This being the era of “New Rave” (whatever that is), there’s plenty of bands about who claim a distinct dance-influence in their oh-so-samey sound, despite doing nothing more than put a bad disco beat behind their caterwauling guitars. But fear not! Open-minded music fans who are looking for a genuine alternative to punk-funk and electro-clash finally have an act worth celebrating. Meet the Greenskeepers!
“I think it just describes our place in music: there’s that left-of-centre vibe to what we do.”
/blockquote>Hailing from Chicago, with distinctive house releases on respected labels like Classic and Moody already under their belt, and some new-wavier songs kicking up a fuss more recently, Greenskeepers are certainly carving a niche all for themselves. There can’t be many established house acts big enough on the club scene to be booked at a huge night like Soma Records’ Pressure in Glasgow, who appear more like a psychedelic garage band, and interact and vibe with the audience as much as the Greenskeepers do. The band have been slaying audiences around the globe in the run up to the release of their third album ‘Polo Club’ on October 24th. “We try to walk that line of appealing to people who wanna hear 4-on-the-floor club stuff, but at the same time bring some artistry and character to the music, breath some life into it!” says keyboardist/guitarist Mark Share who shares production duty with DJ James Curd and the rest of the band.
Professing a diverse range of influences from teenage skate punk to the noisier like of Pailhead and Ministry, and from classic soul like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder to the sound of Chicago DJs like Derrick Carter and Mark Farina, Greenskeepers don’t have a sound as much as a mindset: anything goes. This eclectic approach is evident on the 37 (yep, count ’em) tracks on ‘Polo Club’, which is divided over two discs into a more traditional song-based LP and a live DJ mix of Greenskeepers’ remixes and housier productions. The band also say having all four members in the same city at the same time certainly influenced their approach for this project.
Their previous LP ‘Pleech’ (released in 2004 after 2003’s debut ‘The Ziggy Franklen Radio Show’), spawned a genuine internet phenomenon with the track ‘Lotion’ and its accompanying video. With a million downloads so far, the clip is an awesome homage to Jonathan Demme’s film of ‘Silence Of The Lambs’, with the catchy chorus refrain about lotion and hoses seemingly being sung by serial killer Buffalo Bill himself. Rarely has a dance track, or even a pop-song, had such pant-wettingly creepy connotations. “After the success of ‘Lotion’ we made a collective decision to turn inward and write more like a “Band” band,” says Share. And the results are audible on ‘Polo Club’, which over its 2 hour-plus sprawl manages to fit in every aspect of the Greenskeepers’ outlook, from boompity house to quality Talking Heads-style tracks, in what almost seems an impossibly smooth journey. “I think it just describes our place in music: there’s that left-of-centre vibe to what we do.” The future’s bright, the future’s green!