Baghouse History and Fact Sheet:
Baghouse came together in January of 1997 when then-roommates Andrew
Robison (drums) and Jamie Blasingame (guitar) invited bassist Jeff Rieter
over to the house for a "jam" session. The band performed a couple
shows that winter under the decidedly more difficult-to-spell name Fluoride
Controversy. After dealing with a few "promotional errors," the
band quickly adopted the name Baghouse, after the generic term for industrial
pollutant filtering systems seen in factories across the world.
Built on the premise of full-on improvisation - both within loose song
structures and without any predetermined structure at all - Baghouse slowly
but surely stretched out across the Southeast, and then the Eastern United
States, working up to a near-one hundred show year in 1999. With the departure
of Jamie Blasingame, the band performed with many guests and collaborators,
including Robert Walter and Chemee Gasletum of the 20th Congress, Jeffree
Learner of Sound Tribe Sector 9, and many great local contributors from
various cities and scenes.
One of these collaborators, Jeff McLeod of Montgomery, Alabama, was particularly
adept in bringing a unique sound to the band. Jeff worked with Baghouse,
first as a guest and then as a member, for nearly a year, including the
band's performance at the South by Southwest Music and New Media Conference
in March, 2000.
Jeff's unique style of playing involved beautiful textural elements combined
with abrupt, abrasive blasts of sound and a rather twisted soloing style.
Bolstered by his mastery of the Boomerang phrase sampling pedal, Jeff created
a wall of sound often resembling two or even three players at once, and
brought Baghouse into the realm of live looping - or, if you prefer, on-the-fly
sampling of different components of a live performance.
Baghouse had long been developing a loop-based compositional mindset,
also encouraging the emulation of other instruments and non-traditional
methods of playing chosen instruments, particularly with outside contributors.
With the departure of Jeff McLeod in April 2000 to pursue his solo experimental
projects and other, heavier bands, Baghouse again worked with multiple contributing
musicians, and plunged ever-deeper into the influences of electronica and
loop-based music in general.
Although performing occasionally as a duo, Baghouse is very happy to
be currently working with Mark Morse on guitar and laptop computer. Mark
brings a sound easily as unique and experimental as any previous Baghouse
performer. The band particularly welcomes his warm embrace of electronic
soundscapes and decidedly non-traditional ways of attacking his Epiphone
SG doubleneck guitar. With extensive digital processing through both his
pedals and his computer, the ability to drop samples from the computer,
and of course his mastery of live looping via the Boomerang phrase sampler,
Mark is probably the best possible collaborator for the Baghouse of today.
Baghouse has performed in the following States
and Provinces:
Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina,
Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia,
West Virginia.
Baghouse has performed with the following bands:
Galactic, Drums and Tuba, Lake Trout, Helio Sequence, Sound Tribe Sector
9, Soulive, Robert Walter's 20th Congress, Col. Bruce Hampton, The Quadrajets,
Tim Reynolds, Mary Cutrufello, Mt. Pilot, Skwzbxx, All That, Buck Dewey
Big Band, Polemic, Sci-Fu, Couch, Hematovore, Jive Mob, and many more...
Baghouse has performed over 300 shows, including appearances at North
by Northeast 1999, in Toronto, Ontario, North by Northwest 1999 and 2000,
in Portland, Oregon, and South by Southwest 2000, in Austin, Texas. |
Rieter, Morse, Robison, @baghouse+livingspace,
Athens, GA, Spring 2001