The Crystal Method tour dates and new game-based animated music video

By April MacIntyre Aug 8, 2011, 20:51 GMT

The Crystal Method are one of the first of many popular music artists paving the way with an original method of interacting with music, pioneering a new medium to listen to favorite artists while viewing story-based video game content.

The Crystal Method fans take note: On Monday, August 8, Machinima.com will launch The Machinima Music Video Series with the exclusive world premiere of a game-based animated music video for the brand-new track “Play For Real” by The Crystal Method featuring The Heavy and directed by Machinima director Kootra.

The Crystal Method are one of the first of many popular music artists paving the way with an original method of interacting with music, pioneering a new medium to listen to favorite artists while viewing story-based video game content.

“Play For Real” is available now for one week only as a free download for the fans directly from TCM's website www.thecrystalmethod.com.

A digital EP including remixes of the song by Dirtyphonics, Le Castle Vania, Left/Right & Digital Pizza and Team Awesome will be released August 15 via TCM's own Tiny e Records. Visit www.thecrystalmethod.com to grab it.

This weekly series pairs major artists with top Machinima directors to produce exclusive, original, animated, game-based music videos that will world premiere on the Machinima YouTube Network (YouTube.com/Machinima).

There will also be on-air interviews and gameplay videos with the musicians themselves.

The word “machinima” is a mash up of the words “machine” and “cinema” and is used to describe the process of creating real-time animation by manipulating a video game’s engine and assets.

This allows for the Machinima Network to be fully interactive with its audience, promoting talented directors from within, many of whom eventually go on to become the next generation’s important film, video and gaming artists.

Kootra (Jordan Mathewson), TCM's video game video music director, began making Machinima in April 2008 and is one of its earliest successes in the program, with hundreds of videos to his name.

Regarding the “Play For Real” music video, Kootra explains, “It was created inside the environment of Borderlands, the highly popular sci-fi based video game released in 2009, using the Unreal Editor, a fully integrated editing environment. I chose that game specifically because I thought Clap-Traps, small robots in the game, fit the song style very well. They’re very interactive characters in the game, and although are oftentimes used for target practice, they always add that comical twist to any video.” He started out by building the set from scratch, and then assembled everything in the editing program, including several custom animations. He finalized the video by recording it to match up with the song.

Why this music video series? Machinima directors love to use great songs in their videos. To do this they need artist approvals and licenses to create original Machinima videos and this can be a frustrating process. Machinima decided to service this need, bridging the gap between the musicians and the talented young directors and animators in Machinima’s network and provide them with major artist licensed songs to create their videos.

To make this happen, Machinima asked acclaimed music supervisor for film and TV, Budd Carr (Terminator, Natural Born Killers, Wall Street, “Californication,” “Savages”) to help produce the series.

“I have been a fan of Machinima for some time,” said Mr. Carr. “I was sure that there were major artists who would jump at the chance to have an original animated video created to promote one of their songs to Machinima’s vast audience.”

Meanwhile, The Crystal Method will set off on a DJ tour this summer as featured artists on this summer’s debut of IDentity Festival, presented by Skullcandy. It is the first-ever touring electronic ONLY music festival that will visit major outdoor amphitheatres throughout North America in August and September and give fans the full electronic music experience. More than 20 shows are on tap for this exciting new traveling extravaganza with top-tier artists performing on multiple stages starting in the afternoon and into the night. The line-up for IDentity—which is set to further galvanize the electronic music explosion—is highlighted by the hottest cutting-edge artists of the genre including Kaskade, Pretty Lights, Rusko, Avicii, Steve Aoki, Disco Biscuits, DJ Shadow and many more. For all up-to-date information, please visit www.IDFestival.com.

THE CRYSTAL METHOD will be appearing on all IDENTITY FESTIVAL dates this summer

August 11
Indianapolis, IN
Verizon Wireless Music Center

August 12
Detroit, MI
DTE Energy Music Theatre

August 13
Pittsburgh, PA
First Niagara Pavilion

August 14
Holmdel, NJ
PNC Bank Arts Center

August 16
Charlotte, NC
Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

August 18
Bristow, VA
Jiffy Lube Live

August 19
Philadelphia, PA
Susquehanna Bank Center

August 20
Mansfield, MA
Comcast Center

August 21
Wantagh, NY
Nikon at Jones Beach Theater

August 23
Atlanta, GA
Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood

August 24
Tampa, FL
1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre

August 25
Miami, FL
Klipsch Amphitheatre at Bayfront Park

August 27
Houston, TX
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

August 28
Dallas, TX
Gexa Energy Pavilion

August 30
Albuquerque, NM
Hard Rock Casino Presents: The Pavilion

September 2
San Diego, CA
Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre

September 3
San Francisco, CA
Shoreline Amphitheatre

September 4
San Bernardino, CA
San Manuel Amphitheater

September 5
Las Vegas, NV
Mandalay Bay

September 10
Seattle, WA
The Gorge

Heralded by the Village Voice as “one of the best live dance acts on Earth,” THE CRYSTAL METHOD—who is Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland—have been known for over a decade for their enduring dance floor anthems (“Now Is The Time,” “Keep Hope Alive”), airwave smashes (“Trip Like I Do”) and a willingness to collaborate with an array of talent–including rock’s elite like Scott Weiland, Matisyahu, New Order’s Peter Hook, Emily Haines of Metric and Filter’s Richard Patrick. The duo has dominated the remix, film soundtrack, television, gaming and advertising worlds, most recently helping Victoria’s Secret drop jaws with music for a TV commercial campaign. Their platinum-status debut album Vegas (released in 1997) is one of the biggest-selling electronic albums of all time, landing them in the top five of best-selling electronic acts in America. They scored the film London as well as the themes for TV shows “Bones” and “Third Watch” and were the first act to work with Nike for their running soundtrack series. Their most recent album, the Grammy-nominated Divided By Night, was released in 2009.  Look for more to come from the pair soon.

LINK LOVE

www.thecrystalmethod.com
www.myspace.com/thecrystalmethod
www.facebook.com/thecrystalmethod
www.twitter.com/thecrystalmethod

 
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