Oren Goby, 1985: “Washed over Earnest”
Side One
- we’re here
- oh buffalo
- still life
- marine blue
- nap-up picture
- canyon break
- who gives this woman?
- reel
- rachael fleming sings
- footprints
Side Two
- conversation pieces
- fishy myths
- something secret
- broke-up—Suzy USA
- grey suits
- anonymous
- mundane
- better half
John Dehn: guitar, vocals
Mark Anderson: drums
Erik Lee Skjon: bass, vocals
We recorded these songs during the summer of 1985, shortly before I began my eight-year odyssey around the world. We had begun to enjoy some success (warming up for The Replacements in front of 3000 people was probably the highlight), and so it was with a heavy heart that I informed my bandmates John and Mark that I was hanging up my musical aspirations after little more than a year together. Music has been strictly a hobby since then. Luckily, we were able to capture most of our originals before I left. We recorded the backing instrumental tracks at a semi-pro studio, and then recorded the vocals and did the mixing ourselves at John’s workplace. We felt strongly at the time about getting the instruments recorded in a single take, with few if any overdubs. We didn’t really know what we were doing, but I think we did a great job of capturing the energy and enthusiasm of our live performances, and John had already developed pretty good skills at the mixing board. In 2011, I digitized the recording from an old cassette copy. I couldn’t use the master reel-to-reel tape because it had degraded a lot on one side through the years.
The name “Oren Goby” was partly inspired by one of my favorite groups in high school, Oregon (although the genres are completely different). The Goby part was suggested by high school jamming partner Steve Portoghese (I think). The name didn’t jibe well with the Twin Cities post-punk scene at the time, and I blame it for our not having shot to instant fame. The name of the album comes from a mixed review of one of our shows, which said something about our engaging, angular instruments washed over earnest if not always tuneful vocals.
We had great rapport and camaraderie. We usually began each rehearsal with a free jam, and some of the song ideas came from these jams. I met John through an ad in the local entertainment weekly, and then after several months of fruitless search for a drummer, we bumped into my old friend Mark at a party at our band house. I went to junior high school with Mark, but then he moved to California in senior high school. Mark came back to Minnesota for college and stayed here afterwards. I really liked the way our different influences combined to form a fairly unique sound. Definitely feel like we could’ve gone farther with it had my wanderlust not gotten the better of me. We fed off of each other’s quiet intensity and commitment, and our live performances were always very high-energy. This was the first and last time I developed a bit as a rock singer. Looking back, I’m especially proud of how some of our more overtly political lyrics have held up over time.