That other song....

So, if you bought the European version of "Valley Of Smoke", you have this song. The rest of you don't. Anyway, it's another track we did that wasn't really ever meant to be on the record, but ended up being a nice incentive for our European label to put it out, so there it goes. We're happy with the way it came out. It does follow the same theme as the rest of the record, so here's the story behind it.



Vernon is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The resident population was 91 at the 2000 United States Census. It has the smallest population of any incorporated city in California. Most of the city's land area is occupied by industrial facilities. The slogan on its official city seal is "Exclusively Industrial."

Vernon is the historic site where the Battle of La Mesa occurred on January 9, 1847, the day after the Battle of Rio San Gabriel, which ended hostilities in Alta California during the Mexican-American war, 1846–1848. At the end of the 1800s it was a stretch of unincorporated grassland near Los Angeles' flourishing downtown.

In 1905, Vernon was incorporated by ranchers James J. and Thomas J. Furlong and John B. Leonis, a merchant. Vernon was incorporated to promote industrial development along the railroads in the area. John Leonis, of Basque origin, had come to Southern California in 1880 to work for his Uncle Miguel Leonis and later established his own ranch on unincorporated county land southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. Recognizing the importance of the three major railroads running through the area, he persuaded railroad executives to run spur tracks off the main lines and incorporated the adjacent three miles as the first "exclusively industrial" city in the Southwestern United States. He named the new city after a dirt road, Vernon Avenue, crossing its center.

John B. Leonis' grandson, Leonis Malburg, would hold the office of mayor from 1974 until 2009, when he resigned after he and his wife were charged and convicted of conspiracy, perjury, and voter fraud. His son, John Malburg, was sent to prison for child molestation discovered during the same investigation.

Two other relevant sites in Vernon are the rehearsal studio where we wrote "Valley Of Smoke", as well as the Farmer John slaughter house, right up the street, which is referenced in the song "Vernon" and featured in the many promo photos we took outside of it: