Greenskeepers

Greenskeepers layer inside jokes over bass-heavy beats while channeling an adolescent Ween-style absurdist humor that occasionally tilts toward the creepy, moving their satirical home-recording project from bedroom origins onto the dancefloor before any member could legally drink inside a club. James Curd and Nick Maurer chose the name Greenskeepers because both earned their living as golf-course caddies. In their free hours they skateboarded Chicago streets, Maurer sang and played guitar in assorted punk bands, and Curd worked as a local DJ.

In 1998 the duo wrote the danceable, tongue-in-cheek track “Should I Sing Like This,” which became a modest club anthem and a set staple for DJ Derrick Carter; he issued the song on Classic Recordings later that year. High-profile press coverage then drew the attention of multi-instrumentalist Mark Share, who collaborated with Curd to finish and produce the band’s debut full-length album, Present the Ziggy Franklin Radio Show!, released in 2001.

After a pause, Share, Curd, and Maurer brought bassist Coban Rudish into the fold in 2004 to record the second album, Pleetch—a portmanteau of “please” and “bitch.” The set fused Roger-and-Zapp-inspired electro-funk, Alan Parsons Project-style slow jams, and house beats with absurdist nods to Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs and Tattoo from Fantasy Island. San Francisco indie label Om Records soon licensed the tracks “Lotion,” “Man in the House,” and “Go” for the ABC series Grey’s Anatomy. Greenskeepers again crossed into visual media by remixing the main theme from the Pixar/Disney blockbuster The Incredibles for The Incredibles Remix EP. Following a two-year world tour, their third album, Polo Club, took form in late 2006, heavily influenced by 1980s post-punk—particularly Gary Numan and Talking Heads—while retaining the group’s customary blend of quirky house music and twisted comedy, now augmented by guitar hooks and their trademark idiosyncratic vocals.