The History of Fitehouse

You're quitting your job to do what?
Join a rock-n-roll band?
What are you? HIGH?

THE ORIGINS OF 'THE IDEA':

Take two guys in their 20's. Friends since nursery school. They had played together in a bunch of high school rock-n-roll bands. Dropping their musical aspirations, after college they go out and find respectable jobs.

Josh Cohen (the guitarist) while working as an economist in Mexico joins Signos y Sombras, a Spanish language funk band. Soon the group finds itself appearing on radio, television and before festival crowds. Getting back from gigs at 2 am and appearing at 8 in the morning to give economic briefings to Mexican businessmen, Josh realizes that something is wrong. Longing to make music his true career, and to reunite with childhood friend and singer, Gabriel Gilligan, Josh begins sending Gabe a series of emails argumenting the merits of the forming a new band (these emails, whose whereabouts are uncertain, may be likened to the Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, arguing the merits of the then recently drafted U.S. Constitution).

Also sick of working for "the man", Gabe decides to quit his job at Towers Perrin in 1997. He jumps on a plane and heads down to Mexico City to retrieve Joshua. They descend from the mountains of Mexico to make their way back to the United States in Josh's 1973 Dodge Dart (see photo). Arriving in the States they tour the East Coast, looking for the ideal rock-n-roll town. Demographics and economics (and Josh's brother Dan) would bring them to Baltimore, MD.

HOW 'THE IDEA' BECAME A GROUP:

Aspiring to form a band dedicated to quality pop music with interesting melodies and more than three chords per song, Josh and Gabe begin their hunt for Baltimore's best unsigned rhythm section. They find their first drummer through a tip from a local drum teacher. In early 1998, a bit frustrated with having auditioned scores of unqualified bassist, the band takes out one last ad in the local "City Paper". This time Edward Plant responds. Edward, an electrical engineer by day and owner of Gilbert Music Productions by night, was the principal arranger and bassist in several local jazz-fusion acts. Intrigued with the idea of bringing his jazz trained skills to a rock format, Ed joins the group's quest to redefine pop music. In late 1999 the band and its first drummer part ways over philosophical differences, marking the next major phase of fitehouse's rock-n-roll trajectory. Taking his place was Ellis Baylor, former drummer with the local reggae band Jah Works, whose contribution added yet another set of unique musical influences to the Fitehouse sound. Sadly, Ellis passed away in May of 2003 from complications from his sickel cell anemia. While we were all deeply hurt by his untimely death, we all feel privileged to have known him and are grateful that we were able to capture some of his talent on our album "Released"

WHERE 'THE IDEA' IS GOING:

While Fitehouse is currently in search of a new drummer to gig with, we have been collaborating with Eduardo Ceceña, from the Banda del Automóvil Gris and former drummer from Signos y Sombras, Josh's band in Mexico. Eduardo came up to Baltimore play drums on the Bomb EP, and has been working with the group on various projects via the Internet (it is a new era indeed!) Fitehouse is currently engaged in a variety of activities to promote a more organic system for the dissemination of music, free from the opressiveness of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Big Five oligopoly it represents. A center piece to our activities has been Fitehouse's Bomb EP campaign, a postcard propaganda outreach campaign directed at more than 2,700 members of alternative and college media. Yup, we've sent out roughly 32,400 postcards in total! And the college community has responded effusively! It looks like Fitehouse has found its calling and we will be taking the revolution to college campuses across the country.

And we still have a slew of creative ideas, stunts and campaigns up our sleeves. The public will be delighted and amused, the media will be confused and the Recording Industry will be anger-infused! Stay abreast of all our our tactical maneuverings by visiting our news forum often!

 WANT SOME MORE HISTORICAL DETAILS?

Click here to get a chronology of the events that led to formation of Fitehouse and what the band is today!

To read an explanation of the origins of the name Fitehouse, follow this link.

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