Breaking Artist: Crystal Castles

Who: Toronto duo Crystal Castles, who, after a string of EPs and acclaimed remixes are ready to flood your eardrums with their own self-titled full-length debut on March 18th.

Sounds Like: An amalgamation of Klaxons' nu-rave dance, the Velvet Underground's more cacophonous moments and the 8-bit aesthetics of famed Nintendo composers Yoshihiro Sakaguchi and Koji Kondo. The band was shocked when they discovered how quickly their music (literally) moved people. "One of our first shows, the venue said 'We've been hosting shows for years, but no one really dances at our shows,' " multi-instrumentalist Ethan Fawn says, "but people like dancing to Crystal Castles."

Vital Stats:

• Legrand's uncle is the great French film composer Michel Legrand, who scored films by Jean-Luc Godard (A Woman is a Woman, Band of Outsiders) and was nominated for Academy Awards for scoring The Thomas Crown Affair and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

• Avoiding the White Stripes route of band relations, the duo is admittedly not romantically-involved. Legrand has a boyfriend, while Scally dates a chef on the Food Network's Ace of Cakes.

• The band is a product of Baltimore's exploding indie-rock movement. After the center of renaissance is the Wham City artist collective, which boasts CMJ favorite Dan Deacon as its poster child.

Hear It Now: Devotion hits shelves in CD stores and digital music services on February 28th. In the meantime, check out their video for "Master of None," off their self-titled debut album.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

More Song Stories entries »

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