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Their current live drummer is Christopher Robin.
Their current live drummer is Christopher Robin.

They are due to perform at [Heaven Nightclub] in London on 20th April<ref>MySpace Event from Crystal Castles' MySpace:http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.showDetails&friendid=30627193&Band_Show_ID=38570673</ref>


===Music usage===
===Music usage===

Revision as of 18:23, 21 March 2010

Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles is an experimental electronic music band from the province of Ontario consisting of producer Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass.[9] Crystal Castles are known for their chaotic live shows and their lo-fi, melancholic home productions.

To listen to Crystal Castles, according to the BBC, "is to be cast adrift in a vortex of deafening pain without a safety net. You get the feeling you could do anything in the world, but that 'anything' would ultimately mean nothing. Crystal Castles marks a nuanced emotional territory that dance music never covered before."[10]

The band's eponymous debut album was included in the "Top 50 Greatest Albums of the Decade" by NME Magazine, at number 39.[11]

History

Crystal Castles were named after the lines "The fate of the world is safe in Crystal Castles" and "Crystal Castles, the source of all power", both lines referring to fictional character She-Ra's fortress in the sky.[9] The band was formed in December 2003 as a solo project started by Ethan Kath. Ethan Kath later discovered Alice Glass singing in her noise-punk band, and thought he had found the "missing ingredient" to his music. He asked her to record vocals over his solo instrumental tracks. In April 2005, Alice Glass recorded vocals over five original instrumentals by Kath. The microphone test for this recording session was secretly recorded by the studio's engineer and was later released as the band's first single, a limited edition 7" vinyl on London's Merok Records, released in June 2006 and sold out immediately. Glass was not aware the microphone test recording existed until Merok Records asked to release it. [12]

Many limited edition 7" singles followed in 2007 on various tiny labels. All singles sold out immediately. Finally, in 2008, Lies Records collected most of the singles and released them on a CD for the first time, along with many previously unreleased tracks and 3 songs recorded just for the collection. This self-titled collection was also released as a double album on 12" vinyl.

Second album

The news of their second LP was announced early December 2009. The album has been produced by Ethan Kath in various places including a church in Iceland, a self built cabin in northern Ontario, a garage behind an abandoned convenience store in Detroit, and 1 song recorded in the London England studio of Paul "Phones" Epworth.[13]. A few track titles have been confirmed: "Baptism", "Celestica", "Intimate", "Pap Smear", "Violent Dreams", "Young Love".

Touring

Crystal Castles have headlined numerous tours in USA, Europe, Japan, and Australia. The band have never toured their home country of Canada. They have played many festivals including Ireland's Oxegen Festival (2009), All Points West Festival 2009 in New Jersey USA, Coachella Valley and Music Festival 2009 in Indio California, as well as the Heineken Open'er Festival 2009 in Gdynia, Poland and the Reading and Leeds Festivals in England, August 2007[14] [15][16][17][18] and also headlined a Vice Magazine's tour across the UK in November 2007.[19]

In May 2008, Crystal Castles headlined the NME "New Noise" tour across the UK.

Crystal Castles performed at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2008, where the on-stage antics of Glass which included her climbing the stage rigging and constantly stage-diving, led to the organisers curtailing their set.[20] Crystal Castles toured with Nine Inch Nails in dates across July and August 2008.[21]

Crystal Castles also played various European summer festivals including England's Reading and Leeds Festivals. They were expected to return to the UK in September 2008 for a headlining tour but had to cancel due to recording commitments. The band also played Connect 2008 and in October they played at the Iceland Airwaves festival. Over Halloween they played another rather dramatic gig in LA that involved Alice Glass wrecking the drum kit.[22]

They supported Britpop group Blur on the first of two comeback shows in Hyde Park, London on July 2, 2009.

They also performed at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee Friday June 12, 2009.

Their current live drummer is Christopher Robin.

They are due to perform at [Heaven Nightclub] in London on 20th April[23]

Music usage

In late 2008, "Air War" was used by Toshiba in an advert for their latest range of High Definition products. The advert features freeze-frame techniques inspired by the "bullet-time" filming methods seen in the The Matrix. The advert won numerous awards, including a Guinness World Record, and was shown on television as well as in cinemas.[24] "Through the Hosiery" was featured in the sandbox video game Saints Row 2.[25]

In mid-2008, Crystal Castles were involved in two controversies related to artwork permissions and samples in their earliest unreleased songs. Pitchfork Media and the Torontoist blog published stories about Crystal Castles' use of Trevor Brown's artwork without permission. The image, depicting a black-eyed Madonna,[26][27] was used by the band on merchandise. The issue was resolved after the band bought the rights to use the image from Brown.[28]

In one of Kath's earliest, unreleased demos, he incorporated a sample without permission; the track was released on the MySpace page of the label, Lies Records, without credit to the original sampled song.[29] The track, "Insecticon (CC vs Lo-Bat Version)", uses clips chopped out of a song by Lo-bat called "My Little Droid Needs a Hand", released under a Creative Commons license. Another track called "Love and Caring", samples the kick and snare from Covox's "Sunday".[29][30][31][32]

Musical style

Crystal Castles musical style has been described as "ferocious, asphyxiating sheets of warped two-dimensional Gameboy glitches and bruising drum bombast pierce [the] skull with sheer shrill force, burrowing deep into the brain like a fever".[33]

Reception

They have been described as "the kind of music that you just want to follow like a cult, or hate, with every fibre of your being."[34]

Members

Current members

Additional live members:

Former members

Former additional live members:

  • Cameron Findlay – Drums (2007-2008) (Currently drummer and founder of Parallels)
  • Michael Bell – Drums (2008-2009) (Currently drummer of Lymbyc Systym)
  • Tom Cullen – Drums (February 2008)

Videography

  • Magic Spells (2008) (Directed by Videomarsh, who created the special effects of a cinder block smashing someone's skull)
  • Courtship Dating (2008) (Directed by Marc Pannozzo and Ethan Kath)

Discography

Studio albums

Singles and EPs

  • Limited edition of 500 copies. Sold out in three days.
  • "Crimewave" 7" (Crystal Castles vs. HEALTH) (August 13, 2007) – Trouble Records
  • "Air War" 7" (December 17, 2007) – Trouble Records (TROUBLE001)
  • "Courtship Dating" 7" (March 31, 2008)
  • "Crimewave" 12" (Crystal Castles vs. HEALTH) (September 2008)

References

  1. ^ "Crystal Castles plot North American tour". NME. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
  2. ^ Peterson, Dave. "Health at the Biko Co-Op". Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
  3. ^ Bimm, Jordan. "The top ten 2007 singles you haven't heard". The Varsity. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
  4. ^ "Music Listings". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
  5. ^ Sperounes, Sandra. "Expect an Epic performance at Rexall". The Edmonton Journal. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
  6. ^ Minimalist electronics rule Toronto duo's debut | The Michigan Daily
  7. ^ http://audiotube.com/artist/1407-crystal-castles.html
  8. ^ http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/reviews/music/12781/Crystal-Castles--Crystal-Castles.htm
  9. ^ a b Creeley, Will. "Walking On Glass". The Fader magazine. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
  10. ^ Hammer, Sophie. "BBC Music". BBC. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
  11. ^ Magazine, NME. "The Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade". NME. Retrieved 2009-11-15.
  12. ^ Gillen, Kieron. "Crystal Castles Interview". Plan B magazine. Archived from the original on 2008-01-03. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
  13. ^ http://crystalcastles.com/forum/index.php?topic=357.0
  14. ^ Kharas, Kev. "Reading & Leeds: Lock Up / Dance line-ups revealed". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
  15. ^ Wright, Ian. "Dancing About Architecture 08.14.07". 411mania. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
  16. ^ "Report: Amy Winehouse Hospitalized; Initial CMJ Bill Unveiled". Spin. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
  17. ^ Solarski, Matthew. "CMJ 07: Spoon, Xiu Xiu, Deerhunter, Deacon, Justice". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
  18. ^ Zeiss, John. "Fest mania: 2007 CMJ lineup coming together". Prefix magazine. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
  19. ^ Kharas, Kev. "These New Puritans, Teenagers, Crystal Castles for Unitaur". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
  20. ^ "Crystal Castles Anger Glastonbury Staff". ContactMusic.com. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
  21. ^ Solarski, Matthew. "Crystal Castles Respond to Chip Music Controversy". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2008-06-18.
  22. ^ Crystal Castles Magazine - News, Reviews and Videos
  23. ^ MySpace Event from Crystal Castles' MySpace:http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.showDetails&friendid=30627193&Band_Show_ID=38570673
  24. ^ http://www.mixmag.net/content/crystal-castles-provide-music-crazy-new-toshiba-advert. Crystal Castles can be seen performing 'Alice Practice' in a club on the third episode of the show 'Skins' second season.
  25. ^ http://kotaku.com/5060060/saints-row-2-soundtrack-revealed
  26. ^ "Crystal Castles Caught Up in Artwork Controversy". Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  27. ^ "Untrust Us". Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  28. ^ baby art blog : the crystal castles fiasco: CASE OVER!
  29. ^ a b Crystal Castles Accused of Plagiarism
  30. ^ Crystal Castles' Creative Commons Controversy
  31. ^ Kern, Peter. "Chiptune Music Theft Continues; Crystal Castles Abuses Creative Commons License". createdigitalmusic. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
  32. ^ Crystal Castles Accused Of Stealing Songs
  33. ^ Shankly, Jack. "Underage Festival: wait a minute, these people are all children!". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
  34. ^ Sulfaro, Gabriella. "Thought". Annakin Daily. Retrieved 2009-08-027. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  35. ^ [1]
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