Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Team William


You know a song has made an impact when you mindlessly sing part of it while doing something completely mundane, like, oh I don't know, perusing the books at the public library when everyone else is completely dead quiet or something like that. Needless to say my rendition of the line "Oh my god we tried to steal a landmine!" made me a few new friends, including the security guard not 10 feet from me, but I digress. Below is a track from a Belgium-based indie-pop-rock band called Team William who released their self-entitled debut album earlier last month. After checking out their photos on their myspace, it looks like these guys give one hell of an energetic show, so I hope they head over to the states soon for a tour.

70 [mp3] (iTunes)

1 comment:

Vinkle said...

Being a legitimate Belgian, and a Team William fan of the earliest hour (somehow these things are related, but how o how?) I will add some trivia to this magnificent post (feel free to edit)

Floris (or FFA, his soloproject name), the singer and founder of this fine Belgian band, has his roots in Ninove, a tiny town stuck between the collosal coast of Belgium and the chocolate capital(Brussels).

Floris' father is pretty known in his hometown as the singer of a genuine folkband. His father also teaches painting in the local art academy. He does not teach about UFO's.

Floris' mum is a talented calligraphy writer. She does not collect hamsters, or any kind of mines.
Information on the other member's families is not yet available to the public... as yet.


Team William gave their first gig in a local indoor volleyball-hall, during a rock contest. (there was no volleyball contest scheduled that day)

They won this modest contest, and went on to the next.

All this search for contest-gold resulted in a fine climax in Brussel's Ancienne Belgique concerthall, where Team William won bronze during Humo's Rock Rally (Humo is the local flemish version of something in between Rolling Stone, Mad, and a weekend edition of the New York Times).

The contest was pretty much the katalyst for thing to come: bigger gigs, shinier shoes for the keyboardplayer Arne to slap himself with during gigs, fancier videoclips, and eventually, with all the earnings from the gigs: a great way to spend the earnings in the production of the first album.

Their first album is simply recognisable by the blue-white-red on black rainbow and by the title: Team William. It consists of nothing else but splendorious tracks: just check out "Lord Of the Dogs", "First Snow", or "70 percent".

An advice for all you potential expats / tourists out there: if you come to Belgium,come between july and august:
what happens is some of the smallest towns imaginable transform in a contemporary Woodstock-esque place of music, love, understanding, and, well, place of beer.

The theatre, music, and townfestivals in Gent, Kiewit, Antwerp, Dour, and Heist-op-den-Berg to name but a few are definitely worth a visit.

Don't believe all of this,but
trust me on the suntan! (I did mention suntan somewhere, I hope?)

Vinkle.