Year of Kings - The Beginning

Dark City Kings day 1: hi - this is JP. I’m in the Dark City Kings. In the real world I’m an activist, writer, director of short documentaries. I always wanted to film a band, follow them closely for a year, document them as they write music, record music, play shows, interact with the music scene, get played on radio, book at bigger venues, get written up, get onto a label… So this is day 1 of the actual story of Dark City Kings this year. We’re finishing recording our first album and we’re about to release it - this is our story.
Year With DCK: Day 2. Who am I? Who is the narrator? I am JP. One of those kids that grew up in the 80s and 90s - and MTV - and all the good music was underground, college radio or friends shared with me. New Order and The Cure in high school. Jesus and Mary Chain. I had one of those older brothers who knew everything about music. My freshman college roommate had The Pixies and The Waterboys. The guy across the hall from my first apartment in NYC had Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle. I played very little, took a month of guitar lessons, knew 4 chords (G,E,D,C). About 10 years ago I just went for it, just admitted my deep love of music, and went for it. I’m one of those people that falls in love with a song and listens to it over and over and over again. I wanted to figure out how to do that.

Following the Dark City Kings for one year. Day 3: Dark City Kings? Dark City? What? Why? Where did the name come from? We play music in Black Mountain, NC, a small town outside of Asheville, located in the Southern Appalachians. It’s known for Black Mountain College, a tiny art school that ran from the 1930s to the 1950s and influenced or invented abstract expressionism, happenings, and a bunch of other significant art forms. But this isn’t so important. Artists are artists. Delinquent kids are delinquent kids. About 30 years ago the local high school kids nicknamed Black Mountain “the Dark City.” So the Dark City is the delinquent local nickname for Black Mountain - like Dog Town is the delinquent local name for Santa Monica. So, yeah, we’re the Kings of Dark City….

A Year with the Dark City Kings. Day 4. Stories flow forwards and backwards, like the tide. Life moves forwards and tries to break free of the past. Dark City Kings emerged out of the end of another band, crawled out of the sea, found ways to play once a week through COVID - but this is the year of moving forward and heading into new territory. Think of us like an early dinosaur fish washed up on a beach. We have nearly finished recording our first album.... here we are doing backing vocals in the studio... Monday is the last day of recording...

DCK Year 1. Day 5. Back on November 13, 2020 the Egg Eaters played their last show. I was on stage that night with Colleen, Craig, Bayla. On December 13, 2020 I was playing on the outdoor balcony of a brewery in Black Mountain with Colleen, Bayla, Craig. We didn’t have a name yet - but it was born. It was the best of times - do we have 6 songs we can play for a first set? Do we have another 6 songs we can play for a second set? Were we even cohesive enough to get to the end of a single song? Oh boy. Better drink a bunch of beers… and here we go…. (no DCK show at Black Mountain Brewing this afternoon.)

Year In The Life of DCK. Day 6. I guess I’d just like to add one thing about the inception process of Dark City King: we purposely had no plan. After making it through the break-up of the Egg Eaters we had no plan. We didn’t even call this a band for a while. It was just good people with good energy getting together on Sunday afternoons and making music. People could jump in, play a mini-set, sit in with us. Anyone could try anything. Every idea was good. We would crack each other up. If we weren’t great musicians we would be great conductors of good energy. We would have the best time. And the people who stuck around became the band.

Year of Kings. Day 7. We were supposed to finish recording in the studio last night - but here’s a truth about being in a band: it’s hard to arrange a 7 person band and a producer. Musicians are like cats in a sack - a challenge to get them all in the same place at the same time. Tonight Bayla, Craig, Kyrie and Colleen are heading over to Kevin Boggs studio to finish up the recording. We’re getting closer. We’ll probably release a single, maybe two singles, before the full album release.

Year of Kings: Day 8. I’ve been told I remember this wrong. I thought JR came to our second show - but Colleen says he was there on December 6. I’ve known JR for years and years, on the soccer field, socially. He’s really easy to get along with and if we were on the same team or on opposing teams we’d find ourselves hanging out after the game. He was also good friends with Big John the owner of Black Mountain Brewing and I’d heard him play solo sets. So I invited him along to play a solo set. Then Dark City Kings played a set. Then we figured out what songs we could play together - and we played a set. That was my crafty way of getting JR to join our band.

Year of Kings: Day 9. I knew Joe from a connection with Holy Crap Records and Musicians for Overdose Prevention. I could have the timeline wrong - about a month into our weekly shows Joe came along and quietly watched and I told him to bring his guitar the following week. Joe is the best rhythm guitar player in the world. He makes every song sound full and have a groove and a swing. He’s a hell of a performer too. A band is formed by a gang of people who show up and play together. It’s that simple. Other people came up on stage and played with us - but this core gang stuck together and formed a band.

Year of Kings: Day 10. We finished recording. This is Bayla. They were back in the studio to sing the chorus for “Ain’t No Place” with Craig. We have a strange mix of voices. JR sings the high end. Colleen sings in the middle range. Bayla and Craig take the low end. I can’t harmonize to save my life so I keep quiet unless the song needs a drunken yelling part. Bayla and Craig sounded so good so our producer Kevin Boggs had them add additional chorus vocals to “Come Away” too.

Year of Kings: Day 11. Black Mountain Brewing. BMB. The BMB. The Bomb. Valhalla. Duran Duran had the Rum Runners club and we have Black Mountain Brewing - a place to be the house band, a place to play every week for two years, in the freezing bitter cold, in the hazy August heat, with monsoons raining around us. People ask me - how do you book shows? Well - Matt and Big John own the brewery and have been my best friends for 20 years. Also help move in the massive beer containers, hang Christmas lights, manage the fundraiser for the mural on the outside wall. And then show up every week and have fun. That’s how we got to be the house band for BMB.

Year of Kings: Day 12. I believe in magic. I believe in things that are just beyond coincidence. I’ve seen doors open and doors close. And the Dark City Kings have played outdoor shows for 2 years at Black Mountain Brewing and it has never rained. Sure we’ve had a 5 minute downpour in the summer - but no more than that. Go back and check the weather charts - two years - and no rain on Sunday afternoons. Somethings were meant to be. - now it is raining today - but we’re not playing today - we’re playing next Friday night at the brewery.

Year of Kings: Day 13. One evening me, Craig and Colleen were practicing in the rooms above the brewery. There’s communal space and offices for PubCorps and Black Mountain Brewing. Kyrie stuck her head out of an office. She said she played a little piano and fiddle - so we invited her to jump in with us that next Sunday. I told Big John and Big John said: “Do you know who she is? She went to college for music composition.” Kyrie showed up on Sunday and played a 2 hour show with us, no practice, everything by ear.

King for a Year: Day 14. We finished our recording. After a couple years playing together we probably have enough originals for two albums - but we went with our mountain songs. Mountain songs? I don’t know what’s wrong with me - but I didn’t want to just be a cover band. You know what’s wrong with me? I’m a writer - and a little crazy. I wanted to be more than a cover band. I wanted to be a gang like badass train robbers and gamblers from the mountains. Our moment of inception? Our big bang ? Colleen said: “Dark City Kings? Who are we? Always gambling - always losing.” And suddenly a whole album of songs appeared.

Year of Kings: Day 15. When you play at a bar or a brewery there’s two given choices - 1) play as background music, or 2) play loud and try to grab everyone’s attention. I think this binary system does not allow for the Dark City Kings choice - to play it like an Appalachian porch show, to play it like the back of a pub in Galway Ireland - to create a circle, for the musicians to play for each other, to truly enjoy the music, and then to slowly draw in the entire room until everyone is singing along and dancing on the tables.

Year of Kings: Day 16. We’re going to do this the old fashioned way. There’s something that just worked about releasing music back in the day. Release a single. Share with some underground labels. Share with some of those influential people in the scene. Send it to friends who book bands at the bigger breweries and bigger stages. Release another single. Get some radio play. Then have the album release - everything is up on Bandcamp and streaming platforms. Starting on Monday…. This is the Year of Kings…

Year of Kings: Day 17. We’re playing at Black Mountain Brewing tonight - 6pm. Well - half of us and some friends. Craig ain’t feeling so great - so we’ll be playing for him - and this will be 3 chord songs, a bunch of friends, sitting in the corner, having beers, slowly expanding our circle, slowly, gently expanding the circle, opening the door to our friends and anyone else on the back porch tonight.

Year of Kings. Day 18. We’re leaning into this thing - Black Mountain Music, naming this intersection of mountain music and indie, a bit like The Pogues, The Waterboys, Gogol Bordello, if they were fronted by Debbie Harry. And also embracing these ideas of Appalachian porch music, late night Irish pub music, that anyone is welcome to stand in with us, and the musicians are the initial audience before the expand to entertain the entire room. So thanks to Andy Hughes and his crew for sitting in, and David Saich too. Still working on the balance of performance. But still - it was wicked fun for everyone.

Year of Kings: Day 19. Producer Kevin Boggs. Some producers are like engineers - strap you in and record you - and some producers are creative collaborators too. Like Brian Eno and David Bowie. This is Kevin Boggs. I’ve worked with him on some songs for Holy Crap Records compilations and with Thieves Like Us. We just got back the final mixes from Kevin. Always Gambling Always Losing sounds like Guns-N-Roses playing November Rain, massive, a symphony! That’s the hit right there.

Year of Kings: Day 20. When we talk about old magic this is what we mean - we try to understand the magic that has been in these mountains for years. First single “honey bee” out this week. In the 1930s Black Mountain College opened - with a staff from the Bauhaus in Germany, fleeing the Nazis. They came to Black Mountain and made art and danced out on the massive porches of the Blue Ridge Assembly, next to my house. Yesterday I walked over and took a photo of that porch. Magic comes from artists being excited about other artists, getting inspired by other artists… so we’re playing with images for the singles and album that reference Black Mountain College.

Day 22. Booking? The plan is to release our album and play at bigger and bigger stages in Western North Carolina. It’s a numbers game. I have emails for bookers at 30 stages in the area. I send out an email twice a month just asking them to watch one of our shows or listen to one of our songs. Most of those emails don’t get seen. It’s the law of emails. Some get glanced at. One or two get read. Every time I send out 30 emails I get one response. Then we get in a conversation and see if we can find a date that works for the band. It’s all how you think about it. I know a lot of musicians who take this personally - I sent out 30 emails to bookers and got one reply! I hate this! I just think of it as a numbers game.

Year of Kings: Day 23. Bayla. This is how it started. We were in another band and playing at Black Mountain Brewing - like 4 years ago? In my bands I like a mix of experienced musicians and people who are just winging it. All the members of the Egg Eaters who were the real musicians couldn’t make it - but we kept the show. It was just Bayla, Colleen and me. I was so awful in the warm up practice. We weren’t making it to the end of the songs. They’d just kind of fall apart. But we drank some beer and played the show and this couple stuck around all afternoon and we chatted with them between sets and they were from Morgantown and said they owned some venues and we should play down there. So we had the blessing from this couple and from the small kind magic in the world to keep going. And - for some reason - Bayla brought a jar of pickled eggs and made me eat one on stage. Picked eggs are gross.

Year of Kings. Day 24. Practice? Practice? Here’s a secret - The Dark City Kings don’t practice. We meet for an hour before a show and figure out what we can play - then play a 2-3 hour show. So… as part of this Year of Kings we’re going to practice. And… write music and record music and release music and play at bigger and bigger venues and get played on the radio and written up in the music press until we reach nirvana - opening for Lucinda Williams at the Orange Peel. We went over to Craig’s last night. Started at 6:30. It felt like two seconds had gone - and then it was 8:30 and the first practice was over.

Year of Kings: Day 25. Your band is your first audience. If we’re not unbelievably excited to play the show - to think every song is going to kill - we have nothing. So we started on our mythology, because we’re storytellers, because we like to imagine that we’re more than nice people playing music at a brewery on a Sunday afternoon in a small tourist town in the Southern Appalachians. No - we are gamblers, bank robbers, heart breakers, confidence men, train robbers. We drink too much and laugh too loud and dance all night long. And Black Mountain is a lawless mountain town and our gambling debts are piling up and we just missed the morning train - again.

Year of Kings: Day 26. We keep trying to express what we are. Meet at the intersection of country and indie. We like The Cure as much as we like Johnny Cash. We like Debbie Harry as much as Lucinda Williams. The best music is true - whether it is true to the singer or the audience recognizes themselves in the song or whether there are parts of the song which are just grabbed from the ether - and it is true. That is where we are aiming - and we may not get there - but the best stories are tales when you are not sure if the lead characters are going to triumph. Sunday afternoon we’re playing at Black Mountain Brewing, 2-4. We’ll probably drink too much and laugh too loudly - and we’ll try to be true.

Year of Kings: Day 27. I think about this - what gives us the right to write songs about these mountains? I came here 20 years ago. I didn’t go to high school here - I wasn’t part of the original Scotch/Irish immigration to these mountains. I just fell in love with this world and I try my best to understand it. I was a local newspaper reporter for four years, covered the two murders, the fire at the old Beacon factory, high school football on Friday nights, know all the local politics and the politics we couldn’t print. I sat down and recorded 72 stories of people using and in recovery in the Southern Appalachians. I’m filming in the region for Dogwood. So I fell in love with these mountains and I’m trying my best to understand them. Sometimes a good storyteller, an adequate songwriter, is the immigrant, the outsider who wants to be an insider.

Year of Kings: Day 28. 30 bookers, 30 music publications, 30 college radio stations. Dark City Kings first single “honey bee” is sent off like a message in a bottle. Sometimes art gets weighed down with expectations. I send this song off with no expectations. Dark City Kings is on a path and that path has very little to do traditional rules. It’s about one person hearing “honey bee” and liking it. And then another person hearing “honey bee” and liking it.

Year of Kings. Day 29. We’re not exactly like a traditional mountain band. I mean - we are a traditional mountain band because we love the mountains and we’re trying to write music that resonates with the wildness of the land around us. But - this is Kyrie - our fiddle. Except it’s really violin. Her background is in orchestra- and she plays lonely atmospheric washes of violin - as if you took all the tears and heartbreak in the valley and turned it into music.

Year of Kings. Day 30. 3 responses to sharing the song “honey bee.” So far. There’s radio station up in Maine - WCLZ - and they responded favorably to the song. I’d like to think that Dark City Kings are big in Maine and “honey bee” is hit up north. Craig - pictured here - is looking at the price of cheap flights so DCK can tour Maine. I prefer a long long road trip. Oh there has to be fun and a sense of belief in this adventure. There’s no point saying we can’t do this. I have no time for doubt. Everything is improbable anyway - so why not believe we’re big in Maine?

Day 31. Year of Kings. Belter Radio in the UK. That’s another radio station that got back to us. We’re famous in Maine and England. This is Craig and Bayla getting birthday blondies. Cupcakes are fine - but blondies are better. My mother taught me that cooking is way to care. Momma said - catch flies with honey. Momma said - help people not money. Momma said - if they try to tell your future — well they’re just being funny.

Day 32: Year of Kings. This is strangely important to us - we don’t want to be good for you and we don’t want you to appreciate what we’re doing. I’m trying to figure out the best way to explain this feeling. We want you to have fun. Like Appalachian porch music: people drink too much, dance, talk, flirt, laugh out loud, jump in with the band, have a shot of whiskey, try a new song. There’s no separation between the band and the audience. The band isn’t doing anything special. Everyone is making the moment happen.

Yeah of Kings. Day 33. We’re the house band at Black Mountain Brewing. We used to play every week, but BMB got too popular and everyone wants to play on the back porch on Sundays - so now we play a couple of times a month. Joe Strummer says to stop practicing and get out of the basement and play in front of people - it’s never going to be perfect and you don’t know what will hit unless you play it in front of people. It’s the small details which are the tell. A little kid starts dancing. People stop talking to listen to the lyrics. Slowly, quietly the attention shifts to what we are playing and singing on stage. There’s a little shimmer of expectation and anticipation for our next song. The energy has become just a little more golden.

Year of Kings. Day 34. A few years ago I went back to college and met an old teacher of mine. I don’t really do this kind of thing, retrace my past and try to fix stuff. I was a bad student, and it was clear the professor didn’t initially recognize me. As he took me around his painting studio I could see he was slowly placing my face. He said: “you were that bounder - you were always in trouble.” I replied: “I’m so sorry. I came back here to say I was listening, even if it didn’t look like it.” The old professor shook his head: “No - if you want to be a storyteller it’s good to get into some trouble.”

Year of Kings. Day 35. There’s something about getting a gang together and doing something. I guess that’s why we have sports, game nights, go on group hikes, rob banks, gamble all night long. So we found a way to play music during Covid, outdoors, up on the balcony away from everyone, spring, summer, fall, winter. And it got so cold I couldn’t feel my fingers and didn’t know if I was holding down the chord. And then we’d have to stop and run over to a bar and get a shot of whiskey and then run back to finish our set.

Year of Kings. Day 36. Dark City Kings is a big band. That was on purpose. The twin inspirations of Gogol Bordello and The Pogues - they were both big bands. They drank too much and jumped around the stage and had many many shenanigans. The seven musicians from the recording are now five. You see - yes I will tell you the actual story of the Year of Kings. All the steps forward and all the steps back.

Year of Kings. Day 37. Sometimes when Kyrie plays fiddle I don’t want the song to stop. The best is to be playing - and also to be a fan at the same time.
Year of Kings. Day 38. I have a list of radio station contacts I’ve compiled over the years. They’re mainly college stations in the US - because I figure super enthusiastic kids are the most likely to listen to random submissions. And then I have contacts for some other radio stations - don’t know how they got on my list. Zone Radio? That’s 88.5 fm, broadcasting in the Western Cape’s Deep Southern Peninsula of a South Africa. So - yeah - Honey Bee is on an 8-week rotation on their programming mix.
Honey Bee! https://thedarkcitykings.bandcamp.com/track/honey-bee

Year of Kings. Day 39. Dance. I don’t know why I’m always thinking about how to break down the barriers between the band and the crowd. Dance. Dancing is the best way. If you dance you’re part of the show. Up in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, they have flat foot dancing - like clogging - with taps on the feet. And the band doesn’t have percussion because the dancers are the percussion section. If you’re dancing you’re part of the band!

Year of Kings. Day 40. The shed. Four years ago I sat in that shed with my guitar. Everyday for a month I played and stomped my feet. Didn’t write any songs. I just wanted to get better with rhythm. I needed to own the beat. Four years later I’m back to the shed. I want to learn the 6/8 of traditional Irish music like it’s breathing. I want to learn the Bo Diddley beat like I was born with it in my blood.

Year of Kings. Day 41. A slight re-adjustment in the game. This year Dark City Kings will… 1) record - done that, 2) get played on the radio - done that, 3) play the bigger brewery stages - shows lined up. Yawn. I like the game to be really easily defined and a true challenge. This is it: opening for Lucinda Williams. By the end of this year Dark City Kings will open for Lucinda Williams.

Year of Kings. Day 42. Truth? 10 years ago I wrote an imaginary diary. In that story I jumped a train in Asheville, headed west, played at open mics in Knoxville, Nashville, joined a gang of musical misfits, kept going to play in juke joints around Memphis, Clarksdale where the first r-n-r song was written, visited the crossroads at midnight where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil, got in an imaginary fight in Jackson, and finally down to New Orleans, where my band opened for Lucinda Williams. So yeah - I’m serious about Dark City Kings opening for Lucinda Williams this year.

Year of Kings. Day 43. Ok. Opening for Lucinda Williams? What is the first problem? Me. I alway undersell us. I introduce DCK, I tell stories about DCK, I speak about DCK, like we aren’t the best band in North Carolina. We can’t get to open for Lucinda Williams because of luck or trickery. First I have to know in the depth of my dna that we have the best songs and best performances - so Lucinda Williams will be like WE HAVE TO GET DCK TO OPEN FOR US! If I don’t believe it… well…. Oh lawd…. Thankfully I do believe we have the best songs and the best show. I’ve just got to stop being such a polite wuss and strut and swagger all the time…

Year of Kings. Day 44. Beware. On JR’s birthday we made him a blondie cake - because blondies taste better than cupcakes. We sang “happy birthday” and Kyrie ate half her blondie before the show. After the show she went back to finish her blondie - but it was all gone. Beware. This band will make you blondies for your birthday - but also eat your blondie if you leave it half-eaten and hanging around backstage. No manners.

Year of Kings: Day 45. In my life I have two anxiety dreams. One is I’m back at school - but it’s summer vacation and everyone is telling me there’s a big test today? Second - I’m on stage with a guitar in hand and I don’t know what I’m doing. I haven’t had that second dream in a couple of years. I know what I’m doing. We know what we’re doing.

Year of Kings. Day 46. We had some original songs at the start - but we hadn’t done writing together. We’d talked about our Dark City Kings mythology: lawless mountain town, train robbers, bank robbers, broken hearts, getting into trouble… And one day Colleen said - “always gambling, always losing” - and then the door opened, like a door in the sky opened, like a door in the basement we’d never seen before, and all these songs came rushing out.

Year of Kings: Day 47. Always Gambling Always Losing. So Colleen first said the phrase - “always gambling always losing” - and I took that and wrote lyrics about a person who is always losing late night card games and always missing the train out of this small lawless mountain town. I sent the lyrics over to JR. Then JR came over a couple days later, sat on my porch, had chords and a melody. He sang it at the start. Then I came in and sang the middle section. Now Colleen sings the middle part.

Year of Kings. Day 48. Always Gambling Always Losing. https://thedarkcitykings.bandcamp.com/album/always-gambing-always-losing - the second single from the upcoming release is out. I’m going to wait until the 5th before I send it on to radio stations and publications. No one’s doing anything over the holiday - but having fun - maybe having a few drinks - maybe dancing to some music… maybe some fireworks…

Year of Kings: Day 49. The band is the primary audience. I try to entertain them. I try to take a step back and look at the larger picture. It’s amazing that there’s a group of friends who will play these songs. Its amazing to have people who will write songs with me. It’s such an act of kindness. To practice and play and weave their art together with my art and then stand up on stage and play that song and say - this is what we believe in. I am grateful.

Year of Kings. Day 50. Stumble awake. Regret last night’s behavior. Make amends. Listen to melancholy music and look out at the mist and fog of early morning. Think about writing happy music. Make coffee and breakfast for everyone in the house. Write happy music. It’s been a few weeks since our last show and I miss it.

Year of Kings. Day 51. So this thing happened. Dark City Kings booked our album release show at - I think - the oldest and most famous venue in Asheville. Nice - right? Then yesterday the booker got back to me and said - a bigger band wanted that date and could we move dates? Of course. Sure. Do they have another date? So the booker said - yeah, how about August 5, Saturday night, in the middle of the first year of the Asheville Music Festival? So this is happening. This is really happening.

Year of Kings. Day 52. Sent out our second single “Always Gambling” to 30 music venues, 30 music publications, 30 radio stations. This is what the email looks like. If I know the booker, the DJ, the editor - then I personalize it and check in with them, thank them for their support. I got into a conversation with one booker (at the most fun stage I’ve ever played on) about maybe creating a local showcase. I had another venue ask for our rate. Well, we’ve been paid $400 a show and we’ve been paid with free beer - which is also around $400 because we drink like fish.

Year of Kings. Day 53. So this is where we are. Dark City Kings has booked some bigger shows starting in half a month. There were 7 people in the band and now there are 5. I’ve been thinking about a bigger sound for the bigger shows. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe not bigger. Just - when we did our recording our producer Kevin Boggs added some honky-tonk piano to some of the tracks and I really liked that sound. So just thinking…

Year of Kings. Day 54. Here we go. Our aims were to record and release an album. Get played on the radio. Play at the bigger stages. Open for Lucinda Williams. But here is the biggest aim of all: we all know that feeling - it doesn’t happen very often - of seeing a live band and getting into it and grabbing your friends for the next show. We want that. We have started at one place and we will be at another entirely different place when this all ends.

Year of Kings. Day 55. I give Craig a hug every show. Craig is a spirit from an old world. In the Scotch/Irish tradition there are “thin places” where heaven and earth are a little closer. Craig is where the mystical and the real collide and then busts into laughter. This whole thing is about Craig beating on his box and smiling and having the best time. We are energy artists. We are light artists. We artists of the heart. Craig keeps us true.

Year of Kings. Day 56. I’ve been having a couple of interesting conversations recently - and been asked to describe our sound. I fall back to saying we’re indie and country/mountain - we like Debbie Harry and Lucinda Williams, we like Robert Smith and Steve Earle. But I’d love to have a simpler, catchier description? Flirting music? Saturday night poetry? I don’t know? Please help out.

Year of Kings. Day 57. I have been away from the mountains. I sat in a shed for three weeks and tried to learn the Bo Diddley beat and and the Irish 6/8 rhythm. How’d it work? We’ll see. Nothing is perfect when I step on stage - I’m just trying to take a step toward fun and being real. This Sunday we start up again - Black Mountain Brewing at 2pm.

Year of Kings. Day 58. Black Mountain pulls me back. The energy vortex. The thin place where the heaven and earth are closer. Where everyone is in a band. Where no one is surprised if you dance until midnight. Where all the bars are owned by my friends and I haven’t paid for a drink in years. Where you can be a delinquent for your entire life. Where shooting stars fall from the sky and Saturday night poetry hums in the air. I am drawn back to Black Mountain.

Year of Kings. Day 59. Back to Black Mountain. Poets and painters walk the streets. Every night is a spaghetti dinner - and you can lay down in the long grass and take an afternoon nap without any bugs biting you. There’s gummy fruit hanging off the trees and the bears pick up their own garbage. Everyone owns their own clay pipe to smoke on porches and blow smoke rings in the twilight. And the crows come and whisper secret messages in your ear.
Year of Kings. Day 60. Getting our poster out there for our show at Southern Appalachian Brewery in Hendersonville, NC, next Saturday. We’re making a run at it.
Day 61. Year of Kings. Show 3. 2pm at Black Mountain Brewing. I’m going to keep track of the number of shows this year. I bet we’ll play 30-40 shows. The pace is starting to pick up. Show 3? David and Merlin are gonna sit in with us. Sofia’s going to guest vocal for a few songs. Andy’s band is opening for us. It’s really a show to listen and see what’s working - so we can lean into the good stuff and build on during our next run of shows. We have one new original that the band is really getting into.
Year of Kings. Day 62. Show 3. A packed house and lots of family and friends. Shaking off the dust from a month of not playing. Moments when everyone is watching and listening and sharing the energy… and moments when it wasn’t clicking, when the more complex songs were harder to pull off… and when things were working the band felt like such a unit… also new Dark City Kings t-shirts!
Year of Kings. Day 63. We’re just trying to communicate. We’re just trying to connect. We’re just trying to sing a song with a melody that’s so simple you can remember it and sing it in your shower. We’re just trying to find a line of words that are true - and you recognize the truth in them. We’re just trying to find some happiness on stage - because people don’t want to see people trying to be cool - they want to see people having the best time.
Year of Kings. Day 64. Sometimes we like to have a few drinks and then launch into a song that we only 3/4s know and see if we can get to the end. There’s something to the adrenalin of getting up on stage - and then it gets magnified by seeing if we’ll actually make it or fall apart completely.
Year of Kings. Day 65. Going to practice at Craig’s tonight. Practice is the fastest two hours of my life. I sit down. Immediately it feels like the hours are gone. I stand up and get in my car and leave. Hopefully something happens and we start to develop a language between the band members and we start to push and pull at the songs and own them…
Year of Kings. Day 66. I’ll be honest. Last Sunday’s show was a little rougher than expected. I’ll be honest. Last night’s practice? Better than expected. We’re a big band by design because we want a big sound - but that also means everyone has to be listening so we’re not playing over each other and creating soup. Last night was good. Also - new songs? The band is taking ownership, building them up, creating something better. You can just tell - looking around the circle - that something is happening.
Day 67. Year of Kings. Show 4. Southern Appalachian Brewery, Hendersonville NC. 7pm. I like the strangeness. The magic. Kyrie plays classical orchestral violin - not fiddle. She’s playing her high tech electric violin at Craig’s on Thursday night by his collection of BB guns, in Craig’s family home on a dirt road up in the mountains. Yeah that’s magic. And yeah - come out to see us play tonight - we have the best songs.
Day 68. Year of Kings. Show 4. Southern Appalachian Brewery (instagram @sabrewery) Couldn’t be nicer and sweeter people. After our first set a woman came up to the stage and said: “you guys are great - I’m sorry more people aren’t here to see you.” The Year of Kings is about doing this music thing the old-fashioned way, making one person happy at a time.
Year of Kings. Day 69. Thank you. Some people are super nice and help make the local music scene fun and cool. So thank you to Ron at WNC Original Music (great podcast and information) and Kelly at Southern Appalachian Brewery. We had such a good time at her venue we invited her into our post show band photo! Thank you!
Year of Kings. Day 70. So where are we? We have a show at Jack-of-the-Wood on August 5th. It’s not the biggest music venue in Asheville but it’s one of the most historically significant music venues. If we play a good show there - more doors will open for us. What are the challenges? We’re adding new members. We’re trying to be less of a music review and more of a band - where that magic happens and the combined sound and energy is way more than the sum of its parts. Yup. Practice tonight.
Year of Kings. Day 71. So this is the thing. We play for two hours at Black Mountain Brewery. We played for two hours at Southern Appalachian Brewery. When we play at Jack-of-the-Wood it’s from 9-12. Three hours. So we’re writing and learning new songs. This is the best. I love this stuff.
Year of Kings. Day 72. Hug Craig. Give him a kiss on the top of his head. Every time I see him. Craig is the magic of the band.
Year of Kings. Day 73. What’s happening on the creative side? We talk about our country and mountain influences - The Carter Family and Lucinda Williams - less about our indie influences of Robert Smith and Debbie Harry. But there’s something happening in practices and this group of people that naturally leans back to indie. And what I mean by this is - melody, catchy hooks…. What I mean by this is - pop!
Year of Kings. Day 74. In some ways it’s easier for the mad ones. I’m always so impressed by individuals who clearly declare themselves artists and know 100% that their art is worth pushing out to the world. Dark City Kings story is different - it wasn’t a band, it wasn’t anything, just friends playing to no one on cold winter afternoons through Covid. We all told ourselves it didn’t mean anything. But we were lying. It does mean something. We are trying to take that light that is buried deep inside ourselves and share it with the world. Sometimes it doesn’t work and we rage and we ache. And sometimes it does work - and we laugh with joy.
Year of Kings. Day 75. Show 5. Black Mountain Brewing - 2pm. Two of my best friends own it. I helped carry in the vats for brewing, hung Christmas lights at the holidays. The brewery has been open for 5 years - this Tuesday. First, they let my previous band the Egg Eaters play on the back porch. Then, about three years ago, the Dark City Kings started on that porch. During Covid we played outside, up on the balcony, five feet apart, every Sunday. It never rains on Sunday afternoons - check the weather reports. It has been cold - I remember my hands getting so numb I couldn’t tell my fingers to hold down a chord. So - yeah - Black Mountain Brewing is like family to us.
Year of Kings. Day 76. When you try something - things happen. Luck is one of my skills. That’s lucky, because things usually work out for me. And this is one of the wonderful things about turning life into narrative - because the story has taken a small happy twist. Two weeks ago the Dark City Kings were a rather shaky proposition. Today - through some strange turn of events - which all could have gone in the opposite direction - we are quite good.

AUGUST
Year of Kings. Day 77. Release of third single: “Ain’t No Place”
https://thedarkcitykings.bandcamp.com/track/aint-no-place
Year of Kings. Day 78. We started doing this - when we play a show - checking in with the bartenders afterwards, thanking them, taking a photo with them. Thank you to Lucy and Bryce at Black Mountain Brewing - always been the nicest! Also - listen to the new single at: https://thedarkcitykings.bandcamp.com/track/aint-no-place
Year of Kings. Day 79. We’re so excited about this show. Jack-of-the-Wood is one of the oldest and most beloved venues in Asheville. It’s a highly curated stage and showcases the best of folk music in the region - bluegrass, country, Celtic, mountain music… it’s a bit of a musical shrine - like the CBGBs of folk music. So yeah - what are they gonna make of our flirting porch music?
Year of Kings. Day 80. We came to practice last night with the intention of playing every song. Just go through them all. Go over the songs we didn’t all know. Three hours later we’d played about half our set. So yeah - we’re ready! The truth is you’ll never be absolutely ready for any show. And the truth is I like a little chaos.
jackofthewood: Black Mountain’s DARK CITY KINGS are making their @jackofthewood debut this Saturday night 8/5 at 9pm! The Kings mix traditional mountain music with indie rock & a dose of heartache, creating what they term “Black Mountain flirting music”. Get here early to grab a seat, order some tasty pub fare and indulge in a brew or two! $5 cover at the door.
#jackofthewood #celticpub #irishpub #avleats #avldrinks #pubfood #irishmusicpub #livemusicasheville #livemusicavl #localmusicavl #avlmusic #ashevillemusic #saturdaynight #downtownavl #downtownasheville #weekend #wncmusic #wncoriginalmusic #mountainmusic #indierock #garagerock #livemusic #darkcitykings
Year of Kings. Day 81. Show 6. Jack-of-the-Wood. I suppose this is a good moment to share that, yeah, we’re lovable goofballs, but we’ve also done this many times before, many lives before. Been on a label, been on the radio, some nice press, on Asheville’s biggest stages. We played at Jack-of-the-Wood as a previous band - and the space felt like home. Like the best Irish Pub in Dublin, packed, drinks flowing, dancing and flirting. Oh we’re looking forward to tonight. 9pm until…. whenever…
Year of Kings. Day 82. Colleen had this idea to grab bartenders, sound people, owners, photographers, people supporting the scene - and have them get in a photo with us. This is Annie, photographer, of Red Pepper Photography @redpepper.photography She started taking photos of us last summer. Super sweet and super kind and super talented.
Year of Kings. Day 83. Show 7. White Horse in Black Mountain with Jay Brown. Jay is a bit of a local music legend and he puts together shows with friends and other bands. He plays a couple of songs. The other bands play a few songs. Then everyone gets up and plays together. Tonight - 8pm - Black Mountain - White Horse!
Year of Kings. Day 84. White Horse. Not just surviving this run of shows - but doing good. 1) it is the nicest thing in the world to have someone pee next to me and ask whether DCK is going to play their new favorite song. 2) musicians on the scene are like - I used to think DCK were crazy, but now I think they may be good.
Year of Kings. Day 85. Momentum is a wonderful thing. I’ve been in bands that have had it. It’s the small things: no one walking when we’re playing, the attention to the stage, listening for the words, singing along to a chorus. We have fallen in the river and the current is moving us forward. Now is the time to double-down, to write, to spend the hours in the practice space, to listen, to create, to be true.
Year of Kings. Day 86. Songs. There’s a song that’s hanging around. It’s so far from being fully formed - but I can sense it. I see the shape of the words - but it hasn’t been written. I hear the shape of the song - but it hasn’t been sung. Like a fine fish swimming in a lake, it’s there under the surface, shimmery and beautiful. I need a friend or a group of friends to catch it. And when we catch it will be a very fine fish. When we catch it - it will be the finest fish.
Year of Kings. Day 87. Merlin. It’s a strange world where we live in. We’ve had a run of shows these past couple of weeks. About a month ago I didn’t know if we could pull it off. We needed a lead guitar - but not just any lead guitar - we needed a lead guitar who has a great sense of rhythm, who gets our indie and our country influences, who gives Kyrie space for her violin. Basically we needed a miracle. We needed a little magic. We needed Merlin.
Year of Kings. Day 88. Tomorrow we’re paying double. Sourwood Festival at noon. Black Mountain Brewing at 2pm. It’s like going on a mini-tour - if the mini tour is all in one day and all in Black Mountain. Why not?
Year of Kings. Day 89. Shows 8 & 9. Two shows today. Noon at the Sourwood Festival. The Sourwood Festival? There are sourwood trees in Black Mountain and bees make honey from the flowers. How does it taste? Super super sweet. And the Sourwood Fest is one of those town fairs with tons of craft stalls and small clanky rides for kids and funnel cakes and cotton candy and frozen cheese cake on a stick. The music used to be under a big white tent, like a religious revival tent, but now the stage is out in the open. I’m going to try to remember to take photos. Then we’re also playing a show at Black Mountain Brewing at 2pm.
Year of Kings. Day 90. Sourwood Festival and then Black Mountain Brewing. I’m kind of crazy about how the light looks and the stage and all the plants. Yeah - it was magic. We hadn’t had a bunch of beers or shots before we started - as we played at noon - so it was a little different, but after the first couple of songs we slipped into that river of energy and had some small kids dancing by the end of our set. Then we went to a bar and had shots and beers and we were dancing at Black Mountain Brewing.
Year of Kings. Day 91. We lost two members and gained two members. Now we’re creating a new song book. One of the best parts of starting a band is those first weeks and months when songs are created and covers are tried and everyone figures out the sound. I thought we’d be just the same as our first version - but we’re in the creative phase and we’re creating a new song book. One of my favorite parts.
Year of Kings. Day 92. Thanks to WNC Original Music for promoting another DCK song “Ain’t No Place.” Our first three singles are on Bandcamp. We’ll have an album release show this fall and then distribute on all the major streaming platforms. This is also the time to dream and try things. Like finding a label. If we succeed it makes a good story. If we fail - well that also makes a good story.
Year of Kings. Day 93. Labels? Labels? I think it’s fun to explore every aspect of the music world. So why can’t DCK be on a record label? One of our previous bands - Egg Eaters - was on Kafadan Kontak Records from Turkey. It was basically a bunch of garage rock bands this promoter from Istanbul collected. He said if we ever got over to Turkey he could book us a bunch of shows… but we never got over to Turkey. Still, it was nice to be on a label.
Year of Kings. Day 94. No shows this week - so double practice. I don’t know how other bands do this - write a song as a collective? We show up at practice with a song 50% done. Chords. A bare melody. Some words. At least a verse and a chorus idea. Then we play this for 10 minutes, 15 minutes. If the band connects its working. If Merlin is feeling the spirit then a cool groove emerges. If Kyrie is feeling the magic - the fiddle will make us weep. Craig will start singing along in the choruses - loud and proud! Colleen is pulling and tugging at the melody. Then we play the song again and again - and we grow in confidence. Best songs from last night? Buckminster Fuller and Anxiety 7. Merlin gave Anxiety 7 a groove. A heartbreaking song with a groove - it’s just like The Cure.
Year of Kings. Day 95. Record labels. As long as this is a scientific exploration this should work. If something happens - that’s interesting. If nothing happens - that’s interesting. I know a lot of artists and it’s hard for them to put themselves out there. But I have zero expectations and a lot of curiosity. So I’m putting together a list of labels - Merge Records (who have Titus Andronicus), Fat Possum Records (check out The Weather Station and their version of “transmission”), Rough Trade (gave Lucinda Williams her first contract), Father and Daughter (Diet Cig), Gypsy Farm… what will happen?
Year of Kings. Day 96. Record labels. Fat Possum. Rough Trade. SubPop (why not?), 4AD, Domino, Father and Daughter, Gypsy Farm, Matador, Jagjiaguwar, Rum Bar. I keep the email short, thank them for all they do to support music, try to say something to make them listen to a DCK song…