unveiled

the other day i read an interview in dazed.

the june online print version.

it was not like other band interviews, which i struggle to read, with all the pretentious Q&A and inaccessible jargon.

this particular interview, with canadian thrash electro duo crystal castles, was more about their lack of friends and clothes, average housing and how recording eventually began after the guy found the girl in a toronto street, messed up on drugs and wearing an eye patch to cover an infection.

not exactly your typical band beginnings. which made me realize that maybe success is not always dependent on having a discernible public persona.

or maybe crystal castles just don't care. really.

they seem happy to live in obscurity when they aren't on tour, which is hardly ever.

they don't even own cellphones, apparently.

it was interesting to see beyond the veil for once, to realize that having a cult following doesn't guarantee any degree of happiness, or even vague semblance of normality.

(whatever that is)

it is like going to watch a world cup game live, like i did on friday at ellis park, and realizing that off-screen the field seems so much smaller.

from the stands the players are life-like figurines, running frantically under the moving eye of the mobile camera, a giant mechanical spider moving on an interconnected cabled web.

like at most live events, i was more concerned with getting bottles of plastic beer though, even if it was budweiser.

mainly because full attention on the game was impossible, thanks to the jumping slovenians around us, who jumped and sang, a lot, and weren't too pleased at my R30 star spangled cap.

i took to looking at the screens, and the thousands of people packed into the surrounding stands, like colourful cards neatly slotted into a circular shuffling machine.

with the honking, buzzing, and shouting making up a surrounding swarm of happy atmospheric noise.

it was fun.

and later that night, in a dark club called full moon in maroelana, i would be listening to another kind of atmospheric noise. this time with back drop visuals, keyboards, guitars and reverb.

a skyline on fire blew me away, i couldn't think of anything to compare it to. i had no frame of reference for the airy, reverberating sounds, the deep interpol-y like voice of the lead singer.

who let loose and danced on stage like he was caught in a straightjacket, happy stiff jamming and twisting while the other guy switched effortlessly from guitar to keyboard.

a keyboard that was altered by tape to say "be kind" instead of behringer.

(thanks hein)

it was a small crowd, but an appreciative one. i imagine it's a similar type of crowd crystal castles would have played to when they first started, although in comparison i'd say this crowd was infinitely more relaxed.

it was mantra pop, as they describe themselves, instead of thrash electro.

and like crystal castles, a skyline on fire is releasing a 2010 album too.

it's the type of music i think more people should hear. something that also might be appreciated by cult canadians.

either way, their sound, and the fact that they were part of the crowd like everyone else, was definitely appreciated by me.