Gameboy chaos

Having become yet another pop icon to come out of Toronto and join the elite ranks of Drake and Justin Bieber, Crystal Castles and their eight-bit machine gun are coming into town to put on quite a show this week. They will lay claim on the Roseland this Sunday to an already sold-out show. Are we saying you shouldn’t try and get tickets? Well, no.

But since that has been clearly established, it seems like there isn’t much to talk about. Hogwash! Crystal Castles is the coolest thing to come out of dance music since Benny Benassi’s music video for “Satisfaction,” which featured many a bodacious babe working with power tools.

Hailing from Toronto, these Canadian dance punks go by the names of Ethan Kath and Alice Glass. Ethan does the producing and Ms. Glass blesses us with her vocals and head-banging enthusiasm. Their shows and tunes have been creating some serious buzz since they first got together in 2003. Crystal Castles falls in line with the endless amount of other artists that have recently staked their claim to fame over the Internet, releasing music for multiple years over MySpace until a record company finally swoops down on them.

This eclectic duo first came on to the scene in March of 2008 with their self-titled debut album, which reached number six on the U.S. Top Electronic Albums list and came in at number 47 on the UK Top Albums chart. However, their premier celebration came to a halt shortly thereafter with issues surrounding copyright violations and using artist Trevor Brown’s artwork on some of their band merchandise. The short-lived dispute with Mr. Brown was over a quite humorous picture of Madonna with a black eye, which was placed on T-shirts sold at their shows. The dilemma was swiftly taken care of by Crystal Castles by purchasing the rights from the disgruntled artist. Besides their merchandise, Kath’s Gameboy beats went under scrutiny when he failed to give proper credit to a sample he had used on one of his original unreleased demos that he put up on his MySpace page.

Besides all of the copyright issues that this young pair have attracted, they should be recognized for their immense talent and vision that they have exhibited in the world of popular music. As the story goes, Kath first discovered his young vocalist when she was only 15 and singing in a local punk band. Kath really liked her voice and bequeathed upon her a CD full of instrumentals, which Glass accepted and started writing lyrics for, eventually leading her into the studio to record. These recordings of Alice filling in with her vocals have been titled “Alice Practice.” This can be seen as the meeting of two great forces: Kath with his unique eight-bit beats, and Glass with her ear-penetrating punk dialect.

What to expect from this intensive beat unit this Sunday goes far beyond their music. The 21-year-old Glass has already acquired an infamous reputation of getting buck-wild during her performances. There are many reports of the overzealous singer attacking fans and even security guards. This past summer during a show in Barcelona, Glass reportedly attacked one of her security guards during a performance and put cigarettes out on fans. If this isn’t your type of usual groove, it’s highly recommend to avoid the near-stage area during her unusual spectacle, just to be safe.

Other than the potential of being punched, kicked, spat on, burnt and pummeled, this should undoubtedly be a great show. That is, if you can find tickets. ?