The Search Party

The Search Party made one very obscure psychedelic album in the late '60s, Montgomery Chapel, which likely was pressed in a very small quantity. That in itself ensured that it became a collector's item among psychedelic completists, but it's not noteworthy solely for its rarity. As such endeavors went, it was fairly respectable, if -- like many little-known bands of the time, both with and without standard record deals -- quite derivative of West Coast psychedelic rock in general, and of Jefferson Airplane and Country Joe & the Fish-styled San Francisco psychedelic bands in particular. Like those bands, they boasted a bent for minor-key melodies; like the Airplane, they split the singing chores among a high, strong woman singer and male vocals; and like Country Joe & the Fish, they utilized a darkly vibrant, slightly macabre organ sound. Their songs, singing, and playing weren't nearly on the level of the Airplane or Fish, nor did they have any of the humor or wit that many such quality San Francisco bands made sure to express as needed balance for the more serious and experimental moods. Indeed, their material had an over-reverential quality that tapped into the hippie mindset at its most earnestly pretentious. All the same, the LP had a ghostly sincerity that had some merit, and makes for some pleasurable if erratic listening. Not much information has circulated about the group, but it's been written that they moved to Sacramento, CA, from Wisconsin, a notion supported by the listing of contact addresses in both locations on the LP's back cover. From the brief liner notes on the back cover, it can also be deduced that Nicholas T. Freund -- who wrote much (though not all) of the material, and produced the album -- was the most musically influential member of the...