Recorded in 1990-1991 by Drew Canulette at Dogfish Studios
Mixed by Drew Canulette and Mark Sten at Dogfish Studios
Released in May 1992 as T/K #9112-013 (12" vinyl edition)
Released in 1995 as T/K #9112-013 (CD edition)
The Oblivion Seekers started out as Thor Lindsay's idea at the beginning of 1990. He was working part-time for my PA company
(Concert Sound) and part-time for Mike Quinn at Monqui Presents, one of Portland's two main rock bookers at the time. Thor persuaded
Quinn that I should open for an upcoming Cramps show, partly because I'd opened for them the first time they came to town in 1982.
I hired three musicians in their early 20s and taught them a set of black gospel songs for the occasion. We played four shows that
spring and retired.
As it happened, Dogfish Recording Studios out in Newberg owed Concert Sound some favors, so I arranged for free studio time and
took in Oblivion Seekers Band Version #1.0 to cut 7 basic tracks. The project had no concrete goal, and I ignored it for several
months because Newberg was a 40-minute drive from my house.
At the beginning of 1991 Thor launched his T/K record label, and offered to release a full-length Oblivion Seekers record if we could
deliver 12 finished songs. I reconvened Band Version #1.1 and we cut 5 more basics that summer. We caught up on the overdubs and mixed
it down by January of 1992. Then the artwork took another 5 months to finish, and that delay kept our record from becoming the first
full-length LP released by T/K. That honor went to T/K's limited vinyl edition of the new CD by the Dharma Bums, whose real contract
was with a Seattle label. The Oblivion Seekers was the first ORIGINAL full-length release EXCLUSIVE TO T/K, but I was borrowing the
Dharma Bums' rhythm section, so I had no complaints.
SISTER MARY - I took advantage of a massive winter head cold by scheduling an emergency session so I could record this vocal while
my sinuses still sounded like someone else.
FINE FINE FINE - Jim learned Part 1 of this song (the song part) and recorded it with me and John. Then Jim stopped playing and sat
there very quietly while John kept a beat going and I improvised Part 2 until I ran out of Renaissance-sounding chord changes.
I studied the tape later and finished the bass track after deciphering what I'd done on the organ.
ROADHOUSE - In 1981 I wrote finished music and structure and enough words for two verses of this one. I assumed it needed three.
This rankled me for years, but it also sensitized me to the existence of other songs with the same problem, songs by famous
artists who ran out of gas and finished weak after two strong verses. I call this 3rd verse Fatigue Syndrome (3vFS).
I decided that Roadhouse had enough lyrics. I decided it needed a guitar break there instead.
THE BORDER - 3rd verse fatigue again. I wrote the structure, the choruses, and two verses, then I clocked out. Unfortunately,
this one really did need a 3rd verse. I wrote it a year later, when I had to. I went out for an elegant dinner with my
wife and came home and wrote the last verse 24 hours before I had to play the thing live on stage. And it's not bad for
deadline work, except that I'd been living under a rock for so many years, I thought color TVs were still a badge of
affluence. I never even wanted a color TV - I didn't get one until the end of the 90's, when the kids said I had to.
For 10 years I thought Reservoir Dogs was in black-and-white. And the funny thing is, it should have been.
FOREVER - I used to wonder what might happen if musicians were mentally free to record a song with no structure to worry
about and no cues to follow. Would it liberate them from all conscious thought? Would it realign their brain waves?
Would it be deep? Rob and John and I started the track and then settled in to repeat the same 3-chord pattern for four
minutes, seeking to will ourselves into a state of hypnotic trance. I can't hear any difference.
CHRISTMAS IN THE CITY - Late in 1991 Thor Lindsay announced that his T/K label should put out a song-by-song replica of Phil Spector's
1964 Christmas album. This sounded like such a bad idea that I went home and wrote a Christmas original the same night,
just to complicate matters. We cut a cheerful version in the summer of 1992, on tape that was subsequently destroyed.*
In 1994 we re-recorded it for T/K's long-awaited Christmas album, somewhat less cheerfully.
* The Dogfish ranch house/studio burned down in 1993. The rolls of 24-track tape for Spirit of America were safe at
Concert Sound's warehouse by then, but the Christmas song burned up along with the original multi-track tapes of our
first album. I guess that would make these the definitive mixes of that material.
The Oblivion Seekers - Musician's Credits
Mark Sten, John Moen, Jim
Talstra. Steve Birch, Rob Landoll, Heidi Hellbender, Drew
Canulette,
BASIC TRACKS
* Drums - John / Bass - Jim / Guitars - Steve & Sten
# Drums - John / Bass - Jim / Guitar - Steve / Keyboards - Sten
K Drums - John / Bass - Jim / Keyboards - Sten
B Drums - John / Bass - Jim / Guitars - Steve, Sten + Rob
G Drums - John / Guitars - Sten + Rob
OVERDUBS
All Keys - Sten
* 1. NO DEPRESSION = BGVox - John / Gtr Fills - Steve + Sten / Gtr solo - Steve
* 2. NO DISTINCTION = BGVox - John
* 3. FAMILY BIBLE= Gtr Fills -Sten / Gtr Solo - Steve
* 4. GOD'S COMING AGAIN = BGVox - Sten / Gtr Fills - Sten / Gtr Solo - Steve
* 5. SISTER MARY = 2nd Lead Vox - John / BGVox - John + Sten
K 6. FINE FINE FINE = BGVox - Sten / Gtr Fills - Sten / Bss (Pt 2) - Sten /
Horns - Drew / Tambourine - Sten / Noise - Drew + Sten
* 7. ROADHOUSE = BGVox - Sten / Gtr Fills - Sten + Rob / Gtr Solo - Steve
# 8. ONE-WAY TICKET = Gtr Fills + Solo - Sten
# 9. RIVER OF LOVE = BGVox - John / Gtr Solo - Sten
* 10. THE BORDER = Gtr Fills - Steve, Sten + Rob
B 11. NO PITY = BGVox - Heidi / Gtr Fills - Rob + Sten / Finger-Pops - Sten
G 12. FOREVER = BGVox - John + Sten / Gtr Fills - Sten / Bss - Sten /
Backward feedback guitar note - Steve / Tambourine - Sten
13. SISTER MARY (Live) = Drums - John / Bass - Jim / Guitars - Steve + Sten