THE BATCH –
The story of The Batch is really the story of the songwriting team of Barry Thomas Goldberg and Gary Paulak, and the 5-piece band that became the principal means through which Goldberg & Paulak’s songs were introduced, for over seven years. With antecedents in the original Goldberg-Paulak garage band “The Shambles”, and through the duo’s invaluable apprenticeship/junior partnership arrangement with Peter Steinberg and Dale Menten of Candy Floss Productions, The Batch represented something unique in the history of Twin Cities Rock of the late 60s - mid 70s era: They were one of the very few groups of their day to enjoy continuous, immediate, non-ending access to the top recording studios in town. In those far-off days when the term “home studio” usually referred to the Wollensak tape recorder that you kept in your bedroom, this was a major distinction. It meant that The Batch was considered by the powers-that-be (principally Minnesota music legend Dale Menten, the band’s long-term producer and occasional participant) to possess the studio savvy and creative chops necessary to put them in this rarified position.
The resulting tapes (some meant for release, some meant only as demos) reveal the band to be a versatile, colorful outfit which accented the lead vocals of the principal songwriters, as well as those of the group’s other main vocalist, Arne Fogel, and the luxurious two-and-three-part harmonies crafted by this trio of singers. Adding the solid, yet melodic bass playing of Goldberg’s boyhood pal Jay Lee, and the remarkably gifted Gary “Whip” Lane on drums, resulted in the perfect studio package: A group with tight personal as well as professional sense of purpose, and the know-how necessary to get the most out of their unprecedented studio access.
This is not to say that the group didn’t spend time with home recording equipment as well. Dozens of performances exist, featuring the group as they experimented with two-track and four-track performances of considerable breadth and variety, as recorded between 1968 and 1974, when they completed their final informal “home” sessions in Evergreen, Colorado. Add to this the dozen-or so existing “Live” recordings of The Batch, and one might come to the conclusion that this could be the most prolific recording outfit in Twin Cities’ Rock of that time.
If you followed The Batch in those days, you most likely caught their act in any one of the following Twin Cities’ venues: The Home Bar, Duff’s, C.C. Tap, Coffeehouse Extempore, Coffman Union (U of M), One Groveland, Powderhorn Park, The Triangle Bar, or in any of the countless high schools, colleges, and forgotten bar engagements across Minnesota, the Dakotas (including the band’s fondly-remembered engagements at Stephan Mission in South Dakota), Iowa, Wisconsin...... or maybe you caught them at Tulagee’s in Boulder...... or at Breckinridge Colorado’s West Bank.
The best place (the only place!) to catch The Batch now, of course, is on disc or through the internet, where their recorded legacy sparks with freshness and fun, power and profundity, and more than a few laughs along the way.
This chapter of “The Lost Music of Mid-America” has a happy ending, as The Batch - Barry Thomas Goldberg, Gary Paulak, Arne Fogel, Jay Lee, and Whip Lane - has been found and the time capsule cracked wide-open, this special little band once again greeting its audience.
Expect the first release of “The Batch - Transistor - Lost Basement Recordings 1968-1971" on April 8, 2008
Anazitisi Records has released "Wait 'Til Tomorrow" in Europe. This vinyl release can be purchased at www.anazitisirecords.com. This is the second album released by "The Batch" in 2008.
On June 19, 2009 "The Batch - Blue Sky Day - The Lost Music of Mid-America Vol. II 1970-1973" was released and is available at CD Baby, itunes, Napster, etc. Here is a review of "The Batch - Blue Sky Day"....
July 19, 2009 - Sunday
New RTD!! Steve Earle, The Grande Machine, & The Batch!!
Category: Music
'Round The Dial
7/20/09
By: Tom Hallett
Band Members: Barry Thomas Goldberg- Guitars, Vocals/Gary Paulak- Lead Guitar, Organ, Piano, Vocals/Arne Fogel- Piano, Organ, Percussion, Vocals/Jay Lee- Bass/Whip Lane- Drums
Track Listing: Mr. Onawalla/Roadside Manner/The Night Is Gone/Trying To Make It/Show It/Pretending/End Of The Road/I Can't Take It/Crazy/Don't Be Wrong/Blue Sky Day/Don't You Turn Away/Amaranth (The Eternal Flower)/Pop And Ice/Daddy's Coming Home/They All Went Down/You Can Still Be My Woman/Blue Boy/Golden Sun/Hot Summer Nights/Hold Me Now
Having spent an inordinate amount of time last winter listening to The Batch's disc of rarities and early recordings, Transistor, which covered the end of the Sixties, I wasn't surprised to hear this studio-perfected collection from one of Minnesota's most overlooked and sadly underrated early garage/psychedelic rock outfits.
As hinted at on Transistor, Goldberg, Paulak, Fogel and the rest eventually fine-tuned their pop-smart, era-relevant sound into a proud, glorious string of early-'70's singles that match or surpass the best work of like-minded musical souls of the time such as Badfinger, The Move, Buffalo Springfield, and Mike Nesmith.
Stand-out, shoulda-been-hits here include the pop-perfect jangle of "Roadside Manner," which could be a follow-up to such highway fantasies of the time as "Sweet Hitch-Hiker" or "Chevy Van," the Pete Ham-inflected reverie "Trying To Make It," the Springfield-esque "End Of The Road," the Canned Heat-meets-The Grateful Dead shimmy of "Crazy," and the gorgeous, keys-laden title track.
This batch of tunes from The Batch includes some of the catchiest, most interesting pop/rock to ever come out of the midwest, let alone the Twin Cities area, and though it's a serious shame that for whatever reasons the music was overlooked at its inception, we're lucky Goldberg and his old mates kept these recordings in such fine condition and have risen above any (deserved) feelings of abandonment to share them with today's better-educated and more open-minded music lovers.
If you haven't heard this stuff yet, your so-called "encycolopedic knowledge" of Minnesota music is sadly lacking, and if you're a musical history buff with an endless thirst for more and higher-quality finds, this is your motherlode. A true treasure awaiting the sound-hungry ears of a new generation of pop/rock fans, this collection is available (with spot-on liner notes courtesy of Arne Fogel) at www.ironweeds.com and you can check The Batch out online at www.myspace.com/batch5 Fantastic!!
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