April 16th, 2009 8:20am
Metric and Holy Fuck
Frank YangWhen Metric’s latest album Fantasies first became available to stream a month ago, the immediate reaction around the interwebs seemed to be largely along the lines of breathless, “their best album yet!”-type praise (tempered by the mandatory, “worst ever!” naysayers). I myself took to it far quicker than I did their last effort Live It Out, which I never really took to at all, and thought this would be the record to rekindle what had once been an intense interest in the band but which had waned significantly in recent years. Some more time spent with the album has tempered that opinion a bit - Fantasies boasts some of Metric’s very best choruses and some killer catchy tunes, but it’s not the game-changer they’d probably have to deliver to really turn me around completely. But that’s alright because it’s obvious that many, many people love them just the way they are and “just another Metric record” is probably synonymous with, “best thing in the world”.
Opening things up were electro-instrumentalists Holy Fuck, a band who themselves are used to headlining much larger rooms. While I like their recorded output alright, I always enjoy seeing them live as they perform with more energy than a couple guys standing at makeshift tables decked out with keyboards and effects pedals have any right to, mutating their songs in real time. The privilege of seeing them do their thing in such close quarters seemed to be largely lost on the audience, however, who were there for one thing and one thing only.
And for that one thing - Metric - they had to wait, as the band didn't stride onstage with “Twilight Galaxy” until a half-hour past their scheduled time. The show focused heavily on Fantasies, with nine of the ten tracks getting aired, which suited me fine. Contrasted with the new material’s undeniable melodic and anthemic qualities, Live It Out’s aggressive guitar-led tunes sounded even more abrasive (in a bad way) than I remembered.
Photos: Metric @ The Mod Club - April 14, 2009
MP3: Holy Fuck - “Lovely Allen”
Video: Metric - “Gimme Sympathy”
The Dears have released a new video from last year’s Missiles and are hitting the road soon.
Video: The Dears - “Disclaimer”
CBC Radio 3, CityNews and AOL Music Canada interview Tony Dekker of Great Lake Swimmers.
The Montreal Gazette talks to Arcade Fire’s Win Butler about making the Miroir Noir film.
NOW reports that some of the acts coming to town for NxNE will include Black Lips, No Age and Matt & Kim. This year’s fest takes place June 18 to 20.
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