The Crystal Method's BOOM! 'Legion Of Boom' album

There is something strangely familiar about the Bomb Shelter. While it has all the regular trappings of a high-end Los Angeles recording studio, first-time visitors to the room the Crystal Method have used to create their music over the past decade are more likely to think they've just wandered into a NASA mission control center. Several computer monitors blink silently, thick wires run out of keyboards and into mysterious dark corners. There is an arsenal of hard drives obscuring the pictures on the walls and at the center of it all a pair of imposing office chairs.

Located in a two-car garage in a small house in the suburban neighborhood of Glendale, the studio takes it name from an actual bomb shelter that was installed in the front yard during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Nearly ten years ago Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland moved into the house and converted the space into their own private recording studio using just a few hundred dollars. Now the only element that looks out of place in this ill-lit, decidedly technical environment is the band itself.

Dressed down in jeans, t-shirts and sneakers, the duo is filling out a semi-circle with John Garcia, one-time frontman for California desert rockers Kyuss, who has come by to add vocals to a track for the Crystal Method's third album, Legion of Boom. The song is called "Born Too Slow," and at the moment it is stubbornly living up to its title.

Former Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland was here earlier laying down the powerful, textured riffs. Jordan and Kirkland have already knocked out the bass and rhythm parts. Now it is up to Garcia to deliver a vocal that matches the song's exuberant fury, except he's not really feeling it. Being that this is the first time he has met the duo, it's necessary to break the ice before work begins. As the studio fridge only has a few cans of beer to offer, someone is sent out to retrieve backup in the form of two additional twelve-packs. Then a bottle of Jack Daniel's mysteriously appears.

Each take sounds better than the last. The longer it goes on, the more Garcia gets into the spirit of the track. "Let me just try it a different way," he announces, before belting out the song from the very bottom of his gut. He takes heavy breaths between the verses, panting for air. Having imbibed with their guest, Jordan and Kirkland are just managing to stay vertical at this point. But as the end of the day approaches, they know the song has turned into something truly incredible.

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The Crystal Method's BOOM! - Legion Of Boom