Fire + Truth + Beauty
Year of Kings. Day 208. Coming out of punk - are there elements of punk still in here? When we lose all the abrasive noise and attitude - is this still punk? I guess Blondie is the answer - or Duran Duran - or The Cure - or The Waterboys - or Nick Cave - all these bands that came out of punk and had the DIY attitude and refused to be shaped by anyone else, refused to have their vision watered-down. Punk? Yeah. Punk because we’re still trying to be true.
Year of Kings. Day 209. For the Orange Peel song on January 11 we have to play a 40-45 min set. On Saturday we ran through a set of songs. It was good but we have to cut a couple. There’s still time to see if other songs are catching fire and we want to re-arrange this list. I like to think this is just the start of playing on stages like The Orange Peel so this set list is a snap shot of what is hitting, what is most fun to play, what gets the most attention right now.
Year of Kings. Day 210. Show 23. The Railyard. 7pm. I feel like causing some trouble tonight…
Year of Kings. Day 211. Radio play? Yes - Dark City Kings are back on the radio in South Africa. We ran our potential Orange Peel set on Saturday night: 50 minutes. Then we cut two songs and added a song and played the set at The Railyard last night: 56 minutes. Oh boy. We’re aiming for 45 mins max. More songs to be cut.
Year of Kings. Day 212. I read all these articles and interviews about Sinead O’Connor and Shane MacGowan, and they were blessed with knowing themselves, knowing their voice. They breathed fire and truth and beauty. What do we know? Dark City Kings seem… sillier… lighter. I love - most of all - punks who wrote love songs. This is what I listen to: The Cure, New Order, The Waterboys. Maybe we are punks who write love songs. We write songs about the poetry of Saturday night.
Year of Kings. Day 213. We restarted this band about 6 months ago - got two new members. At that time, on the surface, it was just normal, just taking one step in front of the other, keeping on going down the path. But you can’t just interchange musicians - they are going to change the very dna of the band. Now we’re almost a different animal.
Year of Kings. Day 214. I’m one of those annoying people at practice - people are tuning up, setting up mics, and I’m playing with chords. It only rewards this bad behavior to have Merlin say “what are you playing?” and then Colleen say “let’s work on that.” We play the chords. I can almost hear the first line - like it’s being blown on the wind. Then I hear a second line. Colleen is singing. A second voice, a counter point to the main melody, and Bayla starts singing that. I have no idea what happens in the chorus - so I’m relieved that Colleen calls out two chords and sings some words to find the melody. I throw out a line, a lyric. And, suddenly, there’s a song - like it’s been there all the time - and we were just listening to the wind.
Year of Kings. Day 215. Dark City Kings is playing with Aunt Vicki and Fashion Bath at the Orange Peel on Jan 11. Posters up? Yes. Mountain Xpress giving us some coverage - probably. Aunt Vicki on Asheville FM. Dark City Kings on The River. Still working on other ways to get the word out. Facebook? Facebook? Aunt Vicki made an event page but it isn’t letting me invite friends. Will figure this out today….
