Metric
There are times that I think that Emily Haines, the dour and deadpan front woman of Toronto-based Metric has more in common with cabaret singers like Ute Lemper and Lotte Lenya than ladies from indie rock who are name checked when writers attempt to shove Metric into a handy and wrong-shaped and sized pigeonhole. That is, a cramped space that clearly doesn't quite have a clear classification for the band's signature bizzaro glam disco cabaret sound that also owes just much to the chilled, synth-driven emotiveness of pop music written 20 years ago and, oddly enough, the great social commentary and protest song folkies of our time -- and their curious offshoots, too -- The Velvet Underground and David Bowie. Which of course, brings us right back 'round to glammy performance art again.
Indeed, Haines, along with Jimmy Shaw on guitar, Josh Winstead on bass, and Joules Scott-Key on drums possess one of the key characteristics that sets apart, at least in my mind -- and this may be clear from the profiles I've written to date -- a good band from a great one. A Metric show is half dance party, half white-tent revival for the misfits of the 21st century culture wars. From early on, Metric's songs poked fun at The Scene and hipsters -- and Haines' own position as a willing cog in that sparkling machine, but also touched on larger issues.
But it was with 2004's Old World Underground that the band blended indictments of the shallow, pretty people with indictments of the shallow and not so pretty world all around us -- credit card debt, urban sprawl, depression. "Succexy" is a direct hit on our bellicose-happy culture and the apathy of youth; "Hustle Rose" exposes the dark heart of trolling for love in nightclubs. Live It Out, the band's latest offering from 2005, is preoccupied with the troubles that accompany our generation's arrested coming of age, especially for women. Now before you cringe, remember -- you can also dance to these songs, which may actually be the secret ingredient that keeps Metric's brand of remix and DJ set-worthy modern protest songs from collapsing under the weight of their levity.
Metric - Poster of a Girl
Metric - Glass Ceiling
Metric - Live It Out
Metric - I.O.U.
Metric - Succexy
Metric - Dead Disco
Metric's official site. Buy their latest, Live It Out from Amazon or the iTunes music store.
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Posted by Little Miss Rock'n'Roll at 03.02.06 at 10:43 PM
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