working. Asks to hear a song again - keep the same arrangement. Afterwards we sit around and joke that we should be a glam band and wear platform heels and a lot of glitter.
