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The Crystal Method

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The Crystal Method

The Crystal Method are an American electronic music duo consisting of Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland. They are stylistically similar to The Chemical Brothers, Propellerheads, The Prodigy, and Fatboy Slim, specializing in breakbeat and big beat styles of music.

Biography

Although Jordan and Kirkland are both from Las Vegas, Nevada, the band was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1989[citation needed]. The Crystal Method did most of their earlier production work in an underground shelter lovingly referred to as "The Bomb Shelter" in the front yard of a rent house they once shared as roommates. Before production began on Legion of Boom in 2004, they moved the studio into the garage of the rented house; many people aren't aware of this, however, and still believe they work in the actual "bomb shelter", now a nickname for the studio setup.

The Crystal Method's music is broad in scope, and can be found in many modern shows and movies, including Bones (Title Theme), Blade II ("PhDream", with Bubba Sparxxx and The name of the game), Blade Trinity ("Weapons of Mass Distortion"), Cursed ("Bound Too Long"), Gone in Sixty Seconds ("Busy Child"), Lost in Space ("Busy Child"), Spawn ("(Can't You) Trip Like I Do", with Filter), Zoolander ("Now is the Time"), XXX, The Replacement Killers ("Keep Hope Alive"), the remake of The Longest Yard ("Roll It Up"), and episodes of Dark Angel ("Name of the Game", "Roll It Up"). The theme music of the NBC drama Third Watch was "Keep Hope Alive" from their Vegas album. The Chef Aid album, based off of an episode of South Park, featured a re-working of "Vapor Trail", which includes vocals by DMX, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Ozzy Osbourne, and Fuzzbubble. The song was renamed "Nowhere to Run" or sometimes "Nowhere to Run (Vapor Trail)". Episode 13, the popular TV shows Alias and CSI, featured "Starting Over" from Legion of Boom. The track "Name Of The Game" (from "Reservoir Dogs the video game" and the Tweekend album) was also featured as intro music for the popular video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, and has also been used as intro music for live performances by magician The Amazing Johnathan and even in Hummer advertisements. Their music was also featured extensively in the EA Sports video game FIFA '98: Road To World Cup, which included the tracks "Busy Child", "Keep Hope Alive", "More", and "Now Is The Time". The track "Busy Child" also featured in a 1998 British advertisement for The Gap which featured skateboarders. Their song "Busy Child" was featured in the video game Donkey Konga and "Born Too Slow" was included in both Donkey Konga 2 and Need for Speed: Underground. The song "Trip Like I Do" was featured in an episode of House during a rave scene. Several songs from their first album also featured prominently in the game N2O: Nitrous Oxide. "The Winner" (from Tweekend) was featured in the video game FreQuency, and their remix of P.O.D.'s "Boom" was also featured in its sequel, Amplitude.

The Crystal Method have remixed other artists' tracks, such as Linkin Park's track "Points Of Authority"; the remix was called "Pts. Of. Athrty (The Crystal Method Remix)" and can only be found on LP Underground 2.0 EP, which is exclusively available to LP Underground members.

Jordan and Kirkland currently host a radio show called Community Service which airs Friday nights on Los Angeles' Indie 103.1, featuring electronic music.

In June of 2006, the duo teamed up with Nike to release the workout-inspired album Drive: Nike + Original Run. The album is a continuous 45 minute mix of ten songs, and can only be downloaded from the iTunes Music Store.

Collaborations

The group worked with Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo to make a music video.[citation needed]

Awards

In 2005, their third studio album, Legion of Boom, was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Electronica/Dance Album". This marked the first time the Grammys offered such an award.

Band Name

There is a lot of discussion as to whether the band took their name from the drug Crystal meth (street slang for methamphetamine), most interviews with the band cite a girl named Crystal as the idea [1], but if the drug did inspire the band they were unlikely to come out and admit this. Certainly a lot of their tracks could be taken as having fun with the subject, "Trip Like I Do" being the most obvious one, but the name of this track actually came from an answering machine message saved on Scott's answering-machine [2] that is one of the samples used in this track. There are various interviews with the band citing that the 2nd albums' name (Tweekend) came from the hours of tweaking the sound and mix [3]. Whatever happens there will forever be ambiguity about the name.

Instrument list

The Crystal Method use a wide array of equipment, with the Clavia Nord Lead being most closely associated with their style and sound. It was the primary source of sound for their first album Vegas.


Discography

Singles

Non-Album Tracks
"Now Is The Time"
"The Dubeliscious Groove" (Also featured on the "Now is the Time" Vinyl)
"More" (from the Keep Hope Alive EP released before Vegas. Some have falsly named the version of this on the EP as the '99 Mix, even though the single was released in 1996)
"Come2gether" (featured on the Mortal Kombat: More Kombat album.)
From Vegas
"Keep Hope Alive"
"Busy Child"
"Comin' Back"
From Spawn soundtrack
"(Can't You) Trip Like I Do" (a re-working of their song "Trip Like I Do" from Vegas featuring Filter)
From Tweekend
"Name of the Game"
"Murder" (also known as "You Know It's Hard" and featuring Scott Weiland)
"Wild, Sweet and Cool"
From Hardhop & Trypno
"Blast"
From Legion of Boom
"Born Too Slow" (Featuring John Garcia & Wes Borland)
"Starting Over"
"Bound Too Long"
Non-Album Remixes
Cardinal - "Bodyslide"
DJ Keoki - "Caterpillar"
Amos - "Come Away"
Moby - "Come on Baby"
Ezee Possee - "Everything Starts with an 'E'"
Garbage - "I Think I'm Paranoid" (renamed "I Think I'm Crystalized")
Zen Cowboys - "Mad World"

Similar Artists

See also

References

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