Art + Expansion + Focus
Year of Kings. Day 187. Still working on the graphic for the double single release. “Heart of Stone” is about as classic mountain country as can be - but Divas is total B52s foolishness. And both those influences are part of Dark City Kings’ dna.
Year of Kings. Day 188. It’s a time of both expansion and focus. We’re gonna spend the evening at Craig’s place up in the mountains - new originals and old gems - taking everything from our closet and hanging it out on the front porch. At the same time we gotta figure out 10 songs we’re gonna play at The Orange Peel on January 11 and make them super tight. So - expansion and being razor focused - at the same time.
Year of Kings. Day 189. This is how we practice - I don’t know how any other band does it?? We squeeze 8 people into Craig’s old bedroom in his old family house on a dirt road up in the mountains. We get two Kevins. We drink an adequate amount of beer and 1 flask of rum. We play for 3 hours. All originals. Usually there are 1-2 new songs. We play each song 1-2-3 times - and it sounds better as we go. Then it feels like it’s only 5 minutes gone but it’s actually 11 o’clock and we have to go back to the real world.
Year of Kings. Day 190. Dark City Kings first album “porch” was about coming to terms with mountain music. If you live here, play music, do this thing, then mountain music / blue grass - that’s for tourists. In my not-humble opinion. You wanna hear what the people who are living here, doing this art thing for real, what they’re writing for themselves and their friends? Go to the punk clubs. But there is an older music than the cleaned up version of blue grass for the tourists. There’s the Carter Family, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Lucinda Williams - people who are beyond real. Our first album was about reaching towards those lights. Now we’re writing our second album - and????
Year of Kings. Day 191. Totally - no question about it - just an amazing addition. Lead guitarist who adds rhythmic sophistication? Yup. Adds Groove? Yup. Somehow Dark City Kings has added some amazing musicians - super talent - who listen so intently - listening for the essence of a song before they start playing a note. Listening to the energy in the room.
Year of Kings. Day 192. We’re playing at The Orange Peel on January 11 with Aunt Vicki and Fashion Bath. These are good bands with good songs. We have good songs. I want to make this a successful night for The Orange Peel, for these bands, so The Orange Peel will continue to have local showcases, so people will understand that the local music scene is real. You see - a good show - a great show - helps everyone. I have plans to make this happen which I’ll explain tomorrow, and then we’ll see how it goes.
Year of Kings. Day 193. Show 19. Black Mountain Brewing - 2pm. This is where we’re our loosest. We used to play at Black Mountain Brewing every Sunday - outdoors - all through the winter. We’d play a short set and when our hands were too cold and numb to hold the chords we’d take a break, run over to a nearby bar, down shots to warm up, and run back over to play another set.
