Ypsilanti has a lot to offer. A top-notch college, plenty of restaurants, bars, shopping and of course, Ypsilanti is home to many up-and-coming musicians with great potential. Team Ethic is one of those bands.
Joel Skene, Carl Greene, Ed Golembiewski and Abbott Daimler make up Team Ethic. They are all proud Ypsilanti natives and have known each other for years. Skene plays guitar, keyboard and does backup vocals, Greene is their drummer, Golembiewski is the bassist and Daimler sings lead and plays guitar. Greene and Golembiewski are both EMU alumni.
They met each other around town at shows and bars, some of them while playing with other bands.
“We’re expert drinkers, in a perpetual state of giving up and picking back up our smoking habits,” said Daimler. “We’re enamored with ’90s rock music, and are leftist, working class slobs. We have mortgages and day jobs and tend to spend every bit of free time at one of the many fine taverns in Ypsilanti, at a dance party, or playing music. On a good night, we get to do all three.”
They’ve been performing a couple of times a month throughout the Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor area since September 2010. Most recently, they played at Mittenfest VI at Woodruff’s right in Depot Town on Dec. 28. Woodruff’s is one of their most frequented venues, but they’ve also hit the road a bit, playing at venues in Detroit, Kalamazoo and even Columbus, Ohio.
Last year they played at the Metro Times Blowout, and they plan on playing again this March.
Drawing their inspiration from anything from ’90s power pop to old-school indie rock, Team Ethic compares themselves to bands like Spoon and The Strokes.
“Our songs are very catchy, but lyrically dark, and we like this juxtaposition,” Daimler said. “We have songs about murderous revenge, suicide, domestic violence and being criminally prosecuted, but all of these are set to cheerful melodies. Almost all of our songs are, at their core, about failed romance.”
With all of that heartache, what kind of genre would Team Ethic fit into? Emo is so passé, and it definitely wouldn’t be considered that. With such catchy beats that are hard not to bop along to, despite the darker lyrics, they’ve described themselves as indie pop that has a bit of a rock and roll edge to it.
“I commented to a friend that our upcoming record will be ten fucked up love songs and one song about home,” Daimler said. “This struck me as a pretty good description of what we’ll be releasing and the songs one can expect to hear at a Team Ethic show.”
Speaking of an upcoming record, Team Ethic is recording one right now. Three songs recorded at Ypsilanti’s Pretty Suite Recording, “Great White North,” “Pink Umbrella,” and “All Your Friends Are Quitting,” from their Great White North EP are posted on their Facebook page.
They’re slowly releasing more songs from their album in progress on Facebook. “Out On Bail” and “Skin” are available for listening right now. They expect to have the recording completed by February or March. “We want this record to be heard because we’re really proud of the music we’re making and believe that we can become one of the quintessential music groups of Southeast Michigan,” said Daimler. “We’re confident that it will be well-received.”
Team Ethic is taking the next month off to work on their record, but will be returning to the stage Feb. 24 at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor. You can check them out at teamethic.bandcamp.com and facebook.com/teamethic.
