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Crystal Castles
are an
electronic band from Toronto, Canada, consisting of
producer Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass. Crystal
Castles are known for their chaotic live shows and their
melancholic lo-fi home productions. The duo released
many vinyl EPs between 2006 and 2007, and two
eponymous albums in 2008 and 2010 to widespread
critical acclaim.
History
Ethan Kath met Alice Glass in Toronto when she was 15.
After hearing her sing in a local punk band, Fetus Fatale, Kath asked her to record vocals over some tracks he had been
working on. After writing some lyrics, she went to a studio to record them, where her soundcheck was secretly recorded.
Six months later, Kath uploaded the finished songs to MySpace, including "Alice Practice," the results of the mic check,
under the band name Crystal Castles, an off-the-cuff tribute to She-Ra's place of refuge, Crystal Castle. While their music
is reminiscent of 8-bit video game soundtracks, Kath claims he was unaware of the 1983 arcade game of the same name
until "long after naming the band." The songs grew popular online, and he began receiving offers from record companies
a year later. This news was especially shocking to Glass, having lost touch with Kath since the recording and up to that
point unaware "Alice Practice" even existed. The song became the band's first official release.
First Album
Several limited edition 7" vinyl singles followed in 2007 on various independent labels, including two on London's Trouble
Records. In 2008, Lies Records collected most of the singles and released them on CD for the first time (also released as
a double album on 12" vinyl), along with many previously unreleased tracks and 3 songs recorded just for the collection.
This eponymous debut album was included in NME's "Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade" list at number 39.
Second Album
The band's second album, also self-titled (a.k.a. Crystal Castles (II)), was released on May 24, 2010. In April 2010, an
early mix of the album leaked and without any record label promotion the leak reached #1 on various electronic music
charts worldwide. The album was produced by Ethan Kath at various locations, including a church in Iceland, a self-built
cabin in northern Ontario, an abandoned convenience store garage in Detroit, Michigan, and two songs recorded in the
London studio of Paul "Phones" Epworth.
The third single taken from the album "Not in Love" featuring Robert Smith from The Cure is currently the bands highest
charting single to date.
Crystal Castles headlined the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour 2011 in the United Kingdom while singer Alice Glass
suffered with a broken ankle.
On February 23rd 2011 the band were awarded the "John Peel NME award for Innovation".
Musical Style
Crystal Castle’s musical style has been described as "ferocious, asphyxiating sheets of warped two-dimensional
Gameboy glitches and bruising drum bombast that pierces your skull with their sheer shrill force, burrowing deep into the
brain like a fever". 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."
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Copyright Disputes
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, was used by the band on merchandise.
The issue was resolved after the band bought the rights to use the image from Brown.
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. The track, "Insectica (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".
Touring
Crystal Castles have headlined numerous tours in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Australia. They have played many
festivals including Ireland's 2009 Oxygen Festival, All Points West Festival 2009 in New Jersey, 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, 2008, 2009 and 2010 and also headlined a Vice magazine tour
across the UK in November 2007.
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 organizers curtailing their set. Crystal Castles toured
with Nine Inch Nails in three dates in August 2008.
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 a gig in LA that involved Alice Glass wrecking the drum kit.
They supported Blur on the first of two comeback shows in Hyde Park, London in July 2009. They also performed at
Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee Friday June 12, 2009. Crystal Castles also played the NME
stage of Reading and Leeds Festival 2010, the Obelisk Arena of Latitude Festival 2010, Glastonbury 2010, RockNess
2010, Pohoda Festival in Trenčín, Slovakia, Exit Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia, Emmabodafestivalen in Emmaboda,
Sweden, In New Music We Trust stage at the Radio 1 One Big Weekend in Bangor, North Wales May 2010 and Estrella
Levante SOS 4.8 (May, 2010) in Murcia, Spain. Crystal Castles did a Full-Length UK tour in November 2010.
Hard Festival 2010, which Crystal Castles are headlining, on a summer tour to; Oakland, LA State Park, Denver, Austin,
Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, New York, Baltimore and Finland.
Crystal Castles will also take part in Australia's Big Day Out 2011 festival and Bestival 2011, alongside The Cure whose
vocalist Robert Smith contributed to Crystal Castle’s new version of "Not in Love".
They will also headline the upcoming NME Awards Tour in February 2011, with bands such as Magnetic Man, Everything
Everything and The Vaccines.
On the 20th of January 2011, Alice put strain on a previous foot injury (during a Spanish show in November 2010) in
Tokyo, causing her ankle to break. The injury forced Alice to perform some shows on crutches. ~ by Wikipedia