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==History==
==History==
===Early history===
===Early history===
Born in [[New Delhi]], [[India]], and raised in [[Toronto]], with extended family in the [[]], [[Emily Haines]] grew up as a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. The daughter of poet [[Paul Haines (poet)|Paul Haines]] (best known for his lyrical collaboration with [[Carla Bley]] in the 1971 jazz opera ''[[Escalator over the Hill]]''), Haines left New Delhi at the age of 3. Paul would often make cassettes of rare and eclectic music for his daughter to listen to and her early influences included Carla Bley and [[Robert Wyatt]]. By her teens she followed her parents' footsteps by attending the [[Etobicoke School of the Arts]]. There she met [[Amy Millan]] and [[Kevin Drew]], with whom she would later collaborate in [[Broken Social Scene]]. Haines and Millan briefly formed their first band around 1990 while at ESA, and with songs later written and recorded while at the University of British Columbia in [[Vancouver]] in 1992-1993, at [[Toronto]] in 1995, and at Concordia University in [[Montreal]] in 1995-1996, Haines distributed in 1996 an early effort called ''[[Cut in Half and Also Double]]'' with a limited number of copies.
Born in [[New Delhi]], [[India]], and raised in [[Toronto]], [[Emily Haines]] grew up as a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. The daughter of poet [[Paul Haines (poet)|Paul Haines]] (best known for his lyrical collaboration with [[Carla Bley]] in the 1971 jazz opera ''[[Escalator over the Hill]]''), Haines left New Delhi at the age of 3. Paul would often make cassettes of rare and eclectic music for his daughter to listen to and her early influences included Carla Bley and [[Robert Wyatt]]. By her teens she followed her parents' footsteps by attending the [[Etobicoke School of the Arts]]. There she met [[Amy Millan]] and [[Kevin Drew]], with whom she would later collaborate in [[Broken Social Scene]]. Haines and Millan briefly formed their first band around 1990 while at ESA, and with songs later written and recorded while at the University of British Columbia in [[Vancouver]] in 1992-1993, at [[Toronto]] in 1995, and at Concordia University in [[Montreal]] in 1995-1996, Haines distributed in 1996 an early effort called ''[[Cut in Half and Also Double]]'' with a limited number of copies.


Shortly before this, UK born [[James Shaw (musician)|James Shaw]] was a student at a Boston music school and was friends with [[Torquil Campbell]], a vocalist who would later form [[Stars (band)|Stars]], and [[Chris Seligman]], the future synthesizer player of [[Stars (band)|Stars]]. Torq had plans to move to [[New York City]] and on his suggestion Shaw applied to [[Juilliard School|Juilliard]] Music School and moved to New York with him. After a three-year education at the institution, Shaw had acquired considerable classical training but did not enjoy his stay and knew that his musical interests lay elsewhere. In 1998, Shaw and Torquil returned to [[Toronto]], where Haines met Shaw through mutual friends in the local music scene. Shaw moved to Montreal where Haines was still living and the two worked on filling out each other's projects. For example, Shaw had an instrumental song built around piano chords and Emily had a completely different song with a vocal line that fit perfectly around the chords. The result was the song "Butcher", and eventually the two of them had completed several other tracks in their home studio (including "The People", "The Battlecry", "The Mandate", "The Lifestyle"). This resulted in what they called ''Mainstream E.P.'', a collection of demos with an overall [[downtempo]] and electronic feel.
Shortly before this, UK born [[James Shaw (musician)|James Shaw]] was a student at a Boston music school and was friends with [[Torquil Campbell]], a vocalist who would later form [[Stars (band)|Stars]], and [[Chris Seligman]], the future synthesizer player of [[Stars (band)|Stars]]. Torq had plans to move to [[New York City]] and on his suggestion Shaw applied to [[Juilliard School|Juilliard]] Music School and moved to New York with him. After a three-year education at the institution, Shaw had acquired considerable classical training but did not enjoy his stay and knew that his musical interests lay elsewhere. In 1998, Shaw and Torquil returned to [[Toronto]], where Haines met Shaw through mutual friends in the local music scene. Shaw moved to Montreal where Haines was still living and the two worked on filling out each other's projects. For example, Shaw had an instrumental song built around piano chords and Emily had a completely different song with a vocal line that fit perfectly around the chords. The result was the song "Butcher", and eventually the two of them had completed several other tracks in their home studio (including "The People", "The Battlecry", "The Mandate", "The Lifestyle"). This resulted in what they called ''Mainstream E.P.'', a collection of demos with an overall [[downtempo]] and electronic feel.

Revision as of 01:45, 1 February 2009

Metric

Metric is a Canadian New Wave/indie rock band. Originally formed in 1998 in New York City, they are currently based in Toronto, Ontario and Oakland, California.

The band consists of vocalist Emily Haines (who also plays the synthesizer), guitarist James Shaw, bassist Josh Winstead and drummer Joules Scott-Key. Their first full-length album, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?, was released in 2003 and earned the Juno Award nomination for Best Alternative Album. Live It Out was released on October 4, 2005 and was nominated for the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the Canadian Album of The Year and once again the Juno Award nomination for Best Alternative Album.

The first album the band recorded, Grow Up and Blow Away, was finally released on June 26, 2007 by Last Gang Records. The album was originally recorded for Rykodisc Records early in the band's career but not released at the time due to internal changes at the company.

Haines and Shaw also perform with Broken Social Scene, and Haines has been a guest on albums by Stars, KC Accidental, The Stills, and Jason Collett. Scott-Key and Winstead have their own side project, Bang Lime, and Haines has released a solo album and companion EP, Knives Don't Have Your Back and What Is Free To A Good Home? respectively, under the name Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton.

Their songs "Monster Hospital" and "Police and the Private" have been used on the television show Grey's Anatomy. "Monster Hospital" has also been used in CSI: Miami.

History

Early history

Born in New Delhi, India, and raised in Toronto, Emily Haines grew up as a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. The daughter of poet Paul Haines (best known for his lyrical collaboration with Carla Bley in the 1971 jazz opera Escalator over the Hill), Haines left New Delhi at the age of 3. Paul would often make cassettes of rare and eclectic music for his daughter to listen to and her early influences included Carla Bley and Robert Wyatt. By her teens she followed her parents' footsteps by attending the Etobicoke School of the Arts. There she met Amy Millan and Kevin Drew, with whom she would later collaborate in Broken Social Scene. Haines and Millan briefly formed their first band around 1990 while at ESA, and with songs later written and recorded while at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in 1992-1993, at Toronto in 1995, and at Concordia University in Montreal in 1995-1996, Haines distributed in 1996 an early effort called Cut in Half and Also Double with a limited number of copies.

Shortly before this, UK born James Shaw was a student at a Boston music school and was friends with Torquil Campbell, a vocalist who would later form Stars, and Chris Seligman, the future synthesizer player of Stars. Torq had plans to move to New York City and on his suggestion Shaw applied to Juilliard Music School and moved to New York with him. After a three-year education at the institution, Shaw had acquired considerable classical training but did not enjoy his stay and knew that his musical interests lay elsewhere. In 1998, Shaw and Torquil returned to Toronto, where Haines met Shaw through mutual friends in the local music scene. Shaw moved to Montreal where Haines was still living and the two worked on filling out each other's projects. For example, Shaw had an instrumental song built around piano chords and Emily had a completely different song with a vocal line that fit perfectly around the chords. The result was the song "Butcher", and eventually the two of them had completed several other tracks in their home studio (including "The People", "The Battlecry", "The Mandate", "The Lifestyle"). This resulted in what they called Mainstream E.P., a collection of demos with an overall downtempo and electronic feel.

In the fall of 1998, Shaw moved back to New York City, this time accompanied by Haines, Campbell, and Seligman. There they shared a loft in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. During their two-year stay at the loft, Haines and Shaw were erstwhile roommates with future members of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars and TV on the Radio. In 1999, Shaw and Haines decided to call their partnership "Metric", after a synthesizer beat that Shaw used on his sampler and as a reference to the duo's musical precision. That same year, Warner Bros. Records showed interest in the group and the band did a development deal with them. A producer in London saw the potential of commercial success from the demos they recorded in this period and offered to bring Metric to the UK for a possible record deal. Eager to take a break from the somewhat miserable conditions of the loft, Haines and Shaw set off to London in early 2000 and signed a publishing deal with Chrysalis UK. With the help of producer Stephen Hague, an influential figure in the synthpop/New Wave genre(s) who had produced such '80s acts as Erasure, New Order, and the Pet Shop Boys, Metric worked on a new batch of New Wave/electropop drum-machine paced songs that would form the nucleus of their debut album. This nucleus formed the basis for an eclectic style that would be prescient for bands in the years ahead with their musical mix. Although Metric already had a semi-mainstream appeal, they felt restricted by the confines of recording demos and were eager to return to NYC and put a live band together. In November they moved back to their Brooklyn loft.

The Static Anonymity and GUBA Era (2001-2002)

Metric continued to work on their debut album in the first few months of 2001. Now dubbed Grow Up and Blow Away, the effort revealed a more musically-layered and mature sound than the earlier Mainstream E.P. The album under construction included commercial-friendly uptempo songs such as the title track "Grow Up and Blow Away", "Raw Sugar", and "Soft Rock Star" (distinguished by a vaguely Beatlesque melody, high-pitched singing in the chorus, and lyrics evoking middle school angst), downtempo songs like "White Gold", "The Twist", and "Rock Me Now" (which included singing by Shaw, spoken-word vocals by Haines in a manner reminiscent of "The Mandate", and had an overall jazzy vibe). "Parkdale", featuring trumpeting by Shaw and a fanfare intro, concerned the edgy and dynamic Toronto neighborhood. Haines and Shaw completed the album in April and by this time had found a new label for their release -- Restless Records -- the L.A. indie record company that promoted such acts as They Might Be Giants, Agent Orange, and The Dead Milkmen.

Metric had also gained a new bandmate in the winter of 2001 -- Joules Scott-Key -- a native of Flint, Michigan who was attending college in Texas and was in town with his friend Joshua Winstead (also from Texas) performing in the local music scene. Scott-Key (no relation to Francis Scott Key) and Winstead had known each other for about a decade and they met Haines and Shaw at the Brooklyn loft and at local performances. Metric at the time was for the most part a studio band and live shows approximated the Synthesizer-centered and drum-machine driven sound of the recordings. This made for somewhat restrained and less-than-dynamic performances. The recruitment of a drummer, particularly one of Scott-Key's talents, facilitated a stronger, more engaging live presence and Joules officially joined the band at a Unitard (band) show at Black Betty's in Williamsburg. Metric performed in New York quite a bit in early spring and late summer 2001, personally circulating handmade CDR copies of their unreleased music to fans at shows, by mail and eventually gave the music away for free on the internet.

Metric received their first national exposure in August 2001 with the television commercial "Be Afraid", advertising Polaroid's I-Zone Pocket Fortune film. The music used for the ad was taken from the song "Grow Up and Blow Away", with the line "Why does it feel so good to die today?" changed to the more benign "Why does it feel so good to fly away?". The commercial drew curious music listeners to the Polaroid website to learn of the source of the Synth-pop music used in the commercial.

Old World Underground and Live It Out

In 2003, Metric released their first official album Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?. The album was received with mostly positive reviews. The group released six singles from the album, the most successful being "Combat Baby", which was featured as a free single on iTunes in 2004. As of December 12, 2005 the album went gold in Canada.

Metric was featured as themselves in the 2004 independent French film, Clean, directed by Olivier Assayas and starring Maggie Cheung. The film was nominated for the Palme D'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival. The songs that Maggie Cheung performs in the film were written and produced by David Roback of Mazzy Star. The soundtrack also features songs by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Emily Haines, Metric and Tricky.

Two years later, Metric released their second studio album on October 4, Live It Out. This album, like its predecessor, was well received. During this time, Metric was approached by and agreed to open for the Rolling Stones whose tour coincided with theirs in New York City. Live It Out has been a success in Canada, already selling twice as many copies as Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? and scoring them three top 20 singles for "Monster Hospital", "Poster of a Girl" and "Hand$hake$". The album has gone two times platinum in Canada, selling over 200,000 units. In the UK, all three of the singles have been used in the soundtrack to the TV series Hollyoaks, The band did a UK-wide tour supporting Bloc Party as well as performances at Reading Festival and Leeds Festival, The Great Escape in Brighton, Wireless Festival at Hyde Park in London and numerous club dates throughout the UK. The band has toured the world extensively for several years playing concerts in France, Germany, Iceland, Brazil, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Holland, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, United States, Canada, Venezuela, Mexico and Japan to promote Live it Out.

Present

On June 26, 2007, Last Gang Records released Metric's 1999 album Grow up and Blow Away.

On October 4, 2007, Metric played a live webcasted show on MySpace.com's "Hey Play This" program. Fans sent in requests and the band played a selected few. Along with old material, they performed some new songs. New songs include "Freddie" (aka: "Black Sheep"), "Standing in Line", "Gimme Sympathy" (aka: "The Hooks"), "Twilight", "Joyride" and "Stadium Love."

On November 13, 2007 Last Gang Records released a trailer on YouTube for a Metric DVD showcasing a live concert at the Metropolis Theatre in Montreal, as well as all three music videos from Live It Out. The DVD was released on February 12, 2008. A three-track audio EP was released on iTunes in December. The EP features the live tracks "The Police and the Private", "Too Little Too Late" and "Patriarch on a Vespa" from the DVD, as well as the DVD trailer.

The band performed select dates in Canada, Mexico and Brazil while continuing to record their upcoming fourth album. At Mexico they performed in Monterrey (April 24), Mexico City (April 25) and Guadalajara (April 26). They performed at the 2008 Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California on April 27th, 2008 [1], and at the 2008 Ottawa Bluesfest in Ottawa on July 11, 2008 in addition to playing at the 2008 Pemberton Festival in Pemberton, British Columbia on July 25, 2008 and played All Points West Festival in New Jersey on August 9, 2008.[2]

On September 7, under the premises of an Emily Haines solo show, Haines and Shaw played the full album acoustically at Union Pool in Brooklyn. The ten-track album was played in order and includes the titles "Gold Guns Girls", "Help I'm Alive", "Sick Muse", "Gimme Sympathy", "Front Row", "Satellite Mind", "Twilight Galaxy", "Collect Call" and "Blindness".

The Metric website has been updated and on it the new album is said to be out in early 2009. The website so far also gives tour dates and some details, along with a video in which Emily explains some of her writing processes for the new album. "Help, I'm Alive" was officially released as a single on iTunes on December 23, 2008 in Canada and January 1, 2009 around the rest of the world.

It has recently been announced by Rolling Stone[3] that the new album, due out April 14th, will be titled "Fantasies". Last Gang will release the album in Canada and Mexico, and will be independently released around the rest of the world. "Fantasies" will feature ten tracks. The song "Black Sheep", which was played often by the band on tours, will not be included. However, the Rolling Stone article claims that the song will be featured in the upcoming film "Scott Pilgrim VS. The World".

Discography

Albums

EPs

DVDs

  • Live At Metropolis (2008)

Singles

Grow Up And Blow Away (recorded in 2001/released in 2007)

  • Grow Up And Blow Away (UK remix promo cd)
  • Raw Sugar (promo)

Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?

  • Combat Baby
  • Succexy (promo)
  • Dead Disco (promo) (Top 10 on Edge 102 Toronto)

Live It Out

Fantasies (due April 14, 2009)

References

  1. ^ Goldstein, Melissa. "Coachella '08 Reviewed, Day Three: Metric, I'm From Barcelona, Duffy, Stars, Sean Penn" Spin Magazine 2008-5-1. Retrieved 2008-11-28.
  2. ^ "New Dates Added!!http://www.ilovemetric.com
  3. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/01/27/metric-announce-plans-to-self-release-march-album/
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ [2]
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