Search - Artichoke :: Historic Highland Park

Historic Highland Park is an exploration of the Northeast Los Angeles neighborhood of Highland Park by one of the many bands that lives and makes music here: Artichoke. Here's what's on the record:
Trash Day was written on a shiny spring Tuesday, which is trash day in Highland Park. When we play the song live, Steve performs his infectious trash can dance. Highland Park is the title song. The street I live on, Figueroa Street, was once the longest street in Los Angeles. Old Man Brunk is about the first white dude living in the Arroyo Seco. Not much is known about him, but I like that he left San Francisco because the town was good. Next: Arroyo Seco. Behold the concrete trough! But touch not the waters, especially in August. Here Come The Hipsters is a paranoid fantasy of Sunset Strip creep creepage. I hope it s paranoid, anyway. Our Back Yard Is Full of Cats was written on a day when our back yard was indeed full of cats. A Country Boy In Highland Park features Steve's theremin in its full glory. Yes, I grew up with a composting toilet of my father's invention. And I used to sing to cows while waiting for the school bus. Cows took a real interest in my early vocal work. Those Holsteins would hear me and amble over across the fields to stand nice and close, chewing and looking and paying mysterious and profound brown-eyed attention to my every syllable. Which does not remind me of Mr. T's Bowl, our favorite indie rock bar in these parts. El Dorado is Artichoke's first song longer than seven minutes, and includes a short history of California and our place in the grand scheme. Finally, I went out on the porch and played Charles Lummis, a biography of Highland Park's own corduroy-clad humanitarian booster of the Southwestern United States, its people and history.
Thanks to Daniel Leyson for playing guitar on tracks 1 and 2, to Steve Collins for his theremin on track 8, and to David Hurlin for playing drums on most of the songs. We hope you were enlightened and entertained by your visit to Historic Highland Park.