What is it with bands getting angry when foreign governments use their music as the soundtrack to propaganda videos about drone strikes? That’s what just happened to The Crystal Method, and as reported by Pitchfork, for some reason the band objects to the Kremlin using its 1997 song “High Roller” as the background music to a recently released video of Russian drones blowing up a bunch of stuff in Syria. The Crystal Method says it never authorized this, and released a statement denouncing Russia’s use of the song:
It has come to our attention over the last 24 hours that the Kremlin via Russian state broadcaster VGTRK have used our song ‘High Roller’ as the soundtrack to some shocking drone footage from Syria. The use of our music in this context is in no way authorized and The Crystal Method do not condone the use of violence for the resolution of any conflict. Our hearts go out to the people of Syria affected by this terrible war and their friends and families.
Considering that people are almost certainly being killed in the video, this makes the recent instances where Survivor and Neil Young got pissed at American politicians for using their songs at dumb rallies seem like less of a big deal. In Russia’s defense, though, there probably aren’t very many respectable techno bands who actually want their music associated with footage like this, so it has to do what it can to make this violence seem cool. Also, it’s not like America doesn’t do this same thing all the time, but our Air Force probably has in-house techno bands that solely exist to make death and destruction look as rad as possible.