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Team Sleep

@teamsleeppics

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We make music with our friends

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Team Sleep - 11/11

Here are my raw drum samples for our song “11/11.” The name comes from the day I made the beat — I want to say it was November 11, 2002. I believe I sent the beat to Todd that same day. He eventually added guitar to it, and we had a demo.

There are some guitar parts on the demo that I love, but they didn’t make it into the studio version. I made a quick post of the demo version last year — it’s on my IG and TikTok. (Hint: the post shows a bunch of CDs I still have from that era as the cover photo.)

This is probably my favorite song on the record — and it’s also the closing track of the album. Initially, I wanted the song to feature only the drum machine, but Zach’s work on it is amazing. For the first couple of minutes, he adds light cymbal splashes here and there, and around the 2:16 mark, he really kicks in on top of the drum machine.And it sounds seamless.

One of my favorite Boards of Canada songs is “Dayvan Cowboy,” which starts with a drum machine before live drums eventually come in on top of it. 11/11 has one of those moments I love — when everything locks in perfectly. Chino and Rob both have prominent vocal parts on this song.

As Todd was recording his parts, I made a joke about him falling asleep while playing. Because I think he was nodding off during “Princeton Review!” Todd wasn’t amused. He said, “Then YOU do it!” So he had me play some really simple open strums starting around the 2:06 mark, all the way to the end. So technically, I play guitar on this song.

#TeamSleep
#ChinoMoreno
#RobCrow
#Pinback
#CrookOne
#ToddWilkinson
#ZachHill
#RickVerrett
#GregWells
#DrumMachines
#EMUSP1200 by @teamsleeppics

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a year ago

Today is the 10 year anniversary of the release of this record. It deserves some love.

Much love to Chuck, this idea started with him and he did a ridiculous amount of work to make it happen. The number of phone calls, trips back and forth from LA to NY, the attention to every detail from playing and recording, to the business side, coordinating travel, deciding on the food. Everything. It’s an understatement to say this wouldn’t have happened with him. It wouldn’t have even been thought of without him.

Shout out to Gil for changing plans last minute, making some important sacrifices and absolutely killing it on drums.

A lot of gratitude to Mike and Chris and everyone at Applehead studio in Woodstock for being welcoming hosts and making the record sound great. Shout out to the goat (pictured), the horse (RIP) Andre (the cat). No love to that scary, giant pig.

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it. People came from such great distances, we were really humbled. Everyone in the band felt like it was a very special event and we hope all of you did too.

Thank you to my friend Antonio Sarabia for helping with the design and production of posters. If you were at the event, and you got one, we screen printed all of them by hand. We were teaching together and we made them after school in our crazy haunted annex studio.

This was actually the first time we all played together and we didn’t have a lot of rehearsal prior to the event, but once we settled in, it all came very naturally. My favorite moments on the record are:

“Skull” Gil’s fill @ 2:52 and Chino‘s scream @ 3:07
“OP” Chuck’s bassline @ 2:50.

This was my first time playing live in quite a while. The first song we played was “Skull.” I was kinda shaky and I played poorly, so I suggested that we play the song again at the end of the set. By that time we were feeling super loose and I think we all just wanted to keep playing. That’s why on the record, at the end of “Skull” you hear Chino saying “thank you” like it’s the end of the set. It was. We chose to use the second take, but still wanted that song to open the record. taken in Woodstock, New York by @teamsleeppics

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a year ago

Found this pic while digging through files for the last post. I think it was for Alternative Press. Can’t remember the photographer’s name. Please @ if you know; would love to give them credit. The Hangar, Sacramento 2005. taken in Sacramento, California by @teamsleeppics

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a year ago

10 May 2025

Happy 20th anniversary to the TS self-titled record.

Much of this record was written and recorded at home by people who didn’t really know what they were doing. We had the naive idea that if you sincerely make cool things with your friends you could reach people in a meaningful way.

In a way it’s kind of surprising that this record came out at all. Lots of love to everyone who helped us get it done and out. The fact that people are still listening to it is pretty amazing. We are really, really grateful for that. Thank you 🙏 by @teamsleeppics

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a year ago

All preorders have shipped and everyone should be receiving their orders this week if you haven’t already! 🙏 by @teamsleeppics

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2 years ago

“Blvd” started as an acoustic guitar cassette four track demo with some chords, a melody, and a silly mystical ambient keyboard part. I think our first show was a Christmas party for Heckler Magazine. Heckler was started by our friends John Baccigaluppi and Sonny Mayugba. More on them later. I think Abe was playing drums at the first rehearsal, so Chino and I kept turning up our guitars to match the drums and “Blvd” went from a sleepy demo to a full rock song. Later when Zach started playing with us, it continued to get louder until it became something close to what it is now.

We recorded “Blvd” and “Live From the Stage” at Sound City in Van Nuys. While there I crashed a mini motorcycle and bled everywhere. Sonny was with us. We wrote the middle bridge section and I don’t think we’ve ever played it the same way twice. Sonny played the lead part in the bridge. Later we redid almost all of the guitars at the Deftones’ spot and John’s old studio The Hangar in Sacramento. John’s a great guy. We would never have finished the self titled record without him. 🙏 -T by @teamsleeppics

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2 years ago

We’re real stoked on these updated versions of OG TS merch designs by @ogcrookone and Zach. Those two are some amazing visual artists as well as great musicians.

My favorite part of our set was watching those two play “Staring at the Queen” from the side of the stage. If you know, you know. 🥁🔨🤖 -T

Check the link in the bio and get some! 🙏 by @teamsleeppics

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2 years ago

Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville is where we spent three weeks in early 2001, and it is where our early iteration of Team Sleep was recorded (i.e., "The leaked version"). We had an apartment in Seattle, but as Todd mentioned in a previous post, sometimes we would crash out at the studio where each of us had our own rooms.
Swipe to see my little crash pad at the studio. It was a little nook in an upstairs space. - Cheers. CrookOne by @teamsleeppics

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2 years ago

I think the song “Let’s Go” started with Crook’s beat. He’s always been so good at making kick and snare patterns that seem simple but are really unique and interesting. When we got to Bear Creek it was just the beat with a couple guitar loops; I always loved how the main guitar loop on this song sounds like a harpsichord. At Bear Creek, Crook added some more sounds sampled from a record; we added another guitar melody and the synth sound at the beginning and end. I think the synth was a Korg MS2000. I played bass through an old Ampeg amp with the tubes on top.

Chino was super into Mary’s band Helium and he wanted to get her on some songs. Somehow we had lost the Protools session with the separated tracks for this song and Mary had to sing over an MP3, so we were never able to get a proper mix; that’s why we didn’t put it on the self-titled record. I still love the way it sounds, though. I love all of the stuff Mary did, but this song is my favorite. It’s actually one of my favorite TS songs. The vocal performance is so understated and cool. Mary’s voice sounds great. The lyrics are interesting and charming. The string melody Mary added gives the song more structure.

I’ve only met Mary once. We played a show together in Sacramento and she was really nice. I wanted to buy one of her shirts. She gave it to me. I still have it. -T by @teamsleeppics

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2 years ago

This video footage was shot by our friends @frankmaddocks and @jamesminchin at Bear Creek studio outside of Seattle. These were the first studio sessions in the making of the self titled record. We had an apartment in town, but we’d stay in the loft at the studio pretty often. We had bonfires in the back yard. Bear Creek is a really great studio and the area is super beautiful. We had a lot of fun working with Terry Date and we learned a ton. I have no idea why I was so sweaty. -T by @teamsleeppics

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2 years ago

Catch our new video for “Kool-Aide” [ft. Mike Patton] – now on our YouTube channel. Link in bio. by @teamsleeppics

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2 years ago

#TeamSleep: Deluxe Edition is now available for pre-order on black vinyl, along with a limited TS merch collection inspired by our OG designs from 2005. Get yours at the link in bio. by @teamsleeppics

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2 years ago