Team Unicorn Records is not your typical indie record label. They don’t have a CEO, an office or even an official telephone number. It’s more of a collective of Tacoma bands and a tight knit community than a record label in the traditional sense. The bands of Team Unicorn are Friskey, Mama Loves Daddy, Drug Purse, Paris Spleen and Shadow People. The label is run by whoever among these bands feels like it at the moment.

Basically, the Team Unicorn sticker on a CD represents the approval of the Team Unicorn collective.



“I just want people to learn to trust us,” says James Jenkins of Mama Loves Daddy, “and buy any record that has our label on it. Anyone who has anything to do with us is really good.”



Several members of Team Unicorn actually live together at the West Tacoma headquarters, which they call the Gloom House and/or the downtown headquarters dubbed the Hilltop Manner.



“We all hang together. We give each other food, booze, cigarettes, and we all share gear,” says Jenkins.



The name Team Unicorn came from a bowling team, sort of. 



“[A couple of us] were grocery shopping one day and we got a coupon for bowling lessons,” explains Jenkins. “So we went. On the screen name for the bowling team we put Team Unicorn. About two and a half years ago we started using [that name] for the Paris Spleen CDs and basically all our friends started using it too.”



“We are really incestuous, so we thought we’d throw our own particular brand of sugar on it,” explains Paris Spleen’s Joshua Vega with a chuckle.



“We don’t take submissions anymore because we don’t really like what other people are doing,” says Jenkins. “We used to have a listing on some Web site, and I’d get CDs in the mail all the time. If someone wants to be a part of Team Unicorn they just have to hang out with us and play shows with us. If we like them, then they’re in.”



They are a very Tacoma-proud bunch but not exclusively so.



“We get contacted by a lot of touring bands,” explains Vega. “We only book touring bands if we really like their music. When it comes to local bands, we try to help everybody. We don’t like music that is really contrived. Our scene is just about doing our own thing. We don’t like people who are stuck in a mode. We kind of avoid the hardcore or straight metal. I think we all definitely believe in the power of the almighty pop hook.



We are definitely promoting freakishness.”



In September Team Unicorn plans to release two records: a compilation CD in cooperation with urbanXchange and a full-length Paris Spleen album. The compilation is called Tacoma Light and Power, and it has songs by The Elephants, Friskey, Mama Loves Daddy, Drug Purse, Paris Spleen, Joshua Vega, Terek Wegner (of the Drug Purse), Trevor Dixon (from the Elephants) and others.



Team Unicorn records can be purchased online at their MySpace page and at any of their shows. Team Unicorn books shows at Bob’s Java Jive every fourth Saturday of the month. For more information, visit www.myspace.com/teamunicornrecords.