Pitchfork

Image via Torontoist

If you've attended a Crystal Castles show in the last couple years, in between all the strobe flashes you may have encountered the image up there. Perhaps you saw it on a t-shirt, or, if you made it to one of the really early CC shows, on a 7". Or maybe you picked up a copy of the "banned cover edition" of Crystal Castles' debut LP that Last Gang Records was selling for a minute.

That image there was created by UK-born, Tokyo-dwelling artist Trevor Brown (link NSFW)-- using Madonna's likeness, of course. Here's where things get sticky. According to Torontoist, the members of Crystal Castles, Alice Glass and Ethan Kath, allegedly found the image (without a credit) on a flyer a couple years ago. They took to using it on t-shirts and the aforementioned limited run 7", under the assumption that if it got around enough, the artist behind it would step forward, and some kind of usage/payment agreement could be reached.

Well, eventually Brown did indeed step forward, and he wasn't happy. The resulting saga is a long-winded and convoluted one, a veritable case study in he-said/she-said, further complicated by a number of auxiliary parties involved: Last Gang Records and recently appointed Crystal Castles manager Mikey Apples, to name two.

Torontoist has an excellent summary of the situation to date. In essence, Brown contacted the band and claims they promised him remuneration for the use of the Madonna image on more than one occasion, but never received any money. Crystal Castles and their camp claim Brown never responded to numerous letters from the band, and is just gunning for publicity. Brown went public with his grievances earlier this year, prompting Apples to intervene and eventually offer Brown a contract. Brown, however, refused to sign away his rights to the image, as required by Apples' contract.

And that's pretty much where we're at today. When contacted by Pitchfork, Crystal Castles elected not to comment on the matter, via their publicist. Oh, and John Darnielle is siding with Brown.

No word on how Madonna feels about all this.

Significantly less complicated is Crystal Castles' touring itinerary, featuring quite a few recently minted European and North American dates. The duo also recently issued a single for the absolutely killer "Courtship Dating" in the UK, and they'll serve up their self-titled debut over in Europe on April 28.

Crystal Castles:

04-23 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Stiff Kitten
04-26 Middlesbrough, England - Arena
05-01 Kingston, England - New Slang @ The Works
05-02 Oxford, England - Carling Academy
05-03 Bristol, England - Thekla
05-04 Norwich, England - Waterfront
05-05 Brighton, England - Concorde 2
05-06 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
05-07 Southampton, England - The Brook
05-08 Birmingham, England - Academy 2
05-10 Glasgow, Scotland - Arches
05-11 Newcastle, England - Academy 2
05-12 Manchester, England - Academy 2
05-14 London, England - Mean Fiddler
05-15 Stoke, England - Sugarmill
05-16-17 Brighton, England - Great Escape Festival
05-18 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
05-19 Brussels, Belgium - AB
05-20 Strasbourg, France - Laiterie
05-22 Paris, France - Trabendo (Festival Super)
05-23-25 Cumbria, England - Forgotten Valley Festival
05-25 Northampton, England - Gatecrasher Summer Sound System
05-26 Newcastle, England - Evolution Festival
05-27 Liverpool, England - Sound City
06-05 Victoria, British Columbia - Element *
06-06 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards *
06-07 Seattle, WA - Chop Suey *
06-08 Portland, OR - Backspace *
06-10 San Francisco, CA - The Independent *
06-11 West Hollywood, CA - The Roxy *
06-12 San Diego, CA - Casbah *
06-13 Phoenix, AZ - Modified *
06-15 Albuquerque, NM - Launchpad *
06-16 Denver, CO - Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom *
06-18 Chicago, IL - Double Door
06-21 Philadelphia, PA - Drexel University (Popped! Festival)
09-05-07 Isle of Wight, England - Bestival

* with DD/MM/YYYY