Most bands have a pretty clear understanding of what kind of music they make, even if they don’t subscribe to the idea of being in a particular genre. Singer-guitarist John Baizley, of Baroness, goes a step further. To pin down what the Georgia quartet does would mean the death of the band, he insists.
“It wasn’t clear what we would sound like back when we first got together, and it’s not clear today what we will sound like tomorrow,” he says. “The one clear foundation stone was an open-mindedness to incorporating new things, a desire to refrain from repetition, a real interest in keeping ourselves challenged. I’ve seen bands where the fire goes out of the music after a few years because they pin things down too much. We have instilled some safeguards to forestall that as long as possible.”
Baizley doesn’t say this with an air of superiority or smugness. What he communicates is a genuine enthusiasm for a wide range of music, an enthusiasm that comes across in Baroness’ two albums, “The Red Album” (2007) and “The Blue Album” (2009). Both have been embraced on the progressive tip of the metal community but also contain elements of acoustic folk, psychedelia, dense harmony singing and avant-garde music.
Comparisons have been made to everything from Radiohead to fellow Georgians Mastodon, all equally unhelpful in identifying exactly what Baroness sounds like. Suffice to say, the band is a moving target, with songs that seep one into the next with a strong sense of melody and broad sense of dynamics — from metallic roar to autumnal whisper — but little regard for conventional structure. Good stuff but also an impediment to an industry that insists on slotting bands into genres.
The four members of Baroness — Baizley, drummer Allen Blickle, guitarist Peter Adams, bassist Summer Welch — have known one another from childhood, growing up in Lexington, Va. Adams and Baizley hung out together in the basement of Baizley’s home, playing music.
“My mother knew that doing that was keeping Pete and me out of trouble,” Baizley says. At the same time, picking up a guitar and finding that he could communicate with it “gave me a euphoric feeling, that same euphoria you search for in your adult years with drugs or whatever.”
“I was 10, 11, when Nirvana hit,” he says. “And I have these memories of seeing the premiere of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ on MTV. It was country music and jam bands in my town, which I couldn’t stand. I wanted angry, loud, experimental, avant-garde, and we really got into the arty punk movement with the Jesus Lizard, the Melvins, Sonic Youth. It was our mission to find music that nobody had.”
The friends drifted apart but eventually all found their way to Savannah, Ga., in 2003, and reconnected with music. Adams couldn’t play with the new band because he was recovering from wounds suffered as part of the first wave of American soldiers to invade Iraq. His place was taken by another combat veteran, Tim Luce, who was between tours as an Army Ranger in Iraq.
“We’ve had two Purple Heart wounded war veterans in the band,” Baizley says. “After Pete was wounded and released, he needed time to himself, which did not mean riding in a van with five other guys ad nauseum year in, year out.”
Luce and his replacement, Brian Blickle (brother of drummer Allen), burned out on touring, leaving the door open for Adams to finally reunite with Baizley and join Baroness in 2008.
“You want to talk to someone about the excesses of Iraq, talk to Pete — our guitar player was one of the guys who found the caged lions and the gold toilet seats in the presidential palaces when they took over Baghdad,” Baizley says. “Then he was wounded. An RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) exploded a meter from his face and severed an optic nerve. He’s blind in one eye and also a fine guitar player. It’s humbling to be in a band with him. When he joined, things in this band really clicked in a lasting, meaningful way.”
The quartet recorded “The Blue Album” with producer John Congleton, who has worked with bands as diverse as the Roots and Black Mountain. Congleton focused on capturing their live energy rather than making every instrument sound immaculate.
“It’s like ‘Enough of the trees, let’s get to the forest!’ and I can’t believe that I just said that,” Baizley says with a laugh. “It’s not about hearing the guitar pick hit each individual string. It’s about, ‘Do you get the feeling?’ This to me is still very intuitive and it’s more about the whole than the little parts. The album artwork (conceived by Baizley, an accomplished visual artist), the lyrics, the music, should all work together to present some kind of experience for the listener.”
So what is it about that experience that makes him want to document it and release it to the public?
“People want to categorize us as a metal band, and I would be pretentious if I were to claim that there is no element of metal in our sound, or nothing progressive in what we do,” he says. “But more than that, what I look for in music, whether it’s Radiohead or Townes Van Zant or Scott Walker, is heaviness. I want that feeling in everything we do.”
Greg Kot co-hosts “Sound Opinions” at 8 p.m. Fridays, 11 a.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. Wednesdays on WBEZ-FM 91.5.
greg@gregkot.com
Baroness, Torche
When: 9:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Subterranean, 2011 W. North Ave.
Price: $15; ticketweb.com
When: Noon-10 p.m. Sunday
Where: Wicker Park Fest, 1600 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Price: $5 donation; wickerparkbuctown.com
