PETER APPS
Nick Freund began working with four of his students to form a band that took the name the Search Party: Peter Apps (lead guitar and vocals), Joanie Goff (vocals and guitar), Jim Carvalho (bass, guitar and vocals), and Tim King (drums). Freund himself was evidently on organ and composed most of the music; he also produced the album. The music was recorded in 1968 at the Montgomery Chapel at San Francisco Theological Seminary, so Montgomery Chapel became the name of the album. Just 600 copies were pressed on the tiny Century Records label, and the band performed together live only once, at a sort of “thank you” party. Nick Freund left California and joined the faculty at Mount Saint Paul College in Waukesha, Wisconsin later that year.
The music on the second disk also came out on Century Records; it is performed by the St. Pius X Seminary Choir and is called Each One Heard in His Own Language. This music was written and arranged in the year or two before the Search Party album came together, and the work was performed live in the Spring of 1968. This disc also includes the first music recorded by Peter Apps of the Search Party, who sings some passages and also plays lead guitar.
The Search Party had its origins in the Rejects, a garage rock band that originally included Peter Apps and Jim Carvalho among its members. Formed in about 1963, the Rejects also included Mike Casey on lead guitar and Mark Helmar on rhythm guitar; Apps was the drummer. Their repertoire included “Little Black Egg” that had been recorded by the Golliwogs (who later became Creedence Clearwater Revival) and “Mr. Tambourine Man”, the Bob Dylan song that was a hit for the Byrds.
(September 2014)
