Team Sleep is an American
experimental
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
/
post-rock
Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...
group led by singer/guitarist
Chino Moreno
Chino Moreno (born Camillo Wong Moreno, June 20, 1973) is an American musician who is best known as the lead vocalist, primary lyricist and contributing guitarist of the metal band Deftones. He is also a member of the side-project groups Team Sl ...
. Moreno is better known for fronting the Sacramento-based
alternative metal
Alternative metal (also known as alt-metal) is a genre of heavy metal music
Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With r ...
band
Deftones
Deftones is an American alternative metal band formed in Sacramento, California in 1988. They were formed by Chino Moreno (vocals, guitar), Stephen Carpenter (guitar), Abe Cunningham (drums), and Dominic Garcia (bass). During their first five ...
. Other current members include guitarist Todd Wilkinson, turntablist DJ Crook, bass guitarist/keyboardist
Rick Verrett, drummer
Gil Sharone
Gil Sharone is an American drummer and member of the rock bands Stolen Babies, Team Sleep, and formerly The Dillinger Escape Plan and Marilyn Manson. He was also a fill in for the punk rock band +44. His twin brother is Rani Sharone, also o ...
and bassist Chuck Doom.
Team Sleep's music touches on a variety of genres, including
dream pop
Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...
,
trip hop
Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop ...
,
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...
,
post-rock
Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...
,
shoegaze
Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volu ...
,
ambient music
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...
,
psychedelic music
Psychedelic music (sometimes called psychedelia) is a wide range of popular music styles and genres influenced by 1960s psychedelia, a subculture of people who used psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, mescaline, and cannabis to ...
,
lo-fi music
Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...
, and
electronica
Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...
.
History
Early years
Team Sleep started when Moreno and his friend Todd Wilkinson bought a
cassette tape
The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...
Portastudio
The TASCAM Portastudio was the first four-track recorder based on a standard compact audio cassette tape. The term ''portastudio'' is exclusive to TASCAM, though it is generally used to describe all self-contained cassette-based multitrack rec ...
-type four-track recorder in 1994. They continued this collaboration through the first two Deftones albums, though on a rather casual basis. Wilkinson said, "We were never going to make a record, or start a band ... I was just sitting at home, playing guitar, and I started recording some stuff. It was never about trying to play shows, record in a studio, or anything of that sort. It was just bumming around. I had never been in a band, and I never wanted to be—we were just good friends."
DJ Crook, a long-time friend and roommate of Deftones turntablist/keyboardist
Frank Delgado, added beats and turntables to "Teenager", a song featuring
glitch
A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system, such as a transient fault that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as among ...
and
trip hop
Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop ...
influences.
Originally intended as a Team Sleep song, "Teenager" was ultimately included on ''
White Pony
''White Pony'' is the third studio album by American alternative metal band Deftones, released on June 20, 2000, through Maverick Records. It was produced by Terry Date, who produced the band's first two albums, ''Adrenaline'' (1995) and '' Aro ...
'' (2000), the third Deftones album.
Team Sleep performed a number of live shows on the
West Coast of the United States
The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...
in late 2001 and early 2002, with Moreno, Wilkinson, DJ Crook, Verrett (of
Tinfed
Tinfed were an alternative rock group started in Sacramento, California. The final line-up consisted of vocalist and instrumentalist Rey Osburn, guitarist Eric Stenman, drummer Matt McCord, and bassist Rick Verrett. They released three studio al ...
),
Zach Hill
Zachary Charles Hill (born December 28, 1979) is an American multi-instrumentalist and visual artist. He is best known as the drummer and co-producer of the groups Death Grips and the I.L.Y's, and as the drummer of math rock band Hella.
Art
In ...
(
Hella
''Hella'' is an American slang term that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is used as an intensifying adverb such as in "hella bad" or "hella good" and was eventually added to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' in 2002. It is possibl ...
, later of
Death Grips
Death Grips is an American experimental hip hop group formed in 2010 in Sacramento, California. The group consists of Stefan Burnett, also known as MC Ride (vocals, lyrics), Zach Hill (drums, production, lyrics), and Andy Morin (keyboards, pr ...
),
Dan Elkan
Dan Elkan (born September 7, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter and producer, who is best known as the singer and guitarist for the rock band Them Hills. Elkan has performed live with Broken Bells, Hella, and Kim Deal, and has appeared on ...
(Pocket for Corduroy/Them Hills), Sonny Mayugba (of Phallucy, the prior band of Deftones drummer
Abe Cunningham
Abraham Benjamin Cunningham (born July 27, 1973) is an American musician, best known as the drummer of the alternative metal band Deftones.
Life and career
Abe Cunningham was born in Long Beach, California. When he was young, his family moved ...
) and Joel Tidwell handling instrumentation. Their early live set included a loose cover of
the Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamb ...
' "
The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)", among others.
Debut album
A full album's worth of material was finished in 2002–03, but not officially released. The instrumental song "The Passportal" was included on ''
The Matrix Reloaded: The Album'', the April 2003 soundtrack album for the film ''
The Matrix Reloaded
''The Matrix Reloaded'' is a 2003 American science-fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is a sequel to '' The Matrix'' (1999) and the second installment in the ''Matrix'' film series. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Lau ...
''.
Singers
Mike Patton
Michael Allan Patton (born January 27, 1968) is an American singer, producer, film composer and voice actor, best known as the lead vocalist of the alternative metal band Faith No More. Noted for his vocal proficiency, diverse singing techni ...
(
Mr. Bungle
Mr. Bungle is an American experimental rock band formed in Eureka, California in 1985. Having gone through many incarnations throughout their career, the band is best known for music created during their most experimental era. During this time, ...
,
Fantomas,
Faith No More
Faith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979. Before settling on the current name in July 1983, the band performed under the names Sharp Young Men and later Faith No Man. Bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist/r ...
) and
Melissa Auf der Maur (ex-
Hole
A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of en ...
, ex-Smashing Pumpkins) were involved in recording sessions, but their contributions were not included on the final album. Singers
Rob Crow
Robertdale Rulon Crow Jr. (born February 21, 1971) is an American singer and musician from San Diego, California, known for his involvement with the bands Pinback, Heavy Vegetable, Physics, Optiganally Yours and Thingy. He has also led the band ...
(of San Diego-based band
Pinback
Pinback is an American indie rock band from San Diego, California. The band was formed in 1998 by singers, songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Rob Crow, who have been its two consistent members. They have rele ...
) and
Mary Timony
Mary Bozana Timony (born October 17, 1970) is an American independent singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, and violist. She has been a member of the bands Helium, Autoclave and Wild Flag, and currently fronts Ex Hex.
Timony's music is o ...
(of the band
Helium
Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...
) were the only vocalists other than Moreno to appear on the album.
Team Sleep's record was originally scheduled for release in November 2004, but
Maverick Records
Maverick was an American entertainment company founded in 1992 by Madonna, Frederick DeMann, and Veronica "Ronnie" Dashev, and formerly owned and operated by Warner Music Group. It included a record label (Maverick Records), a film production ...
were reportedly so impressed by the album that they postponed the release until mid-2005 to allow for promotion. The debut album contained only five of the original tracks; three of those were heavily reworked. In October 2004, DJ C-Minus premiered the Team Sleep demo "Cambodia" while opening for Deftones at a concert at
House of Blues
House of Blues is an American chain of live music concert halls and restaurants. It was founded by Isaac Tigrett, the co-founder of Hard Rock Cafe, and Dan Aykroyd, co-star of the 1980 film ''The Blues Brothers''. The first location opened at ...
in West Hollywood. The title of this song, which was co-written with producer
Greg Wells
Greg Wells is a Canadian musician, record producer, songwriter and audio engineer. Wells has songs on over 130 million albums sold. He has worked with John Legend, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ariana Grande, Jazmine Sullivan, Kid Cudi, Adele, Rufus Wai ...
, was later changed to "Ever (Foreign Flag)". The official Team Sleep website appeared in early 2005 and included songs and videos for free downloading.
''
Team Sleep
Team Sleep is an American experimental alternative rock/post-rock group led by singer/guitarist Chino Moreno. Moreno is better known for fronting the Sacramento-based alternative metal band Deftones. Other current members include guitarist Todd ...
'' was finally released on May 10, 2005, to mostly positive reviews. "The best part about it is having completion of something you've been working on, and having it done right," Moreno said in a statement. "It's fun, working with different people, everybody works differently. When I have time off from music, I want to make other music. That's what I do, that's what's fun, that's what makes me happy."
Notably absent from the completed debut album were "Mercedes", "Apollonia", "Iceache", "Death by Plane", "Solid Gold", "Acoustic One" and "Kool-Aid Party". The demo of "Cambodia" was revamped and appeared on the album in the form of "Ever (Foreign Flag)", while "Natalie Portman" was revised into "Live from the Stage".
Following Team Sleep's first release, the band toured and began posting various demos on their
MySpace page.
Return
In October 2014, a new Team Sleep lineup recorded a live album in front of an audience at Applehead Recording studio in
Woodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, NY. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 in 2000 ...
. The members included Moreno, Wilkinson, Verret and DJ Crook as well as bassist Chuck Doom (also of Moreno's
Crosses
Crosses may refer to:
* Cross, the symbol
Geography
* Crosses, Cher, a French municipality
* Crosses, Arkansas, a small community located in the Ozarks of north west Arkansas
Language
* Crosses, a truce term used in East Anglia and Lincolnshire ...
) and drummer
Gil Sharone
Gil Sharone is an American drummer and member of the rock bands Stolen Babies, Team Sleep, and formerly The Dillinger Escape Plan and Marilyn Manson. He was also a fill in for the punk rock band +44. His twin brother is Rani Sharone, also o ...
(ex-
Marilyn Manson
Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician. He came to prominence as the lead singer of the band which shares his name, of which he remains the only constant member since it ...
, ex-
Dillinger Escape Plan). The record, self-released in July 2015, consisted of reworkings of both tracks from the first album tracks as well as unreleased old demos.
[
]
As of 2022, Team Sleep is inactive.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
References
External links
*
Team Sleepon
MyspaceQ&A With Chino Moreno of Team Sleep and DeftonesWestword
''Westword'' is a free digital and print media publication based in Denver, Colorado. ''Westword'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue cir ...
November 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Team Sleep
Alternative rock groups from California
American post-rock groups
Trip hop groups
Dream pop musical groups
American experimental musical groups
Musical groups established in 2000
Deftones
Musical groups from Sacramento, California
Team Sleep members