Team Spirit

In a world of wonky tumblr-wave nonsense and no-talent bedroom synth acts, sometimes you need to pick up a guitar. Ayad Al Adhamy started Team Spirit in Brooklyn without much of a plan in mind: In his mid-twenties, he'd already logged time on the road with Passion Pit, and his indie label Black Bell Records was picking up steam. But his guitar was gathering dust. Ayad needed a band, quickly, so he pulled in his old roommate Roman Tobias Pettigrew, who'd just returned from LA after leaving a real-life cult called The People's Church of Animal Town (Google it, it's for real). The pair recruited Mike Addesso and Cosmo Kilburn DiGiulio, and by the time they played their first show the quartet already had a five-track EP of splashy, crunchy power-pop, plus a bizarre video for "F*ck The Beach," put together by the fantastically talented Swedish animators Hannes and Johannes.

"When they sent me the treatment for the 'F*ck The Beach' video," Ayad recalls, "Hannes and Johannes' script started off with us entering a vagina and exiting through a penis. Obviously we told them to do whatever they wanted." Inspired by Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, the band linked back up with Hannes and Johannes who went on to produce treatments for all 5 songs on the band's debut EP. The videos for each song on the EP evolve into a continuous story that will inevitably inspire you to stay tuned. Bursting with soulpower, Team Spirit’s music is a cocktail of Motown basslines, Thin Lizzy-esque duelling guitars, 90’s sing-along hooks, Glam beats and Chuck Berry feet. Do you like to rock? Do you like to move your body and shake those hips of yours? Exactly. So then, friend, get out the drinks, light your cigarette, lace up your boots and turn it up to eleven! Prepare yourself for the new mavericks of Rock n’ Roll: Team Spirit.