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Boycott Plagiarists? Crystal Castles?!

27 May 2008, Allan @ 5:14 pm The Crystal Castles got into some trouble after stealing artwork claiming they didn’t know who the artists was and that they hoped he/she would come out of the woodwork. The image was of Madonna with a black eye and they sold that image on their EP and that the artist Trevor Brown was pissed. There has been a few war of words, with Trevor Brown saying he did not receive any payment as part of the agreement.

Anyway I am rehashing old news that nobody cares about, I think stealing music is much more sacred and a bigger news story. Apparently it’s been out there for about a little more then a month but has picked up ZERO media steam aside from Exclaim. Stealing music is like a pro-athlete taking steroids in my world…they are done for the same reasons. Anyway the big controversy was a song called “IntersectionInsecticon” they listed as one of their own songs but then switched it to a remix AFTER hearing complaints. The original song was done by Lo-Bat who had an open Creative Commons license meaning it was free to use without commercial use provided you gave credit where credit is due.

I think the problem I have with a lot of the media outlets is that they are making it a Creative Commons issue…while I think that is one path to take…a boring one though why not bash the perpetrators like they deserve to be? Apparently there has been a lot more theft of songs and after listening to the evidence, it’s pretty damn arguable that Crystal Castles isn’t as original or cool as they are leading on. The songs are similar that you can say that some tracks are at least sampled.

I will say that I believe theft in the music industry feels like it is going to get more common as the “indie” scene becomes even more massive then it already is. We have millions of bands across the world with tons of different styles and all that much more obscure bands…who probably can’t afford litigation and they just have to cause a “fuss”.

Crystals Castles stole, they changed their tune (switching the credits is not cool) and they are trying to brush it off as it’s okay. But it’s not. Their integrity is now compromised and even if you hear something new how would you know it’s not stolen? Other tracks are believed to be rip-offs as well but the least of what they did was steal one track.

Artists should have their ass handed to them if they are caught stealing, because athletes are ripped apart for doping but they only hurt themselves more then anything while artists who steal music from others hurts the fans even more (sport fans pay to watch the sport more then the individual athlete) and the artist(s) they steal from.

Thanks for Flight Test for bringing this up…totally missed it and I think ALL OF YOU music fans should be outraged. Fans or not. I think anyone accused of theft in the music world needs to be acted much more harshly upon as this can’t be tolerated!

I don’t know how I am going to approach the Crystal Castles anymore. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth and it may affect my reviewing abilities of them but that’s their fault. They still have their millions of myspace fans so what do they care.

MP3:
Untrust Us by Crystal Castles

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Filed under: Crystal Castles

15 Comments

1. Jon Graef — May 29, 2008 @ 10:20 am
   
   

   Hey Allan -
   Just FYI, my blog also did a post about this a week or two ago:

   http://minneapolisfuckingrocks.blogspot.com/2008/05/non-profit-indie-label-accuses-crystal.html

   Maybe there’s something in there that you can use. This case seems pretty cut and dry, unfortunately. Hope all is well!

   Jon




2. Jon Graef — May 29, 2008 @ 10:24 am
   
   

   Hey Allan -
   Sorry if this is appearing twice, but I’m not sure that my original comment showed up the first time. My blog, MFR, did a post about this a couple of weeks ago as well. Maybe there’s something in there that you can use:

   http://minneapolisfuckingrocks.blogspot.com/2008/05/non-profit-indie-label-accuses-crystal.html

   Hope all is well and keep up the great work. Take care.

   Jon




3. Allan — May 29, 2008 @ 2:37 pm
   
   

   Thanks for letting me know. I haven’t seen enough posts on Crystal Castle’s theft and I’d figure it should be an outrage.




4. rajon — May 29, 2008 @ 10:46 pm
   
   

   theft? outrage? without crystal castles “stealing” they’d have tracks you wouldn’t relate to. they’d produce music no one would relate to. its a lose lose situation for a band like crystal castles because they’re slapped for doing what they love by music blogs who should be more open minded to art history. re interpreting the past shouldn’t be a crime, just like your interpretation of blogging isn’t, nor is anyone’s interpretation of the past.




5. Allan — May 29, 2008 @ 11:04 pm
   
   

   Hmm well taking from an influence isn’t stealing however a line is drawn between stealing and having an influence.

   Music blogs are slapping Crystal Castles? Last I checked music blogs were all over them…they do have 5 million myspace views and a lot of the bands I cover have under 100,000.

   Suggesting that we should be more open minded to history is a joke…you are joking right? I appreciate history as much as anyone but just look at the facts.

   The Chiptune scene is a small dedicated community who’s had NO ONE FAMOUS come out of the woodwork. The Crystal Castles gave no credit to this scene suggesting that they somehow started playing with it and are no affiliated with them at all (I’ll get a source if necessary). They stole from a few unknown artists, violated a rule of a guy’s song who offers up his tracks for free (Lo-bat’s site – http://www.lo-bat.be/).

   This isn’t historical and more like a now “trend” that the internet is going through being satisfied with hearing video games sounds in their music.

   I know you didn’t go all out on me and your post isn’t that bad but come on…artists give credit where credit is do saying they listened to this artist growing up and they emulate that in their music. They don’t steal riffs or carbon copy drumlines.

   The Verve got fucked over for sampling a Rolling Stones track that DOESN’T even sound like the same song (Bittersweet Symphony) and they lost all the money made from this song…so when a track is clearly stolen in this manner by not citing the proper credit..Crystal Castles deserves all the flack they receive.




6. krwait — May 30, 2008 @ 9:37 am
   
   

   Okay firstly the track was called “Insecticon” and not “Intersection.”

   Secondly the song isn’t on any official release. It’s not on their official myspace site either. It’s on another one that bears their name and the name of one of their record labels but is of unclear origins.

   Imagine a person who sings some random Madonna song they like or hear on the radio or whatever, records it and then posts it on youtube. They don’t include the name of the artist or song when they upload it and maybe just call it “Me singing a cool song omg lolz.” They are maybe selling CDs of their own music on another website. Would there be massive backlash against that person for stealing a song?

   The correct answer is no. If Madonna happened to find out about that random dude somewhere in his bedroom recording an unlicensed, unattributed, ’stolen’ version of her song she wouldn’t care a cent. Now reverse the situation. Crystal Castles are getting so much hate from the Chiptune community because it is giving the Chiptune people free publicity, and a lot of it, they are desperately latchiing onto CC’s fame.

   Anyway, Insecticon is nowhere near as good as most of Crystal Castles’ songs, it is such a minor footnote in their catalogue that people desperate to shit on them for it are really clutching at straws. It would be like some guy going to Justin Timberlake and saying “You know that demo you recorded when you were 10 years old? You sang over a backing track that you stole from me without permission. Everyone boycott his music and picket his shows and call him a dirty dirty thief!!”

   Okay this post was ranting and probably incoherent because I am tired, but I hope I managed to communicate a bit about how stupid and inconsequential this whole argument is. However, I probably didn’t manage that at all.




7. Allan — May 30, 2008 @ 12:07 pm
   
   

   The Madonna analogy fails for me. You are right on some technicalities.

   Madonna is already a well off musician who has millions of dollars…so if a person creates a song for “Like A Virgin” and does not attribute it correctly, it is widely known as a Madonna track by everyone making it better then the actual example of what happened. Besides the point of the matter Madonna is a successful well-off artist where as Lo-bat is not and the “theft” albeit minor is palatable.

   People haven’t heard about the Chiptune scene and being an indie blog…we praise the poor and bash the rich like it should be. I mean people are liking Crystal Castles so much why wouldn’t they like a similar style in music? But noooooo Crystal Castles wants to say they don’t know anything about that scene and refuse to help someone out.

   Crystal Castles played the publicity card one too many times, they did with Trevor Brown the artist in which they did steal from and because they stole from him he has every right to be a major bitch.

   Also what about the Justin Timberlake analogy? It’s not like the track is that old I would imagine. Crystal Castles are still quite new so I personally doubt that calling it old would be correct. Yes it is unreleased but…

   I think the point of the matter, their recent “transgressions” albeit minor SHOULD cause the average person to be suspicious of the legitimacy of their other tracks and I there has been some similarities to their tracks on THEIR RECORD. I think that argument holds some weight as the tracks sound at least sampled with no attribution.




8. Yelle — May 30, 2008 @ 3:32 pm
   
   

   I would like to understand !! Isn’t it what Daft Punk is doing all the time, by remixing some old songs ???




9. Allan — May 30, 2008 @ 5:03 pm
   
   

   Well Crystal Castles made a “mistake” by not calling it a remix.




10. krwait — June 2, 2008 @ 6:20 am
    
    

    as i suspected in my late-night ranting my analogies were a bit weak. i’m not going to bother revising them now, but i would like to at least point out that in the album leaflet some samples are listed with the words ‘used with permission.’ also some samples are listed without those words so i’m not sure if that means anything. if you mean that you suspect them of sampling more than they have documented, well possibly, but if it’s not recognisable then i don’t see why that would be an issue. also it could be that i’m too much in love with the album to admit to any blemishes on its reputation.




11. Allan — June 2, 2008 @ 6:25 am
    
    

    Fair enough. The album is good..but were we fooled? It’s a legitimate question nonetheless.




12. Missa — November 6, 2008 @ 10:50 pm
    
    

    Well, CC did get stolen their material…




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14. Yeah — November 23, 2008 @ 12:35 am
    
    

    The song with the sample was an unreleased song from 2004. The band’s debut album came out in 2008, without that (shit) song. Nobody cared. It’s 1 of the top 5 albums of the year. Congrats to Crystal Castles for surviving this bullshit attempt at ruining their cred.




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