london, music

Crystal Castles = Crystal Meth for the ears

We checked out Crystal Castles, These New Puritans and The Horrors last night at Astoria…we were the oldest people there by approximately 20 years, i.e. everyone else seemed to be five year old versions of the Horrors complete with back-combed hair, waistcoats and a resilient disdain for modern life. I think the somber trappings of the crowd tampered with my logic button as I ended up getting kicked out for smoking before The Horrors started!

We also had the gross misfortune of catching the first band up – Ulterior. All I can say is that it was the equivalent of being aurally raped. It was just nonsensical bollocks, noise-for-noise sake and their use of synth was so shit that I couldn’t understand if we had to evacuate the building or they actually thought having one long bleeeeeeep all the way through the first song was a good plan.

Things picked up when These New Puritans came on, the highlight being their existential maraudings on Elvis, check out the video below

Yeah so they warmed our cockles a little although we constantly had to consciously refrain from bashing the shit out of embryonic skindie scene kiddies.

Then Crystal Castles came out to play, and play they did. Their brand of bastardised 8-bit noise just works, the whole place rocked as they ripped through their set – my throat actually hurt from the vibrations but that didn’t stop me going crazy like a motherfucker when they dropped Crimewaves.

For those of you not familiar with this twosome from Toronto with a penchant for all things 80s, they are painfully cool peeps, playing painfully cool music surrounded by a painfully cool aesthetic. What I love about them compared to art bands and scene bands that are similarly well-endowed on the cool front is that Crystal Castles undoubtedly rock the house; there is substance in their stylings and Alice is pure hotness.

10 Comments

• On 02.18.08 kingmug wrote these pithy words:

  Just to reiterate. Ulterior. Worst band ever. Ever. I could do better with screaming baby as my only instrument. We had to leave the room it was so bad.

  I simply cannot do justice to how bad this band were. If it wouldn’t offend readers, I could probably compare them to various humanitarian crises to make my point. Yes, Ulterior <= Cortes shafting the Aztecs brutally (that’s hopefully long enough ago to avoid offence. Besides, the aztecs were unmitigated shits who deserved to get f’d in the a by the spanish)

• On 02.18.08 chairmanmeow wrote these pithy words:

  Edgy Aztecs chat, haha!

  Agree on Ulterior, made me want to die and not in a good way either.

  Read an interview in Stool Pigeon saying that they don’t like to talk to fans – probably a good job they’re shit then hence mitigating that problem!

• On 02.27.08 Alex McCarragher wrote these pithy words:

  You have to be kidding me!!!! Ulterior worst band ever? Crystal Castles great?? Which show were you at???

  Admittedly that high pitch noise was distracting but thats what you get for a first act that probably doesnt have their own sound engineer working the PA. But there show was AMAZING – really stood out and everyone Ive spoken to though like wise – a show with real energy for once. I enjoyed it so much I caught them again at White Heat where it was seriously rammed. If your not a fan of JAMC, MBV or Suicide and the like, like me then I can see why you hit the bar – but you seriously missed out!

  Crystal Castles on the other hand were dire. a guy with a laptop and a girl trying to do Riot Girl shouting for half an hour was my idea of a slow death. Its pure comedy – a side project/bit of fun that has been taken up by lazy journos at NME and a 14 yr olds at the front of the stage who were just happy to be there.

  Enjoyed Horrors and TNP though and thought it was a great line up for once from NME.

• On 03.05.08 The Worship St Irregulars » Skins + Crystal Castles = Big Win wrote these pithy words:

  [...] you caught our review of Crystal Castles, you’ll know that we are big fans. Well…we watched the latest episode of the new Skins [...]

• On 04.01.08 tom wrote these pithy words:

  if you read ul;terior’s myspace page, they seem to be under the impression that as their music gets worse, their status as ‘artists’ gets better.
  And the horrors weren’t great, you did not miss much.

• On 09.29.08 vimal wrote these pithy words:

  what an horrible drug is this.
  ———-
  vimal

  Crystal Meth Addiction

• On 10.15.08 kenny wrote these pithy words:

  wow
  soi suer fan de hte horrors
  son mi inspiracion…………..
  jejejje
  weno me larwo
  aiox

• On 12.02.08 Corban wrote these pithy words:

  CRYSTAL CASTLES=FUCK YEAH

• On 12.04.08 d.jarv wrote these pithy words:

  Crystal Castles are actually amazing. Unbelievable depth and sadness in their music. I wish my music could hurt like theirs. An inspiration.

• On 10.19.10 Diego Maya Medina wrote these pithy words:

  Some cool photos of Crystal Castles live in Chile http://futurofreak.com/2010/09/22/un-castillo-de-cristal-en-un-oceano-de-manos/

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