On December 27, 1831, a very young (and some might say foolish) Charles Darwin clambered atop a large dog, which the English called simply “the Beagle.” Darwin and a few dozen other men hung on for dear life as the enthusiastic fellow swam out to sea. The Beagle carried these reckless parasites around the world, first to South America, where Darwin observed many new species of plants and animals. Birds such as the blue-footed booby had never seen giant seafaring dogs before, or humans for that matter, and they showed a complete lack of fear when Darwin and the enthusiastic Beagle approached them. After continuing on past New Zealand, the Beagle realized he was getting a bit hungry. He swam back to England, arriving at Cornwall on October 2, 1836. Darwin grabbed his scientific notes and drawings and — along with the rest of the dog-smelling crew — leaped from the back of the Beagle that had been their home for nearly five years. The great shaggy beast shook the saltwater from his body, barked a friendly farewell, and ran off in search of something good to eat.

Thanks for stopping by. Next up: “Elephant” and “Einstein.”

In the category of tragic scientist biographies, none is better known than the story of Marie and Pierre Curie. And their story is indeed tragic — young husband Pierre killed by a horse-drawn wagon as he stumbled, radiation-poisoned, across a busy street; Marie killed much later by the same invisible magic after a life of underfunded toil and hard-won success.

I wrote and recorded “Marie Curie” back when we were renting space in downtown LA. I was messing around with with an agonizingly slow 3/4 tempo and a very loud distorted guitar. Later when we played the song live, Steve brought a little glowing test tube theatricality to our stage show. An actual scientist in your band can be a handy thing.

“Cat” is a catchy little melody over a swing beat that I like to use because it’s easy to sing over. My 3-year-old niece Rosemary acted out the lyrics of this song the very first time I played it for her!

I guess that’s it for C. I should also mention that Artichoke will be performing at the Eagle Rock Music Festival on October 3rd at 10:00. See ya next time for “Dog” and “Charles Darwin.”

Timothy
Artichoke

now — it’s back to the alphabet. today’s letter is the letter B:

“26 scientists”:
luther burbank was a self-made man from massachusetts. he came out to california looking for “the perfect place” to grow plants of many kinds. apparently he was so busy working in the greenhouses up in santa rosa that he kept very scanty records of how he actually developed hundreds of new wonderful strains of fruit and flower. luther burbank became something of a botanical thomas edison in american culture. many schools were named for him, including burbank middle school here in highland park. arlo, our friend and legendary sound man at mr. t’s bowl, attended that school. there is a mosaic facing figueroa street that reads “fruit and flower show the magic of his mind.” i wonder what the kids make of it? anyway, luther burbank was an excellent subject for a song. and yes, burbank, california is named for another guy — a sheepranching dentist.

“26 animals”:
beavers are a lynchpin species. their water management allows entire ecosystems to thrive around the wetlands they create by building dams and ponds. they once numbered in the hundreds of millions — and that’s just in north america. then we killed nearly all of them for hats. they are gone from europe and asia, but luckily a few tens of millions survive in north america. decimating the beavers has contributed to the desertification of out planet in a big way. i could go on, but it’s a bit depressing…

anyway, some beavers do still survive and work their magic on the environment. where i grew up in new york state, there was a family of beavers living in our pond. i got the idea for the song “beaver” when juli crockett was putting together a play called “the history of water.” one writer mentioned that beavers would make excellent pets. they are friendly and good-natured. the only problem would be their incessant nocturnal building. they would chew up anything made of wood and presumably build with it. so that’s what my song is about. now that we’ve destroyed most beavers outdoors, it’s time to be nice. invite them inside and let them set things up the way they like it!

these songs can be heard at http://www.myspace.com/artichoketheband and purchased at http://artichoketheband.com/

up next: “marie curie” and “cat.” thanks for listening!

timothy
artichoke

The live Artichoke had a great time playing “26 Animals” at the Future Studio. Chris Gonzalez on bass, Steve Collins playing theremin and acting like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and guest drummer Joe Babiak sitting in. Small people and big people filled the gallery with animal drawings, and there was some inspired dancing. I invited folks to dance like various animals, but I have since heard Oliver Sacks say that animals can’t dance. Sacks maintains dancing is a distinctly human ability, and that you shouldn’t waste money on lessons for your pets.

Artichoke recently played the “Bees” set at Steve’s big birthday bash up in Altadena. The night was misty, and the disco ball in the olive tree bobbed and sparkled over our heads. Steve’s friends and family were all there. It was great to be part of the celebration, and songs performed outside at night always seem a little mysterious.

and then came the really big news. last night, at like 1:20 am, myspace tom emailed me personally. i guess he couldn’t sleep or something. tom said “this is it: we’re going to TEN!”

well, that’s just plain dangerous to your face, if you ask me. keep that forest of jagged steel away from my head! i’m trying to preserve what might be left of my boyish good looks. but then i remembered that tom was talking about SONGS — not razors — and so i relaxed a bit and added 80% more songs than we had up yesterday.

you are invited to swing by www.myspace.com/artichoketheband and groove a little. we have 5 songs from “historic highland park” and 5 songs from “26 animals.”

you can buy either cd at www.artichoketheband.com. compared to ferrets, they make pretty nice gifts.

also, on sunday we’re playing in the woods. we’re meeting at the eaton canyon trailhead at 3:00. it’s a short little hike, but bring comfy shoes. we’ll play a bunch o’ songs at a shady spot designated by our hosts.

thanks to sara for inviting us! for details about our show in the woods, please visit:

http://thenaturalstageproject.wordpress.com/

http://www.myspace.com/thenaturalstageproject

i believe this show will be,

timothy chris antonia, and anna
artichoke

I’ve written about the lives of scientists for two records, sung from the perspective of bees on one, described people as a form of weather in “Evaporation,” added melodies to Sex Pistols songs, and recently gone in a zoological direction with “26 Animals.” Most of the time I prefer to write songs by taking some sort of leap — to sing as a frog, a bumblebee, or Albert Einstein. But on “Historic Highland Park” I stayed closer to home. I looked at my neighborhood, my experience living here, and a little of its history. 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.

Big thanks go to Daniel Leyson for playing guitar on “Trash Day” and “Highland Park,” to Steve Collins for his theremin on “A Country Boy In Highland Park,” and to David Hurlin for playing drums all over the record. Also thanks to the organizers of “Lummis Day” for having Artichoke play in 2008.

Want a copy? “Historic Highland Park” is available at shows, cdbaby, or on this very website. Itunes, Amazon.com, and other digital vendors will offer it in a few weeks.

in the meantime — TONIGHT in fact — another artichoke Venn diagram loop will play the “bees” set at mr. t’s at 9:00. that’s at 5621 1/2 north figueroa street.

tonight artichoke will sound and look like: chris on the acoustic bass, steve on theremin and tambourines, me on geetar and singing from the bee’s perspective. and also joining artichoke is antonia romeo, a wonderful singer and musician who performs “bees” and also sings on the (not-yet-heard-by-anyone-outside-of-yet-another-Venn-diagram-loop) “is this feeding back?” song cycle / rock record of hope and despair for the near future. but more on the later later! let’s summarize the right now right now:

artichoke presents “bees” tonight at t’s in the hp fer free @ 9:00

see ya soon,

timothy chris steve antonia
4/5 of the “bees” artichoke (dan’s busy moving but he’ll be back in the hive soon)

ps kevin’s photographs http://kevinsea.zenfolio.com/p468759573
pps the “bees” cover paintings are done. official cd soonish?

and we’ve got cds of “26 animals” available! the record will be “officially” released when we have the accompanying songbook all printed up — in about two months. it’ll be a fully-illustrated hardcover 8″ square book, with tablature and lyrics for all 26 songs! i painted watercolor animals for each song. allison and i photographed the paintings, and then worked on the layout of lyrics and chords over the images for a few evenings. amy inouye from the future studio (on figueroa street underneath chicken boy and next to foliero’s pizza) hooked us up with a quality printer in hong kong, where i am told the books are being printed even now. in the meantime, please dig the no-frills unadorned “26 animals” cd with 57 minutes of kids music. i should mention that some adults seem to enjoy the cd too. which is fine with me, since i think the best kids records were probably made by the beatles. “mean mr. mustard” and “polythene pam” made a big impression on me, anyway. illiterative characters zap straight into the young hard drive. but i don’t actually know any current “kids” music, come to think of it. or maybe i don’t know any adults’ music? you know, i recently heard that kids were sort of like human beings in many ways — so we may not have to worry about keeping their music separate from ours. we’ve got a few more earth orbits under our adult belts, but groovy is groovy no matter how many bowls of cereal you’ve munched. what was i talking about?