Artist · chart history
Citizen King
Band Milwaukee United States Active 1993–2002
Citizen King formed in 1993 in Milwaukee, United States and was active until 2002. Citizen King has 24 chart appearances on 24 radio countdowns from 13 stations on RockLists, spanning 1999–2023. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Better Days (And The Bottom Drops Out)”, which appears on 24 lists with a best position of #11. The station that charted Citizen King most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 7 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1999.
Citizen King came out of Milwaukee in 1993 with a sound that refused to sit still: hip-hop beats, soul grooves and punk attitude, all tossed into the same blender. Matthew Sims sang lead, Kristian Riley played guitar, Dave Cooley handled keyboards, DJ Brooks played drums and Malcolm "Old Man" Michiles worked the turntables, and together they sounded like a house party thrown in a garage.
Their album Mobile Estates came out in 1999 with the song that made their name, "Better Days (And the Bottom Drops Out)", a lazy, sun-baked shuffle with scratches skittering across a laid-back groove and a hook that hangs around all summer. It climbed into the top 40, reaching No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The band called it a day in 2002, but "Better Days" is still the sound of a very specific, very sunny moment at the end of the '90s.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Citizen King on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Better Days (And The Bottom Drops Out) | 24 | #11 | – | 1999 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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