You’re Invited To Team Sleep’s Recording Sessions

The release of Team Sleep’s 2005 debut was kinda problematic: After songs were leaked in 2003, Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and gang made the album unrecognizable by adding different songs and re-working a few. Others got omitted completely, including a contribution by Mike Patton. (Dude, Moreno must’ve been pissed to rob law-abiding fans of that certain gem.) So, that was delay #1. Then, the legend goes, the reconfigured Team Sleep album sat for a half-year while their record label groped for a marketing strategy for what basically is a mushy, shapeless soundtrack to painkiller abuse by the singer of one of their roster’s two steady earners.

So nine years, a few Deftones records, and a bunch of Moreno projects later, Team Sleep is finally at work on a follow-up. And for $500, a fan can spend a weekend at the upstate NY recording studio with them, says their announcement Wednesday. So what does it mean to “participate” in the recording of Team Sleep’s album? Well, it probably doesn’t involve tweaking synth parts, writing bridges, or miking amps. The announcement explains that the band, now including uber-drummer Zach Hill, shall

gather at Applehead studio, near the base of the Catskill mountains, to eat, write, play, and record. We’re very excited to get together with our dear friends, hang out, play music, and have a unique experience in a beautiful place. We’d like you to be there, too. Your participation will be essential to the independent creation and release of the live performance and our forthcoming studio record; we look forward to seeing you.

Per that last line, this can be viewed as a crowdfunding campaign with only one price tier: “All in and off to to rural New York.” But it’s pretty vague — for five benjamins, I like to know particulars like “how high,” “for how long,” and if anal is on the table. Still, that amount isn’t much to actually be part of an album’s creation; it’s my gf’s third-quarter budget for fruit snacks. (Though we presume attendees won’t be invited to crash on Team Sleep couches, so figure another grand for living expenses and travel.) But seriously, how many times have you wished that you’d been present at sessions for a riveting album? Order here.