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.

I wanted to tell the band that it doesn’t work without this mix of individuals. I’ll try to explain it. The songs are simple. The melodies are simple - even naive. We talk about and think about songs that can be enjoyed the first time you hear them, that you can sing in the shower. But the band has a real singer and some incredible musicians - so we’re able to have this mix of naive and simple along with this mix of smart and talented. We chose simplicity backed by talent.

We’ve got shows every weekend in May and June, so we’re just gonna start highlighting some of these. I do love the classic three band set-up, get up on stage, hit the set hard, grab our gear off stage, and the next band plays. This will be super fun - at The Outpost, May 24, with 40-20-10s and Fashion Bath.

It’s not a Dark City Kings song until Merlin has figured out the riff or the pick-up or the guitar tone.

The Seventh King. There’s a title for you. Irishman. Wizard. I keep waiting for a reality tv crew to jump our from behind a curtain - it’s all been an elaborate show/game to have Kevin Moloney @kevin.moloney.music work with us. A certain magic happens when the kindness is shared, and it becomes amplified, and everything seems to glow and levitate. When I talk about the new music I use word like “fat” “wide” “deep” “true.” It feels old without being old. It’s fun and light and you hear the laughter in these songs. There’s a magic in these common stories. Some of that magic was there, certainly in my bandmates, but it has been taken and amplified and made to shine by Kevin Moloney.

https://www.instagram.com/kevin.moloney.music/

We have the masters. Working with David Saich at Fiasco Pictures (one of my energetic artistic spiritual punk rock brothers) for a video from the recording session. It sounds so much better than I could have ever imagined. A true collaboration with this gang. Sweet little songs made massive by Kevin Moloney (another one of my energetic artistic spiritual punk rock brothers).

We wake up and think - how do we keep this going? We don’t know what the next show will be like - but we keep going. We don’t know where the next song will come from - but we keep going. We walk this road with faith that the unwritten song and the next show will be good, will be great. In this time of pessimism - optimism is a rebellion.

Playing St. Patrick’s Day at Shiloh & Gaines in Asheville. St. Patrick’s Day is like Mardi Gras and New Years Eve - just a good excuse for good dancing, bad dancing, average dancing, any kind of dancing!

Yeah - when you hear our new album and you hear like different percussion and additional guitars - that’s Merlin playing four different instruments on a track. And if you hear the fiddle harmonizing with another fiddle harmonizing with another fiddle - that’s Kyrie - just making that happen like it’s as natural as breathing.

Love is Punk. It was just a throw-away line. I heard a friend say that punk rock gives him a rush like being is love - and I reversed it. Love is Punk. Then - because it sounds good - it became a chorus in a song. But now it’s been around for a little while it’s taken on all these different shades and meanings - so make up your own definition. Love is punk.

I have an older brother. Older siblings are good for music education. He was crazy about music from about 12 years old, heavy metal, buying albums, singles, t-shirts. I wanted to understand it - this thing that was so powerful for him. Then one day I heard a song and understood. The song? Hungry Like The Wolf by Duran Duran. First song I ever bought.

We walked up into the mountains looking for wisdom and came down carrying two stone tablets with these commandments- 1: write catchy pop songs, 2: be nice, 3: act like the Go-Go’s and be the fun-loving bratty younger siblings of the scene.

This happened. Before we played at The Odditorium we set up a table and had stencils and paint and painted Dark City Kings on jackets and shirts. This was/is Merlin’s idea - but it’s great to bring art happenings into our world - and great way to meet people at our shows. Totally one of the most fun things that is happening in this Year of Kings.

Practice on Sunday afternoon went on for an extra hour because we were all in the flow. Working on new songs. Defining our sound. Black Mountain flirting songs - that was the sound of the album we just recorded with Kevin Moloney. Best exemplified by “Buckminster Fuller” - but now the music is changing under us, as it should, and our music is the poetry of Saturday night.

Our dreams are bigger than their fears.

We play it and Kevin Moloney asks for us to play it again - and again - and again - and again - and that works because by the time we play it the sixth time I’ve actually forgotten about all the mics and the studio space and I’m thinking: “You want to hear it again? I’m gonna really give it to you this time! Now we’re gonna really rip it up!”

I have a 1960s vintage mic in front of my face, a mic for my acoustic guitar, my acoustic guitar direct into the system, a double mic hanging over our heads.

We played at The Orange Peel last Thursday. Instead of taking a break and letting that great energy fade - we’re heading into the studio with Kevin Moloney this weekend. Yeah - the Kevin Moloney - who produced Sinead O’Connor’s first two album, with U2 for their first five albums. Last night we hung out with Kevin and played all the new songs we’re thinking of recording.

Sound check… @fashionbathasheville - at @the_orange_peel tonight - come on out!

What will you hear on Thursday night at The Orange Peel showcase with @fashionbathasheville and @_aunt_vicki - ?? We’re going for it. We’ll have some elements of country and mountain music from our original release - but we’re heading toward glam garage indie pop with big hooks, big melodies, big song-a-long choruses - songs about divas, helicopters, bad kids at private schools, party clothes…