One Hit Wondering – Citizen King

One Hit Wondering is a series of columns where I listen to the album of a one hit wonder, and find three songs, other than the hit, that people should hear. 

When I first told a friend I was going to be writing a One Hit Wondering column on Citizen King their immediate reaction was, “OK, I’ve never heard of them.” I then sang the lyric, “I’ve seen better days,” and their reaction changed to, “Oh! I loved that song!”

Name recognition would prove to be a bit tricky for Citizen King during their short time at the top, which began, and ended with “Better Days (And the Bottom Drops Out).”

The lone hit for the band from Milwaukee, WI, “Better Days (And the Bottom Drops Out)” was released in January of 1999, on its way to going gold it peaked at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100, #3 on the Modern Rock chart, #11 the US Pop chart, and #1 on Top 40 Recurrents.

You might wonder – how did a band that sold 500k copies of a single have a name recognition issue? Well, the blame for that lays squarely on the internet … and some random kid in his parents’ basement, or college dorm.

With “Better Days (And the Bottom Drops Out)” being mixture of pop, rock, and hip-hop, sonically it was a feel good song, but the lyrics would’ve made any classic blues artist proud. People quickly drew comparisons to other bands, including Sugar Ray, but a whole lot of folks mistakenly thought it was a Sublime song. Why Sublime? Well, 1999 was smack in the middle of the glory days of illegal file sharing, and as legend has it (as noted by breakingingandentering.net), someone on Limewire mislabeled “Better Days (And the Bottom Drops Out)” as a Sublime song. So everyone who illegally downloaded it off of Limewire thought it was by Sublime, despite the song not really sounding anything like Sublime.

Citizen King’s sound is one they began developing when they formed in 1993, rising from the ashes of the band Wild Kingdom.

While gaining notoriety in their local scene they were discovered by Milwaukee native Speech, from the legendary hip-hop group Arrested Development. He liked what he heard, and would go on to produce a number of tracks for Citizen King's debut album, Brown Bag, which was released independently in 1995.

At this point in their career, Citizen King sounded more like an indie hip-hop soul band, and in 1996 they followed up Brown Bag with an EP titled Count the Days. They also became true road warriors, touring constantly, including hitting the road with Fishbone, and having a set at SXSW that resulted in the band being noticed by a number of major labels. One of those labels was Warner Bros., which signed them shortly thereafter.

January of 1999 saw the release of “Better Days (And the Bottom Drops Out),” and two months later Citizen King’s lone major label album, Mobile Estates came out. With it came a major shift in sound for the fivesome of Mount Sims (vocals, bass), Kristian Riley (guitar), Dave Cooley (keyboards), Malcolm Michiles (turntables), and DJ Brooks (drums).

While people who had illegally downloaded the single thought they were listening to Sublime, in reality the band that was probably the best comparison point to Citizen King at that time was Bran Van 3000.

Yes, I just described an obscure ‘90s band by referencing an even more obscure ‘90s band. That’s why you come here, right?

Bran Van 3000 were a little bit of everything, and they were never afraid to toss another genre into the mix, or go off on a strange musical tangent. For Mobile Estates, Citizen King were the same way, perfectly embodying the blender on the cover of the album. Hip-hop? Throw it in there! Pop? Add that, too! Rock? Toss it in! A pinch of something psychedelic? Hell yeah, why not?

The result was a sound pretty much anyone could enjoy.

The band toured relentlessly, and their hit song was placed in the pilot – and later on the series finale – of Malcolm in the Middle, as well as on the soundtrack to film Gone in 60 Seconds. Citizen King, however, would disappear nearly as quickly as a car from the aforementioned Nicolas Cage / Angelina Jolie movie, disbanding in 2002.

While that was the end of Citizen King as a band, its members would go on to do some pretty interesting things.

The year before the dissolution of Citizen King, Dave Cooley founded Elysian Masters, and started producing for other artists. His work caught the ear of Stones Throw Records, who gave him his first opportunity in mastering, and he’d go on to master all of the label’s recordings at that time, including albums by J Dilla, Peanut Butter Wolf, Madvillain, and Madlib.

Outside of Stones Throw, he mastered Paramore’s After Laughter, the 40th anniversary box set of Bob Marley’s Exodus, and the reissues of Isaac Hayes’ Concord Records albums.

Since 2013 he’s focused exclusively on mastering at his Elysian Masters studio in L.A.

Mount Sims, also known as Mt. Sims, became a DJ, launched a career as an electronic music artist, and moved to Berlin. He’s released five full-length albums, and one EP, under the Mount Sims name.

In addition to his own music, he's worked with a litany of other artists, including remixing Madonna’s “Nobody Knows Me.” What’s most notable about that particular remix is that he time compressed a speech by Charles Manson, and used the resultant sounds to construct different electronic drums for the song. Yes, that means Madonna has a song with Charles Manson.

In 2010 Mount Sims collaborated with The Knife, and Planningtorock on an electronic opera titled Tomorrow, In a Year, that was based on Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.

Most recently (that I can find), The Knife’s Olof Dreijer enlisted Mount Sims for an album titled Souvenir that was released in 2023.

Speaking of collaborations, after Citizen King, Malcolm Michiles collaborated with fellow band member Kristian Riley to co-found Bionic Studios. Michiles, who sometimes goes by Old Man Malcolm, also co-founded the Milwaukee Creative Music Ensemble (MCME) with producer Jason Todd, and has credits as a turntablist on albums by Garbage, and Smash Mouth.

Kristian Riley, in addition to co-founding Bionic Studios, founded Yardlights Records, is the guitarist for the band Bandie, and is a Qigong instructor, which is an ancient Chinese system of wellness, elements of which can be found in t'ai chi.

He also teaches at the L.A.-based music production school Icon Collective, and, based on his Instagram, plays with fire as a firedancer / firespinner.

Clearly, everyone from Citizen King seems to be enjoying life right now, so it would be unfair to say their “Better Days” are behind them, even if their hit is a relic from the past.

Remembering how catchy the song was, I gave Mobile Estates a spin, and found three songs, other than “Better Days (And the Bottom Drops Out),” that you should hear.

“Under the Influence”

 

Batting leadoff on Mobile Estates, “Under the Influence” has Beck-like musical qualities, which makes it a total mystery as to why it wasn’t pushed by the record label. You’d figure SOMEONE would have been able to recognize how cool this song is, and make Citizen King at least a two hit wonder. Alas, no one figured it out, and the song now exists as a hidden gem for us to find, and enjoy.

“Basement Show”

 

One listen to “Basement Show” and it’s pretty clear that Citizen King were influenced, at least a little bit, by the Beastie Boys. The band, however, doesn’t mimic the hip-hop legends. Rather, after adding in elements that range from nu-metal, to psychedelic, they pressed down on the mix button on their musical blender, and created something wholly their own. The result is something that fans of everyone from 311, to Limp Bizkit, to the Beasties themselves would’ve been into.

“Checkout Line”

 

There were a number of songs I considered as the third song to list from this album, but I ultimately decided on “Checkout Line” because I think it’s great that there’s a lounge-pop song with blues lyrics about waiting on the checkout line at the grocery store.

There’s a Smash Mouth meets The Doors musical vibe to this one, and it’s perfect for those moments when the line just isn’t moving.

Until next time, here’s to discovering more great music from one hit wonders!