''Batch'' is the second album by Orange County pop punk band
Big Drill Car
Big Drill Car is a punk rock group from Costa Mesa, California, formed in 1987. While the group never gained a mainstream audience, they provided an influence on their contemporaries – most notably ALL, Chemical People and Dag Nasty – alon ...
. It was released in 1991.
It was the last studio recording with the original line-up, and their last album distributed by
Cruz Records
Cruz Records was an offshoot record label of SST Records, owned by the Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn. The label was founded in 1987. Its roster consisted mainly of pop punk and grunge bands, along with Ginn's solo records. The label has rema ...
.
Like many Big Drill Car albums, ''Batch'' is currently out of print.
Critical reception
''
Trouser Press
''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...
'' wrote that "''Batch'' upholds the group’s stylistic consistency: riffs, tunes and punchy rhythms collide in an enjoyable blend of big rock, vampy thrashfunk and nicely detailed pop that hardly belongs on a punk-rooted indie label."
[ The '']Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' wrote that "there is no denying the clean, unrelenting crunch that guitarist Mark Arnold, bassist Bob Thomson and drummer Danny Marcroft achieve as they find hard-rocking middle ground between Led Zeppelin and Husker Du."
Track listing
# "Take Away" (Arnold, Daly, Smooth, Thomson) - 2:38
# "Restless Habs" (Arnold, Daly, Thomson) - 2:51
# "If It's Poison" (Daly) - 2:59
# "Freep" (Arnold, Daly, Thomson) - 3:30
# "Never Ending Endeavor" (Daly, Thomson) - 2:48
# "In a Hole" (Daly) - 2:23
# "Crust" (Daly, Thomson) - 1:51
# "Freedom of Choice" (Mothersbaugh, Casale) - 2:35
# "Ick" (Arnold, Daly, Thomson) - 2:37
# "Faster" (Daly) - 5:26
Credits
*Frank Daly - Vocals
* Mark Arnold - Guitar
*Bob Thomson - Bass, album art
*Danny Marcroft - Drums, background vocals
*Rich Cranium - Guitar solo on 'Ick'
Additional personnel
* Bill Stevenson - Producer
* Stephen Egerton - Engineer, Producer
*Anthony Arvizu - Assistant Engineer, Second Engineer
*Steve McNeil - Assistant Engineer, Second Engineer
* Recorded and Mixed at Mambo Sound and Recording, Long Beach, CA
References
1991 albums
Big Drill Car albums
Cruz Records albums
Albums produced by Bill Stevenson (musician)
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