The Title Trackers Search For Their Roots & More

The music group The Title Trackers might have been listening to the song “A Horse With No Name” by America since they’ve decided to do something similar. The Title Trackers are headed to the desert to find out, as the song says, “The heat was hot and the ground was dry, But the air was full of sound.” (America says its original title was “Desert Song”)

The Title Trackers will tour the Mojave Desert & Death Valley regions, but it’s more than just a tour according to band co-founder David Tokaji: “We’re treating it more like a pilgrimage.” Dave says this because the tour includes a search for the hard-to-find site of the famous Joshua Tree as used by the group U2, plus a stop at a World War II internment camp.

The Title Trackers will leave Los Angeles today (10/21) for the Manzanar War Relocation Center - a Japanese-American internment camp where Dave Tokaji’s dad spent his childhood. (His dad was Dr. Ted Jinichiro Tokaji - 11/27/1939-10/2/2009 - and he was a graduate of UCLA & Georgetown Medical School and a psychiatrist.) Title Tracker member Andy Hill says: “A lot of Americans don’t realize that our government rounded up 120,000 American citizens and put them in these camps in the middle of nowhere during World War II. It was racial hysteria at its ugliest.” Manzanar is a National Historical Site and the band will tour the grounds and visit the barracks where Tokaji’s father was incarcerated, and perform a short acoustic set. “I’m not sure what to expect,” Tokaji says. “My dad’s dead now, but the internment had a big impact on him throughout his life. This is about the closest I can get to that experience and I just want to soak it all in.”

From there they’ll travel to the site of the great “Joshua Tree” made famous by the group U2 - if they can find it. It’s literally in the middle of nowhere - “truly where the streets have no name,” band member Russell Wiener jokes. The Title Trackers are known for creating Lost Title Tracks that never existed and they hope to film a music video for their fake U2 song, but only if they can find that legendary Joshua Tree. Band member Andy Hill says: “We’ve consulted various cartographers and U2 historians to try to get the coordinates”...“We’re allowing ourselves plenty of time to roam around the desert with a map and compass to find the exact spot. If we still haven’t found what we’re looking for after a couple hours we may need to call The Edge for guidance.”

While this stop may not have the historical impact of Manzanar, the band sees a connection between the two, Dave Tokaji says: “Each of us grew up on U2 and was shaped by The Joshua Tree album and how beautifully it captures the desolation of the American desert”...“So we were deeply moved to learn that the site of that legendary U2 photo is just 25 miles from Manzanar. There’s such a personal connection for us between U2’s sense of social justice and the internment camp experiences of Japanese Americans like my dad.” Band member Russ expands: “We do poke some playful fun at U2 with our lost title track of The Joshua Tree. But we genuinely love not only their music but their willingness to take on all these human rights issues and not flinch in the face of all the bile and hostility that people unleash on them. So the site of that classic photo is kind of our rock Mecca.”

After this the Trackers will share their music with friends & fans. Then later today The Title Trackers will perform inside Retro Records in Ridgecrest from 5:30-8 p.m. Then tomorrow (10/22) they’ll perform at the 65th Annual Desert Empire Fair in Ridgecrest at 7 p.m.

(America “A Horse With No Name” lyrics by Dewey Bunnell)

www.thetitletrackers.com