– Brian O’Connor
Published in the February 2005 issue of DJ Times Magazine
Volume 18 - Number 02


Ten years ago, inside an empty circus tent at an outdoor rave in rural Wisconsin, a 15-year-old James Curd approached the DJ’s console and asked how he, too, could get booked playing at these huge events.

“You can start right now if you want,” replied the DJ.

Curd, who had bought his first pair of turntables only recently, looked at the DJ quizzically.

“Really?”

“Yup,” replied the DJ, “I’ve had to piss for the last two hours. They’re all yours.”
Curd dropped Romanthony’s anthem, “The Wanderer” and a funny thing happened: The tent filled with people.

“I still drop that track in my sets,” says Curd today, from his apartment in Chicago.
Curd, along with German-based Nick Maurer, is one-half of a twisted contrivance called Greenskeepers, and perhaps only through the lens of two skate-punks inspired by golf and Chicago house music does it make sense. The wickedly precocious duo (with a third member, Coban Rudish, for their live shows) known for its jazz-infused tech-house from their 2003 debut, Greenskeepers Presents the Ziggy Franklin Radio Show (Classic), have just added a second full-length, Pleetch (Om/Classic), to an increasingly wacky catalogue.

“The only thing we think about when we go into the studio is to not have one song sound like another,” says Curd, who used Logic Audio for the first time on this effort. Although that explains the deep and plinky house, chunky vocal R&B loops, electro-kraut and, ahem, rock power-chords that permeate the record, it doesn’t explain the strangest song on the album.

The duo’s eccentricity came to the attention of the A&R folks at Warner Brothers Records, who were assembling a remix album, What Is Hip?—remixes of the label’s classic ’70s catalogue, including tracks from Gary Wright, the Doobie Brothers and Nicolette Larson.

Says Curd: “They asked us to remix Christopher Cross’ ‘Sailing.’ We took it into the studio, played all the instruments live, and then tried to drop Christopher Cross’ vocal in it. But the cadence and tempo wasn’t right, so we asked our friend, DJ Diz, to sing it.

“We took it to Warner Brothers and they were like, ‘You mean to tell us that you took Christopher Cross’ vocals out? Christopher Cross, who sold 7 million records, and then replaced it with your friend’s voice?’”

Curd replied in the affirmative. “And then we told her that the vocal kinda sucked for what we were trying to do with it. It really sucked ass, actually.”

Warners said thanks, but no thanks. “But we told them we had spent 50 hours working on it, and we asked if we could use it for our next album, and they agreed. It was great, because we played it all live and didn’t have to pay for a sample clearance or anything.

“Of course,” Curd laughs, “I could only play that in my DJ set, or in our live set, if I wanted to clear the floor.”

Curd’s Cuts
• Waric Cameron—Orange Grove EP (Mesilla Valley Madness)
• Deviate—“Groovin All Night” (Swirl Peepz Mix) (Mobile Trax)
• Justin Harris—“Crackiceboom” (Paranoid Music)
• Nook & Cranny—“La Salsa” (Chiltepin Musica)
• Mark Grant feat. Russoul—“There 4 Me” (Blackstone)
• Joey Youngman—No Shame EP (Lowdown)
• Wescott Devine—“La La La” (Promo)
• Da Sunlounge & Office Gossip—“Think About It” (Myna Music)