MUSIC
THE DEBUT EP
BRIGHT LIGHTS AND
FLYING COLORS
"Bright Lights and Flying Colors" was born when DJ Mark finally began writing original music again after a few years away from the Philadelphia music scene. In 2013, DJ was the founding member of the Philadelphia band "Backseat Chronicles." The band managed to play shows and release music for more than a year. When the band fell apart, DJ started up an acoustic solo project that never managed to get off the ground. He decided to get away from the music scene and original music. After some time performing covers at occasional open mics, in early 2015 he began writing original music again.
With nothing really to lose, he decided the project would take on the life of a working rock band (a la Dave Grohl and the original Foo Fighters album). He titled the band "City Line," and began recording the EP in June 2015. The first song recorded was "Days of Old," a song originally written by Backseat Chronicles, although it was never officially released. DJ re-worked the song and gave it a new title. "Streetlights" was written next by DJ and a friend that he had originally enlisted to be a part of the band, but then left the project. He kept the song and title and extended it to be a more instrumental track. "This Is The One" (despite being written first) was next up, at the same time "Best Decisions" was quickly written and recorded. Pressed for time, and struggling with writers block on the final song, DJ recorded "Big Days," another Backseat Chronicles song, re-working it from the original again.
The EP was originally released on August 11th without drum tracks. DJ recorded the drums in late August and "Days of Old" was released as a single on September 4th. The EP would see worldwide release digitally a week later, on September 10th.
Reviews:
The Even Ground/No More Division: 3.2/4
(week of September 14, 2015)
THINGS TO COME & MORE
THE ACOUSTIC EP
"Things to Come & More" is the acoustic EP from City Line, released on February 9th. 2016. The EP consists of acoustic versions of new songs by City Line, all written by DJ in late 2015/early 2016. The EP was born from the idea of releasing acoustic demos of new songs that will eventually be taken and recorded to make City Line's first full length album, when the time comes to begin work on it.
"That Was Home" was released on January 28th as the first single from the EP.
The EP comes with four new City Line songs and an acoustic version of the song "Big Days" available only with the entire download of the EP.
THE ALBUM
NORTH BY NORTH MARKET
In April 2016, with multiple songs fully written and more in the process of being written, DJ began recording City Line's first full length album. The first song DJ set out to record was the cover of Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69," which is the bonus track exclusively available only on Bandcamp. He then began work on Another and Uptown, with plans originally to make Uptown the first single. However, he wrote a song that he had liked and decided it was the song he wanted to finish and release first. In May, the band began teasing things to come by using the hashtag #NoAlibi on social media. On May 23, the band released a lyric video for the first single from the new album,
"15 North," with the single being available for worldwide digital download on May 26th.
DJ then completed "Another Life" and "Uptown" before moving on to "That Was Home" and "New Street," which had already been released on the acoustic EP. The first brand new song he began working on was "Red Is Coming," inspired by the character Raymond "Red" Reddington in NBC's show "The Blacklist," Shortly after, he began work on "The Revival," which was easily the hardest song to work on, being such a personal song.
On July 1st, the band released a second lyric video and digital download for the single "Uptown." Through July, he continued work completing most of the main instruments and vocals for the songs. After a vacation, he finished all of the songs, with "Highway Drives" being the final song to be recorded. Chris finally wrapped the drum parts in late July, and DJ set out to mix the songs and master. Going an untraditional route to mastering, he fell behind and did not finish mastering until just 2 days until the album was released
The album, titled "North By North Market," was released worldwide digitally and on physical CD on Friday, August 5th. The album featured the 8 songs, as well as a "bonus track," which is only available via the Bandcamp download of the album. The release of the album marked a long time dream for the band, being able to finally record and release a full album entirely on their own.
"15 North" and "Another Life" have both received radio airplay on FM radio, being played on 93.7 WSTW (Wilmington, Delware) during their "Hometown Heroes" weekly radio show. The show is a two hour show that airs Sunday nights and promotes music from bands and artists all over the Delaware Valley region. "15 North" was aired in May 2016 and "Another Life" was played on November 6th, 2016
THE CHRISTMAS EP
CHRISTMAS IN THE CITY
In October of 2016, DJ decided it was time for some new music to be released. With the bands ability to play shows slowing down due to a lack of time to rehearse and book shows, he figured at the minimum the band could stay afloat by releasing new music. Throwing around musical ideas and a song title, he decided to make the release and EP and give it a Christmas theme.
His plan was to pay homage to one of his favorite bands, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, by doing two covers for the EP. He settled on "Christmas Dreams" and "The Lost Christmas Eve." Both songs began recording at the same time. He then went into recording the original song "Winter Blue" at the same time, and all three songs were completed around the same time.
He knew he wanted to do at least one instrumental as well, and originally attempted to record both, but after hitting road bumps with ideas for a second, decided to do just one. "Hark the Halls" got it's title from using the Christmas classics "Deck the Halls" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" as well as "We Wish You A Merry Christmas." At the same time, he began work on the instrumental "Bells," which is an arrangement of the classic "Carol of the Bells," recorded entirely on a classical guitar.
"Christmas Dreams" was released to YouTube on November 24th. The entire EP was released on December 9th streamed on YouTube, with the three original songs available for download on Bandcamp.
THE 2ND ACOUSTIC EP
THINGS TO COME & MORE
VOLUME II
In the fall and winter of 2016/2017, DJ began work on more new music. He became stalled for a period of time, but eventually was able to piece together three songs that he felt were worthy of recording as acoustic demos.
He decided, in January 2017, to release a second edition of acoustic versions of songs, mirroring what he did in 2016. Despite fighting a case of severe strep throat, he was able to complete in the EP in time for the release date he had wanted. He recorded "Time to Tell" and "Hello, Fog Harbor" first once they were written. "Until the Night" was considered unfinished, despite making it on the EP, as DJ plans to extend the song further, but decided to leave that off the acoustic rendition of the song.
"Things to Come & More - Volume II" was released on February 9th, 2017, exactly one year to the date of the release of the first edition of acoustic songs. It was released without a prior announcement or pre-release single, as the band wanted to make it a total surprise release.
These songs will, like the songs before them that led to "North By North Market," will be recorded in full and released on a 2017 release that City Line plans to put out sometime in the Summer. The band has taken awhile to decided on whether to proceed do write more songs and do another full album, or just work on ideas that have already been circulated and put out an EP.
In the fall and winter of 2016/2017, DJ began work on more new music. He became stalled for a period of time, but eventually was able to piece together three songs that he felt were worthy of recording as acoustic demos.
He decided, in January 2017, to release a second edition of acoustic versions of songs, mirroring what he did in 2016. Despite fighting a case of severe strep throat, he was able to complete in the EP in time for the release date he had wanted. He recorded "Time to Tell" and "Hello, Fog Harbor" first once they were written. "Until the Night" was considered unfinished, despite making it on the EP, as DJ plans to extend the song further, but decided to leave that off the acoustic rendition of the song.
"Things to Come & More - Volume II" was released on February 9th, 2017, exactly one year to the date of the release of the first edition of acoustic songs. It was released without a prior announcement or pre-release single, as the band wanted to make it a total surprise release.
These songs will, like the songs before them that led to "North By North Market," will be recorded in full and released on a 2017 release that City Line plans to put out sometime in the Summer. The band has taken awhile to decided on whether to proceed do write more songs and do another full album, or just work on ideas that have already been circulated and put out an EP.
THE EP
LONG ROAD HOME
On July 7th, 2017, City Line released the single and lyric video for the new song "This Is Home." The song was brand new, being written after the completion of the second volume of acoustic songs. On September 29th, the band released a second single, simply titled "2." On the same day, the band announced that their new EP, titled "Long Road Home," would be released on October 20th. The EP featured five new songs, of which two were apart of the acoustic release from early 2017.
"Long Road Home" was released to all digital music outlets on October 20th, 2017. "2" and "This Is Home" led off the EP, followed by "Hello, Fog Harbor," the only song to appear on the EP from the acoustic EP released earlier in the year. The band decided, due to time constraints, to save the other two songs for future release. "Bluff Creek" is an acoustic instrumental recorded live by DJ in one take, an homage to an event that took place exactly 50 years before the date of the release of the EP. A music video for the song was also released to YouTube the same day.00
The EP was rounded out by a remastered, and partially re-recorded version of "Big Days." The band decided that the drums and vocals required another take and DJ spent hours remastering each individual instrument on the song, plus the entire song itself to help boost the sound of the song. Since DJ was never happy with the original version of the song, the remaster was much needed. The band has considered possibly remastering their entire first EP sometime in the future.
"This Is Home" and "2" have both received radio airplay on internet radio, being played on New NJ Music on BlowUpRadio.com, a NJ internet radio station that highlights NJ based music once a week. "This Is Home" was played on July 10th, and "2" was aired on October 23rd, just 3 days after the release of the EP
LATEST MUSIC VIDEOS
"15 North"
(Official Lyric Video)
"Big Days"
(Official Lyric Video)
"Uptown"
(Official Lyric Video)
"Days of Old"
(Official Lyric Video)
PHOTOS
Live at World Cafe Live, 2/8/2016
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