Dream Team
DREAM TEAM was formed in the winter of 2011 by Jake Vest, Greg Faison, and Brent Stabbs. Originally conceived as a way for the members to blow off some steam while drinking beer, the band quickly shifted their efforts away from their favorite cover songs to extended improvisational jams.
Over the next few years they experimented with different sounds and new formations. During one of Memphis’s most brutal summers, too hot to expend energy on their instruments, the band went so far as to create a setup they deemed “Coffee Shop Dream Team.” This formation consisted of the three members sitting at separate tables full of pedals, computers, and keyboards, jamming and communicating solely through the use of technology. It was self indulgent and mostly unfruitful, but it showed the band that there were few limits to what they could do under the DREAM TEAM moniker.
These new sounds were excited, but ultimately this experiment worried the band. Had they gone too far? Was this actually music? The new sound was too confusing, too self indulgent -- too far over the edge. They swore to never play as Coffee Dream Team ever again.
Later that year the band regrouped. The failed experiment had given them clarity. Something had changed. From that point on they abandoned all of their previous attitudes, dropped the idea of “songs,” and set the controls to the heart of the sun.
Late in the year 2012 the band began searching for additional members. They had several successful jams with new collaborators (see “Family Entertainment Hour”), but we’re unable to solidify a new lineup. The energy was great, but none of the musicians they played with would commit. So the search continued.
Luckily they found their answer in the summer of 2013 when they scheduled a jam with their old friends Aaron Hannah and Joel Gradinger. The addition of Hannah and Gradinger was the stroke of genius the band had been searching for.
The new lineup performed multiple times -- each performance took the band closer and closer to the edge. Now they were able to flirt with the chaos while staying deeply rooted in the kraut-influenced psych rock they loved. At first most jams originated from riffs and melodies the original members had dreamed up or recorded, but soon it was clear the last thing this group needed was structure.
Towards the end of 2013 several recording sessions were planned. The band fit them in between full time work schedules and their other creative commitments. Each session was like picking up exactly where they left off. The magic was there, and soon so were the microphones that captured the moment.
Monolith is picture of a moment in time. The album stands as an exciting magnifying-glass look into the strengths of each of the 5 members: melody driven, delay-drenched lead guitar work from Jake Vest; Aaron Hannah’s virtuosic, angular guitar and effects manipulation; tastefully complex chords and swells summoned on the baritone by Joel Gradinger; and the hypnotic rhythm section of Greg Faison and Brent “Cool Cat Joe” Stabbs. His bass walks freely across the stereo spectrum like Neil Armstrong walked the moon, bouncing on and weaving in between each and every drum hit. Faison’s steady hand anchors the band in times of chaos and also launches it off the cliff to survey the post-apocalyptic landscape they must be hovering above in their minds as they forge their wall of sound.
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