Track Listing (1-4)
Love Is Punk. Track 1: Anxiety 7. A love song to night terrors and growing and pushing beyond the boundaries the world has set for us.
Year of Queens. Day 36. Trying to give you some context for the tracks on Love Is Punk. Track 1. Anxiety #7. This is the first track because @kevin.moloney.music said Sinead O’Connor wouldn’t pick the most obvious pop song for the first track on her albums. She’d elevate the track that was slightly different, that was personal to her. Anxiety #7 was written about a time of change and growth. I’d seen the Dirty Badgers playing the night before and I was trying to write something on the bass. Anxiety #7 happened. Colleen and I have carried this song around for years and it didn’t work with various bands and various line-ups. Then Merlin heard it and added a groove so it wasn’t a slow folk song anymore. We invited @kebbage.buggs to the studio and he wanted to play guitar - but we got him to play guitar and keyboards on this track. Now I think it’s just magical.
Year of Queens. Day 37. Track 2: Trouble. This has already been released on Bandcamp: https://thedarkcitykings.bandcamp.com/track/trouble. I’m a terrible band member. When everyone is trying to set up and tune I’m playing around with chords. One time Merlin said: “hey what are you playing?” So we played the riff over and over. I started mumbling some nonsense with Colleen until it began to form words and melody. We had no chorus until Colleen said play these two chords for the chorus. I found some words: didn’t know how much trouble - we’d get into! Bayla and Craig started singing along. But it was still kind of thin until Kyrie grabbed it and added the massive intertwined violin riff.
Song 3: True Believer. We wanted to get Shane McGowan’s blessing.
Year of Queens. Day 38. Song 3: True Believer. We love The Waterboys and The Pogues but I’ve never been able to figure out “drop-d” tuning and reels and jigs. This is us burning sage to the ghost of Shane McGowan. This is us leaning into thousands of years of DNA and ancestors. Killer double guitar and fiddle riff!
Dark City Kings. Love Is Punk. Song 4: Party Clothes. It’s important to think about what clothes you’re gonna wear to a party.
Year of Queen. Day 39. Love is Punk. Song 4: Party Clothes. @kevin.moloney.music started hanging out with Dark City Kings last fall. We’d hang out at shows and he’d come to our practices. He’d sit in a chair and take notes as we played - and then we played Party Clothes (written by Colleen) and he got up and started dancing around the room. “The kids will love this!” he exclaimed.
