April 2004

Perhaps by naming themselves the Crystal Method, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland felt they were letting the music world know what kind of energy they put into their music (and perhaps androids dream of electric beats). Either way, ever since Jordan and Kirkland left their native Las Vegas in the mid-90s and started releasing 12" singles from their basement in Glendale, California, the duo has been a force to be reckoned with on the American electronic and techno scenes, helping to plant the United States squarely on the electronic spectrum.

The group's sound first hit the mainstream with their 1997 release, Las Vegas, whose single, "Trip Like I Do," while not doing much to dispel the image of techno being a sugar-addict's medium, garnered massive radio and club play. The group further honed its sound with their second album, Tweekend, in 2001, and also released the genre's requisite "mix" disc, Community Service, in 2002. Citing influences as diverse as Stevie Wonder and AC/DC, the duo infuses its electronic dance grooves with elements of rock, soul, and funk that help diversify their sound amidst a crowd of legitimate acts and garage-DJs.

On their latest release, Legion of Boom, Jordan and Kirkland continue where they left off in 2001, assembling a host of grooves that are augmented by guests from the rock world (former Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland, the Bell Rays' Lisa Kekaula, and John Garcia, formerly of Kyuss), hip hop (human beat-box Rahzel), and maverick instrumentation (guitarist Jon Brion).

The group calls their suburban studio the bomb shelter, and for good reasonÑa bomb shelter was constructed on the front lawn of the house during the Cuban missile crisis. The studio itself is in the garage; and over the years, the duo have built a musician's N.O.R.A.D (nuclear fallout shelter included). Computers dot the studio's perimeter, humming softly, while a junkyard's worth of metal and plastic manifests itself in the form of keyboards, drum machines, samplers, guitars, and a jungle's worth of cables.

During a recent phone interview, Scott lists off every imaginable piece of musical hardware, starting with enough Macintoshes¨ to fill an Apple¨ store. "We started out with a 7200, got a 9600 and a G3, then upgraded to a G4 with a 22-inch cinema display," says Scott. "We also have a 15-inch Ti-book, a 867 G4 notebook, and a dual-G4 and we run MOTU digital performer sequencer with a Pro Tools system."

Lest it seem like the duo is paid to be some marketer at Cupertino's wet dream, the group also boasts a commanding arsenal of other music-making equipment. The group inhabits a cutting space in the musical spectrum, working with the latest in tech gear, while also using a host of analog equipment. "We work with all sorts of analog equipment," muses Scott, "including the Alesis Andromeda A6, a Roland V-Synth, a Nord Lead 3, Studio Electronics SE 1, Avalon compressors and direct boxes. Our biggest investment back in the day was setting this place up, although we do have to expand to make room for some of the new equipment we've got coming in."

The group has toured extensively, and the vibe on their new album reflects the environment they've been immersed in during the past year. "We did a mix disc in 2002, Community Service; and while recording that we did a lot of gigs and a lot of raves and got back into the electronic scene," Scott tells me, "we came out of that inspired, and a lot of the stuff on the new albumÑhooks, basslines, and groovesÑreflect that. " In 2001, while brainstorming for their Tweekend album, Crystal Method joined the Family Values Tour with such rock acts as Filter, Corn, and Limp Biscuit. "Tweekend was little more rocked out," says Scott, "and being on the Family Value [Tour] definitely influenced the album we put out then."

Legion of Boom functions as a logical conclusion to the group's last ten years of touring and making albums. The disc subsumes the electronic and rock elements of Vegas and Tweekend, while also paying homage to the touring element of the electronic culture. "When we're touring we have a lot of equipment, but we also use a 733Mhz G4 tower," notes Scott.

Touring in the States can be a draining experience for electronic acts, especially in an era when formulaic hip hop and pop songs saturate the top-40 stations, providing groups like Crystal Method with minimal exposure through the airwaves. "It's difficult over here," notes Scott. "In the UK they've got Radio One where influential DJs can come on and play tracks. Here, everything is so locked into these top-40 radio formats that don't play anything outside the pop spectrum. Here, the only way to really get it going is by playing a lot of shows, and not just in a San Francisco or Chicago or LA, but doing smaller markets like Denver, Phoenix, or Sacramento."

But while electronic music dwells below the masses' sonar, groups like Crystal Method definitely break into the mainstream. Electronic influences a host of genres, and in the age of the garage DJ, armed with only an iBook¨ and 40 gigs of samples, electronica is likely to continue influencing the music community. "Electronic music is definitely a part of the music," says Scott as we finish talking. "It's coming into the mainstream. I mean, you've even got Puff Daddy working it into his remixes."

And when Puffy reps your genre, America has most likely already noticed.

Legion of Boom is in stores now. www.thecrystalmethod.com