Tues, June 16, The Crystal Method

The songs on the Crystal Method’s new album, Divided by Night, are also divided by 21st-century pop styling and techno roots, bad Los Angeles dance and strange Euro trance, overproduced guitars and vocals that sound like whispers through toilet-paper rolls. OK, so I don’t dig the album—but then again, my electronica taste leans toward intentionally crummy-sounding analog found-object beats, like a guy on crutches falling down an escalator. The Crystal Method is actually, uh, listenable. In fact, the bridge on “Slipstream” (off Divided) is pretty cool. Even cooler if I was at Empire on some sort of amphetamine. 1417 R Street.