Temecula Sunrise

Album: Bitte Orca (2009)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This was a track taken from Bitte Orca, Dirty Projectors' first album for Domino Records.
  • Temecula is a city in south-western Riverside County, California. Pitchfork.com asked singer/guitarist Dave Longstreth if he'd ever visited Temecula. He replied: "I've driven through, yeah. As we're driving through it's just like, improbably brand new construction homes as far as the eye could see. [Former Dirty Projector] Susanna [Waiche] was like, 'My grandfather and I used to go for picnics up when the flowers would bloom for like two weeks up in the hills here.' It was so hard to imagine. My friend James Sumner [the animator who worked on The Getty Address] and I, were talking about how warehouses in the late 20th century were these bohemian zones for artists to camp out and work on their art projects. These disused spaces of a formerly industrial economy, or whatever. We were thinking about the same sort of thing happening when the kind of like social or economic impetus that drove these huge new construction swaths of suburbia and the exurbs of all these American cities. We imagined whole subdivisions would get colonized by these kids who paint the houses like these beautiful, crazy murals and work on their funny escapist utopian art projects in McMansions. [Laughs] So the song is sort of about that."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Randy Newman

Randy NewmanSongwriting Legends

Newman makes it look easy these days, but in this 1974 interview, he reveals the paranoia and pressures that made him yearn for his old 9-5 job.

Grunge Bands Quiz

Grunge Bands QuizMusic Quiz

If the name Citizen Dick means anything to you, there's a chance you'll get some of these right.

Michelle Branch

Michelle BranchSongwriter Interviews

Michelle Branch talks about "Everywhere," "The Game Of Love," and her run-in with a Christian broadcasting network.

Chad Channing (Nirvana, Before Cars)

Chad Channing (Nirvana, Before Cars)Songwriter Interviews

Chad tells tales from his time as drummer for Nirvana, and talks about his group Before Cars.

Booker T. Jones

Booker T. JonesSongwriter Interviews

The Stax legend on how he cooked up "Green Onions," the first time he and Otis Redding saw hippies, and if he'll ever play a digital organ.

Al Jourgensen of Ministry

Al Jourgensen of MinistrySongwriter Interviews

In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.