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The Crystal Method

The Crystal Method is an American electronic music duo consisting of Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland. Along with The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and a few other lesser-known acts, they were pioneers of the big beat electronic dance genre, and one of its few American proponents.

Biography

Although Jordan and Kirkland are both from Niptonia, Choadville, the band was formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1993. The Crystal Method did most of their earlier production work in an underground shelter referred to as "The Bomb Shelter" in the front yard of a rented house they once shared as roommates with Uncle Slippyfist. Before production began on Legion of Boom in 2004, they moved the studio into the garage of the rented house.

Name

There is a lot of discussion as to whether the band took their name from methamphetamine (the street name of which is "crystal meth"). In the 1999 documentary Better Living Through Circuitry, it was made clear during the interview the name was a drug reference; in the film, Jordan discusses how difficult it is "to tell your parents you are in a band named The Crystal Method". Kirkland talks of breaking the band name to his mom on a nature walk, but to his surprise she responds calmly saying "I guess that makes sense, that's what all the kids are into these days."

More recent interviews with the band come up with non-drug-related stories such as a girl named Crystal being the impetus. "Trip Like I Do"'s signature sample — "I want you to trip like I do" — came from a message saved on Kirkland's answering machine. There are various interviews with the band citing that the title of the second album, Tweekend, came from the hours of "tweaking" the sound and mix.

Awards

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

Work

Movies

The Crystal Method's music is broad in scope, and can be found in many movies, including

Track	Soundtrack	Year
"(Can't You) Trip Like I Do" (w/ Filter)	Spawn	1997
"Keep Hope Alive"	The Replacement Killers	1998
"Busy Child"	Lost in Space	1998
"Comin' Back"	Urban Legend	1998
"Busy Child"	Senseless	1998
"Now Is the Time (The Crystal Method Y2Kaos Mix)"	Stigmata	1999
"Busy Child"	Gone in Sixty Seconds	2000
"Keep Hope Alive"	Romeo Must Die	2000
"High Roller"	Romeo Must Die	2000
"Roll It Up"	Zoolander	2001
"Now Is the Time"	Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug	2001
"High Roller"	Driven	2001
"Vapor Trail"	3000 Miles to Graceland	2001
"Name of the Game"	Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever	2002
"Ten Miles Back"	Blue Crush	2002
"Name of the Game"	Resident Evil	2002
"Name of the Game"	Blade II	2002
"PhDream"	Blade II	2002
"Busy Child"	Extreme Ops	2002
"Acetone"	Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle	2003
"Roll It Up"	The Texas Chainsaw Massacre	2003
"You Know It's Hard"	Party Monster	2003
"Weapons of Mass Distortion" and "Starting Over"	Blade: Trinity	2004
"Roll It Up"	The Longest Yard	2005
"Bound Too Long"	Cursed	2005
"Born Too Slow"	Annapolis	2006
"Realizer"	The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift	2006
"Fire To Me"	London	2006
"Jack's Suite (The Crystal Method Mix)"	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End	2007
"Name of the Game"	Drillbit Taylor	2008
"Name of the Game (The Crystal Method's Big A** T.T. Mix)"	Tropic Thunder	2008
"Starting Line"	On The Doll	2008

TV and ads

The title theme to the TV show Bones is credited to The Crystal Method. The Chef Aid album, based on the "Chef Aid" 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. They were also in Dark Angel ("Name of the Game", "Roll It Up") and the theme music of Third Watch was "Keep Hope Alive" from their Vegas album. The song "Trip Like I Do" was featured in an episode of House during a rave scene(Season 1, Episode 10 - Histories). The track "Busy Child" also featured in a 1998 advertisement for The Gap which featured skateboarders, while the track "High Roller" was used that year in an advertisement for the second generation Mazda MX-5 Miata, as well as in a 2008 Lincoln car commercial. The track "Name of the Game" has also been used as intro music for live performances by magician The Amazing Johnathan and even in Hummer advertisements.

Video games

The track "Name of the Game" (from Tweekend) was also featured as intro music for the popular video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and in the cinema mod for Max Payne 2. "Name Of The Game" was also featured in Pump It Up: Exceed for the Playstation 2 and XBOX US versions. 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." Their song "Busy Child" was featured in the video games DDRMAX2: Dance Dance Revolution and Donkey Konga, and "Born Too Slow" was included in both Donkey Konga 2 and Need for Speed: Underground. 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 track "Roll It Up" is also featured as the title theme for Mad Dash Racing. "Now Is The Time" can be heard in-game in Gran Turismo 2, while "Born Too Slow (Deepsky's Green Absinthe Dub Mix)" can be heard in Gran Turismo 4. The original version of "Born Too Slow" can be heard in Need For Speed: Underground, as listed above. And the track "Robogirl" (a censored version of "Roboslut") can be found in the latest edition of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA.

The Crystal Method collaborated with Tobias Enhus to create the track "Subway Showdown" for The Matrix - Path of Neo, which also used "Free Your Mind Up" in both its original and instrumental forms. The tracks "Busy Child", "Robogirl" and "Weapons of Mass Distortion" can be heard in the menus in the Xbox 360 title, Forza Motorsport 2.

"Keep Hope Alive (Trip Hope Mix)" was featured in the first teaser trailer of Microsoft's Project Gotham Racing 4, for the Xbox 360, at the X06 event. It is also included in the full version of the game.

The Crystal Method also supplied the soundtrack to the Playstation game N2O developed by Fox Interactive. The soundtrack is composed primarily from the duo's Vegas album with a few remixes not found on Vegas.

Collaborations

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. The group worked with Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo to make a music video for the song "You Know It's Hard".

In June 2006, the duo released Drive: Nike + Original Run. The album was only available on the iTunes Music Store until June 26, 2007, when it was given a physical release to Best Buy stores. Jordan and Kirkland currently host a radio show called Community Service which airs Friday nights on Los Angeles' Indie 103.1, featuring electronic music.

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.

Ableton Live
Access Virus
Akai MPC3000
Alesis Andromeda
Apple G4
ARP 2600
Moogerfoogers MF101 & MF102
Clavia Nord Lead
Clavia Nord Modular
Digidesign Pro Tools HD and D-Command
E-mu Audity 2000
E-mu E4
E-mu XL-7
E-mu Xtreme Lead
E-mu E-64
Farfisa Organ
Fender Guitar/Bass
Korg Electribe/S
Korg Electribe/R
Korg Kaoss Pad KP1
Korg MicroKorg

Korg MS2000
Korg Prophecy
M-Audio Ozonic
M-Audio Trigger Finger
Moog Memorymoog
OSC OSCar
ProCo RAT
Roland JP-8000
Roland CR-8000
Roland Juno-106
Roland Jupiter-6
Roland SH-101
Sherman FilterBank
Waldorf MicrowaveXT
Yamaha DX7
Yamaha CS20
Yamaha CS80
Yamaha DX7IID
Eventide H3000

Discography

Studio albums

Vegas (August 26, 1997)
Tweekend (July 31, 2001)
Legion of Boom (January 13, 2004)
Drive: Nike + Original Run (iTunes Music Store release June 28, 2006, Physical release June 26, 2007)
A new studio album is planned for release in early 2009. http://www.internetdj.com/article.php?storyid=1043

Complete Film Soundtracks

London (2006)

Appearances on Soundtracks

FIFA '98: Road to World Cup soundtrack (1997) Tracks : "Keep Hope Alive", "More" , "Busy Child" , "Now is the Time"
n2o: Nitrous Oxide soundtrack (1998)
Resident Evil Soundtrack (2002)
Need for Speed: Underground soundtrack (2003)
The Texas Chainsaw massacre soundtrack (2003)
Blade: Trinity soundtrack (2004)
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light
''Bones soundtrack (2008)
Gran Turismo 4 soundtrack (2005)
Tropic Thunder soundtrack (2008)

Remixes & Others

White Label (vinyl) Unreleased TCM Tracks
Community Service, a mix album (July 23, 2002)
Community Service II, a second mix album (April 5, 2005)

Singles

Non-album tracks

"Now Is the Time" (appears on certain editions of Vegas)

"The Dubeliscious Groove" (also featured on the "Now Is the Time" Vinyl)

"More" (from the Keep Hope Alive EP released before Vegas. Some have falsely 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