Volumes have been written about the UK dance scene and all the bands who make albums and tour as if they were Blues Traveler. With the buzz and constant barrage of articles on the world of electronica, we all know thier names by now. But did you know that there are a few of those kinds of groups right here in the good ol' US who can go beyond the indie label 12" and play live in front of huge amounts of people? One of the best of them hails from Southern California and goes by the name of Crystal Method. Currently doing the rounds on the Electric Highway tour that coincided with the release of their Outpost Recordings debut album Vegas, Scott Kirkland and Ken Jordan, the two blokes behind the project, are giving the US a good name in the worldwide electronica scene.
Ken and Scott grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada (hence the name of their album). Not a town known for its dance music scene, the two still had a passion for the beat which formed the basis of their friendship when they met in 1989. As DJs, they broke the sound barrier with what was cool at the time -- electronic alternative groups like New Order, Depeche Mode et al. Ken worked at a college radio station and would tie his radio show in with the club to create the small scene that he did, and met Scott through the clubs. "Scott actually threw the first raves," chuckles Ken in the lobby of New York's coolest hotel, The Royalton. "I don't know if you could call them that. Most of [Las Vegas'] clubs were geared towards the 35-55 year olds who wear pumps and have mile-high hair or wear chains and drive IROCs around." Having both been to L.A., they wanted to bring the new scene which they found in L.A. back to Las Vegas. With very little, they tried hard. "The only way you could throw a party and have anyone come was to involve a college rock band, so what we'd do was get the hottest band who was in town in one room and then the DJs were set up in the other room. While these weren't rave events in the most proper form, we brought records back from the shops in L.A. and also made full-on flyers." On the side, Ken was doing engineering work for producer Tony Berg, and relocated to L.A. to concentrate on that, while Scott tried to push his passion on a town that just didn't want to give up on pop dance just yet. No more than a year later, Scott followed Ken to the City of Angels.
