Rumah Sakit was founded in 1998 by John Baez, Mitch Cheney, Jeff Shannon, and Kenseth Thibideau. Their eponymous debut album was released in 2000, which AllMusic described as "a heady mix of mathy time signatures and dense musical passages that craftily, oftentimes dreamily, intersect." In 2002, the group released Obscured by Clowns, continuing their trend of comical Pink Floyd references. Often likened to King Crimson, Don Caballero, Rodan, and Hella, Pitchfork highlighted Rumah Sakit's consistently unique ability to "keep a keen eye out for two things: emotional intensity and an awareness of unity and consonance." This, and the group's legendarily intense live shows, are what divided Rumah Sakit from the herd.
