Growing and Changing

Year of Kings. Day 340. I was trying to explain to a friend that the most exciting thing about Dark City Kings - for me - as a band - is that we’re still growing and changing. The sound now is different from our sound six months ago is different from our sound a year ago. And I don’t know where this is going.

Year of Kings. Day 341. I had a dream and in that dream there was some music playing on a radio. I stopped to listen to the song. It wasn’t a song I’d heard before. It wasn’t a Dark City Kings song. It was really catchy. In the dream I told myself that it must be my song - and I could take it. So I listened to the song and learned the words and the melody and sang the chorus over and over - and then I wrenched myself out of sleep. It was 5am. I lay in bed and sang the chorus to myself until the sky grew lighter and I got out of bed and found my phone and wrote down the words.

Year of Kings. Day 342. A band is just a group of people who show up and show up and show up. A band is just a group of people who make being in the band a priority. The practices and the shows - it isn’t work or a chore - it’s one of the funnest things in life. Being in a band is the dessert of life. Being in a band is being the naughtiest kids at school. Being in a band is a stage to present your true self.

Year of Kings. Day 343. That’s one badass drummer.

Year of Kings. Day 344. Show 31. Black Mountain Brewing tonight at 7pm. We play some Porch songs on their back porch and some covers too - but we’re also gonna start sharing all the new songs we recorded with @kevin.moloney.music. This is like our soft launch to our summer season of shows.

Year of Kings. Day 345. Back on stage again. The next version of Dark City Kings is louder and sweatier and will make you move and will break your heart into a million pieces.

Year of Kings. Day 346. When we get to the end of the year - day 365 - I’m gonna have to repitch my management role for DCK and my vision for how we grow in the next year. I do have a vision for what happens next - and so I’m selling - and we’ll see if they’re buying…

Year of Kings. Day 347. Looking forward to the summer, summer shows, warmer weather, humidity, packed rooms, every piece of clothing soaked through with sweat, room rattling, condensation dripping from the ceiling.

Year of Kings. Day 348. It’s kind of our duty to shine and be delinquents and make art and get up on stage and create a joyful noise and aim at our best idea of fun and beauty. If this is a real world or this is a strange dystopian dream - the aim is still make fun music delinquent art!

Year of Kings. Day 349. Finding a label is a process. We have the recordings that @kevin.moloney.music produced - and then I send the songs out by email and on thumb drives. And it feels like we’re just sitting on the them. A friend suggested - and I think they’re right - we can send out a couple of tracks to underground publications and get some media going. I’ll keep you all posted. Never Mind The Broadcast is gonna play one of our tracks in May.

Year of Kings. Day 350. We have an old homestead on a dirt road up in the Swannanoa Mountains. Its a perfect place to practice and write new music. It’s such a magic place - especially in the spring.

Year of Kings. Day 351. Show at One World Brewing West moved from May 18 to June 16. Show this Saturday at The Railyard in Black Mountain, 3:30, Merlin’s birthday. We’re transitioning to drums and full indie underground rock band - so it will be a bit of a different stage show starting this summer.

Year of Kings. Day 352. Show 32. The Railyard. 3pm. Merlin’s birthday! Kind and gracious and a fantastic listener, musician, co-creator.