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ShareSince Conor Oberst and Nate Krenkel founded Team Love in 2003 and made Tilly and the Wall its flagship act, the New York City-based independent record label has been both a springboard and a safe haven for exceptional talent.
Here’s a look at the label’s roster:
A Weather - Low-key Portland, Ore., indie folk-pop quintet led by “bedroom whisperers” Aaron Gerber and Sarah Winchester includes guitarist Aaron Krenkel, brother of Nate Krenkel, co-owner of Team Love, which issued A Weather’s debut, “Cove,” on March 4. The album has been described as “moody and warm, rife with odes of looming loss, hopeful notes to self and hushed revelations that speak directly to the yearning heart.”
The Berg Sans Nipple - Franco-American indie-rockers Lori Sean Berg and Shane Aspegren’s second CD, “Along the Quai,” a collage of dreamy electronica, percussion-heavy Afro-beats, layers of feedback and pop melodies, was released in 2007 on Team Love. Aspegren contributed to Bright Eyes’ 2007 album, “Cassadaga.”
Mars Black - Omaha, Neb.-based hip-hop artist has been living and working in his native Brooklyn for the last year, launching his own clothing line and preparing the follow-up to “Folks Music,” his 2005 debut. “Hot Chicks” is due on April 15. What to expect? “I laugh, I cry, I struggle and I overcome,” says Black, who will rap about “friends, family, business, love and life. What more is there?”
Capgun Coup - Omaha lo-fi indie-rock quartet balances spacey noise samples and a pop sensibility on “Nebraskafish,” the band’s 2007 debut.
David Dondero - Duluth, Minn.-born singer-songwriter who first recorded as part of Sunbrain in 1993 has toured with Bright Eyes, Tilly and the Wall and Spoon and is credited with influencing Oberst’s vocal style. His Team Love CDs - 2005’s “South of the South” and 2007’s “Simple Love” - deal with love, loss and hopelessness, and unease, despair and heavy-heartedness, respectively.
The Felice Brothers - Upstate New York band, founded in 2006, plays an earthy blend of folk, Americana and revivalist roots-rock. The group’s latest CD is self-titled and was released by Team Love on March 4. It includes five tracks previously released on the band’s hard-to-find “Adventures of the Felice Brothers Vol. 1,” available directly from the band at live shows and recorded on two-track tape in a chicken coop.
Nik Freitas - Indie-pop singer-songwriter-pianist’s Team Love debut, “Sun Down,” will be released on May 8, and the label promises it will be “a succinct, concentrated record that will take the listener from Paul Simon’s `Graceland’ to David Bowie’s `Hunky Dory.’” The one-time skateboarding photographer for Thrasher magazine has recorded three other albums since 2003.
Simon Joyner - Indie acoustic folk-rock singer-songwriter considered by some to be the forefather of the Omaha music scene and a profound influence on the music of Bright Eyes has released 10 albums since 1993. In May, Team Love will reissue his 1994 CD, “The Cowardly Traveller Pays His Toll,” one of only two albums British DJ John Peel played from beginning to end on air in his 30-plus years of broadcasting. (The other was Bob Dylan’s “Desire.”)
Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - Solo project of Rilo Kiley’s, Jenny Lewis released one of 2006’s best-reviewed CDs, “Rabbit Fur Coat,” which include a wonderful cover of the Traveling Wilburys’ “Handle With Care” featuring Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, M. Ward and Oberst.
McCarthy Trenching - Indie-rock band from Omaha, Neb., is led by singer-songwriter Dan McCarthy, who played accordion on Tilly and the Wall’s “Bottoms of Barrels.” “McCarthy Trenching,” released last year, is a sampler of McCarthy songs from his 2003 demo “Old Habits” and the 2005-2006 “It’s Got Nothing to do with Drinking” sessions.
Gruff Rhys - Vocalist-guitarist for the Welsh band Super Furry Animals whose “Candylion” CD of acoustic pop songs in English, Spanish and Welsh was released last year in the United States on Team Love.
Craig Wedren - The former Shudder to Think lead singer is still working on “WAND,” the follow-up to his 2005 Team Love debut, “Lapland.” He has recorded, he says, everything from “pop songs to elliptical, Shudder To Think-y stuff, to more orchestral and experimental soundtrack-like pieces, and a lot of raw, almost demo-y acoustic and a cappella songs.” He also is working on the soundtrack for David Wain’s new movie, “The Ten,” starring Paul Rudd, Winona Rider, Jessica Alba and members of the comedy group The State. (Wedren wrote the theme for and was a regular extra on MTV’s “The State.”)
