Posts Tagged ‘Zach Curd’

The Popdose Podcast: Episode 1

This is something we’ve been talking about doing for a long time — in fact, we really thought we’d be debuting the Popdose Podcast over a year ago. It wasn’t until we were finally able to trick our friend Dave Lifton into shuttering his long-running and wildly popular Wings for Wheels series that our plans came together — with the technical savvy necessary to edit our nonsensical jabbering into pure audio entertainment, and a strong enough personality to keep the entire podcast from dissolving into a giggling fit of mom jokes, Dave was the crucial final ingredient we were waiting for all along.

So open up your pod, baby, and let us in — and remember, this is only our debut. Even television classics like According to Jim didn’t enjoy their finest moments until they’d had a little time to hit their stride, and you have no idea what we have in store for you during the coming months. (Note: neither do we.) Like what you hear? Hate it? Drop us a line in the comments and let us know. And now, without further ado…

The Popdose Podcast, Episode 1: Donkey Eatin’ a Pony (1:09:49, 64.9 MB), featuring Jeff Giles, Jason Hare, and Dave Lifton.
You can also subscribe to the podcast’s RSS feed.

Show Notes

0:00 Intro, including digressions into the end of Guiding Light, and Jason’s ass.

5:05 Jeff Giles discusses ASCAP and BMI demanding fees for 30-second samples on iTunes, plus, how Popdose may be affected.

18:53 Dave Lifton discusses hipsters ironically nostalgic for the ’80s, which leads to digressions into Lionel Richie, J-Stache, his taint and Richard Marx sniffing it, the Michael McDonald/Grizzly Bear collaboration, Jason Lytle covering Billy Joel, Daryl Hall’s expensive house, and Smokey Robinson & George Michael singing “Careless Whisper.”

38:20 Jason Hare credits Terje Fjelde’s awesome Popdose podcast contributions, then discusses Mariah Carey appearing on Oprah and covering Foreigner. Digressions continue into Mariah’s “All I Want for Christmas is You,” Journey, The Saw Lady, and Wing.

54:31 Popdose Endorsements (official title yet to be determined; offer your suggestions in the comments!): Jeff endorses fun. (song clip: “Benson Hedges”)

57:06 Popdose Endorsements: Dave endorses Robbie Fulks (song clip: “Papa Was A Steel-Headed Man”)

58:51 Popdose Endorsements: Jason endorses the Damnwells and Tragedy: An All-Metal Tribute to the Bee Gees (song clip: “Stayin’ Alive)

1:02:00 Outro: Jeff highlights his interview with Zach Curd of Desktop (song: “My Boo,” a Popdose exclusive track)

The Popdose Interview: Zach Curd of Desktop

On the grand spectrum of things a person can do with his money, “starting a record label” ranks somewhere near “setting it on fire,” so we’re always very happy when an indie imprint finds success — for instance, Detroit’s Suburban Sprawl Music, home of Javelins, the Word Play, and Desktop, a new collaboration between label honcho Zach Curd (who also records for Suburban Sprawl as a member of the Pop Project) and Keith Thompson of the Electric Six.

Desktop came together earlier this year, releasing an EP of synthified pop jams that meet, in the words of the duo, “somewhere between Stevie
Wonder, New Order and ’80s Detroit techno.” And then they went and gave it away for free at their website. Naturally, we were intrigued — both by the EP and Desktop’s marketing plan — and jumped at the opportunity to interview Zach Curd, especially when Desktop agreed to provide Popdose with an exclusive Desktop track, a cover of Ghost Town DJs’ “My Boo” (download). We had a wide-ranging chat that covered the band, the music, and the state of online music marketing in general — and it’s all right here. Read on!

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Okay, let’s start with the obvious: How did Desktop come together? Having heard some of your earlier stuff, the new project’s sound is an unexpected twist.

The Detroit indie music scene is super tiny (and the non-”DETROIT ROCK” scene is even smaller), so I knew of Keith’s projects (Johnny Headband, Electric Six), but hadn’t met him. We met at a show in January 08, and agreed to make some music together. We initially had the intention of working on stuff together in real life, but I’m pretty busy doing Suburban Sprawl stuff, and Keith is also kind of perpetually on tour with E6, so it ended up being an Internet thing. (more…)