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Crystal CastlesCelesticaCrimewave
Ethan Kath met Alice Glass in Toronto when she was 15.[2] After
hearing her sing in a local punk band, Fetus Fatale, Kath asked
her to record vocals over tracks he had been working on since 2003.[3]
After writing some lyrics, she went to a studio to record them,
where her soundcheck was secretly recorded.[2] Six months later,
Kath uploaded the finished songs to the internet, including "Alice
Practice," the results of the mic check, under the band name
Crystal Castles, a tribute to a song featured in the cartoon She-Ra
which featured the lyric "The fate of the world is safe in
Crystal Castles."[4] In 2005 songs such as "Magic Spells",
"Untrust Us", and "Alice Practice" grew popular
online, and he began receiving offers from record labels.[4] 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.[4] The song became the band's first official release
in 2006 on a limited vinyl which was released by London's Merok
Records.[2] Several limited edition 7" vinyl singles followed in 2006
and 2007 on various independent labels, including two on London's
Trouble Records.[citation needed] In 2008, Lies Records collected
most of the vinyl 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.[citation needed] This eponymous debut album
was included in NME's "Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade"
list at number 39.[1] The band's second album, also self-titled (a.k.a. Crystal Castles (II)), was released on May 24, 2010.[5] In April 2010, an early mix of the album leaked and without any record label promotion. The third single taken from the album, "Not in Love", featuring Robert Smith from The Cure, is currently the band's highest charting single to date and features in EA Sports FIFA 12 video game. The song was originally written and performed by fellow Canadian band Platinum Blonde. Crystal Castles headlined the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour 2011 in
the United Kingdom while singer Alice Glass suffered with a broken
ankle.[6] The band is in Warsaw recording their third studio album and is
to be released Summer 2012, says an article in NME Print Magazine
[7] Crystal Castles 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."[8] 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."[9] With the release of their second album, their music made a "shift
toward beauty and clarity,"[10] finding "different ways
to mix icy synth pop with white-hot noise, as well as present them
in an ever so slightly more polished form."[11] Crystal Castles have headlined numerous tours in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Australia. They have played many festivals including Ireland's 2009 and 2011 Oxegen Festival, All Points West Festival 2009 in New Jersey, Coachella Valley and Music Festival 2009 and 2011 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[12][13][14][15][16] and also headlined a Vice magazine tour across the UK in November 2007.[17] 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.[18] Crystal Castles toured with Nine Inch Nails in three dates in August 2008.[19] 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.[20] 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.[21] Crystal Castles performed at Australia's Big Day Out 2011 festival and Bestival 2011, alongside The Cure whose vocalist Robert Smith contributed to Crystal Castles new version of "Not in Love." Crystal Castles also took part in the NME Awards Tour in February 2011, alongside bands Magnetic Man, Everything Everything and The Vaccines. On 20 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.[22] As of March 19, 2011 Alice is still performing with one crutch and using the mic stand as her other crutch to help support herself. Her foot is encased in a plastic protective walking boot.[citation needed] She is more active on stage now[when?], having jumped into the crowd on a few occasions during their March 19, 2011 set in Boston, MA.[citation needed] As of May 12, at the Fluxx in San Diego, CA, Alice was seen fully recovered from the previous ankle injury. Crystal Castles were a headliner at the 2011 Ultra Music Festival, March 25–27 in Miami, FL. Crystal Castles were also headlining at the Danish music festival NorthSide Festival in Aarhus June 11–12 and are scheduled to perform at Reading and Leeds Festival 2011. Crystal Castles headlined at Moogfest in Asheville, North Carolina
on October 29, 2011.[citation needed] 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,[23][24] was used by the band on merchandise. The issue was resolved after the band bought the rights to use the image from Brown.[25] In one of Kath's earliest, unreleased demos, he incorporated a
sample without permission; the track was uploaded on the MySpace
page of the label, Lies Records, without credit to the original
sampled song.[26] 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."[26][27][28][29] Ethan Kath – instruments, production (2003–present) Additional live members Christopher Chartrand – drums (2006, 2008–present) Former live members Cameron Findlay – drums (2007–2008, currently playing in Parallels) [edit] Discography GoodBooks "Leni" (2006) [edit] Videography "Crimewave" (2008)
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