The best Metric post, ever

Thinking of latter-day WOXY.com got me to thinking of one
 of their mainstays, Metric......from the
great city of Toronto, they were comprised of vocalist/multi-instrumentalist/leader Emily Haines, guitarist/synth whiz James Shaw, bassist Josh Winstead, and drummer Joules Scott-Key, they are still with us, I have learned, in some for or other, and as I implore all active bands that I feature, if you take issue with your music being shared here to broaden your audience PLEASE by all means let me know and it will be removed no questions asked

Metric, although formed in the late 1990's, dabbled in a sort of retro-80's synth/new wave/dance pop, quite listenable and enjoyable, they have to this point released five full lengths and a handfull of EP's, most of which I think I have here. Also a bit of Emily Haines stuff independent of the group. The band was originally called "Mainstream" and issued a 1998 EP of the same name, 5 synth driven, dreamy new wave type numbers.

The first full-length, after name change to Metric, was "Old World Underground Where Are You Now?', a good one featuring numbers such as "Dead Disco" and especially "Combat Baby", WOXY used to play the absolute shit out of it back in 2003. Even better, in my opinion, was 2005's "Live It Out", also a huge favorite of the WOXY crew for some reason, but for good reason, it's a good album, in particular the awesome single "Monster Hospital", a tough rocking track with the odd hook "I fought the war and the war won"......"Poster of a Girl" and also "Empty" are fine tracks from this LP as well, if you wish to dabble, it is these two discs that I'd say you want.

In 2007, an album of the band's work from the earlier 2001 era was released, "Grow Up and Blow Away", which I think had been previously issued in bootleg form....the two versions, I guess, are different, and to confuse things even more the version I have here is the Japanese release of the "official" version, which features some bonus tracks....."London Halflife" and "Soft Rock Star" being standout tracks from this one.

That pretty much completes my own familiarity with the band, so I was quite surprised to discover
that they had two more full-lengths, "Fantasies" and "Synthetica", both of recent (2011-2013) vintage. Spot-checked them last night and they are surprisingly good and consistent with the band's earlier sound. Lou Reed chips in a guest vocal on "The Wanderlust" from "Synthetica".  Looking around the "Bay" also turns up EP's "Static Anonimity" (2001), "Plug In Plug Out" (2009), a couple of extended singles ("Dead Disco" which features FOUR versions of that number, and "Monster Hospital" which remixes that track and has a couple of other tunes).  Also turning up is "Electrified Fantasies" which features remixes of stuff from THAT album.

Also, a couple of Emily Haines EP's, 1996's "Cut If and Also Double", 2006's "Knives Don't Have Your Back" and  2007's "What Is Free to a Good Home", credited to Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton. FYI, had never heard ANY of these until last night/today, and enjoyed them a good deal, underappreciated gem(s) alert!

So, they have a good bit more material than I was aware, from what I can tell of the "new" stuff it's pretty fair, and those two early CD's are no doubt quite good......anyway, see what you think of these, it is pretty good for my money, brings back memories of long days sleeping I mean working in my office with WOXY.com as background music all day....."Monster Hospital", fuck yeah!

OLD WORLD UNDERGROUND WHERE ARE YOU NOW?-01 IOU/02 Hustle Rose/03 Succexy/04 Combat Baby/05 Calculation Theme/06 Wet Blanket/07 On a Slow Night/08 The List/09 Dead Disco/10 Love Is a Place

LIVE IT OUT-01 Empty/02 Glass Ceiling/03 Handshakes/04 Too Little Too Late/05 Poster of a Girl/06 Monster Hospital/07 Patriarch On a Vespa/08 The Police and the Private/09 Ending Start/10 Live It Out

GROW UP AND BLOW AWAY-01 Grow Up and Blow Awy/02 Hardwire/03 Rock Me Now/04
The Twist/05 On the Sly/06 Soft Rock Star/07 Raw Sugar/08 White Gold/09 London Halflife/10 Soft Rock Star (Jimmy vs Joe Mix)/11 Torture Me/12 Fanfare Parkdale/13 Siamese Cities/14 Down

FANTASIES-01 Help I'm Alive/02 Sick Muse/03 Satellite Mind/04 Twilight Galaxy/05 Gold Guns Girls/06 Gimme Sympathy/07 Collect Call/08 Front Row/09 Blindness/Stadium Love

SYNTHETICA-01 Artificial Nocturn/02 Youth Without Youth/03 Speed the Collapse/04 Breathing Underwater/05 Dreams So Real/06 Lost Kitten/07 The Void/08 Synthetica/09 Clone/10 The Wanderlust/11 Nothing But Time

DEAD DISCO SINGLE-01 Dead Disco (Album Version)/02 Dead Disco (Kylie Kills Mix)/03 Dead Dsco (Crunchy Moto Mix)/04 Dead Disco (Guilty as Sin Mix)

MONSTER HOSPITAL SINGLE-01 Monster Hospital/02 Dead Disco (Kylie Kills Mix) /03 Monster Hospital (Mstrkrft Mix)

ELECTRIFIED FANTASIES-01 Collect Call (Matt Kennedy Remix)/02 Front Row (T-Minus 321 Mix)/03 Front Row (Krusha Remix)/04 Help Im Alive (Krusha Remix)/05 Gimme Sympathy (Track Medix Remix)/06 Sick Muse (No Comment Remix)/07 Gold Guns Girls (Maus Epico Mix)/08 Twilight Galaxy (Devin Alexander's Survivor Remix)/09 Blindness (KemoSwaby Remix)/10 Gold Guns Girls (Pyrrococus Remix)/11 Satellite Mind (Zengineer's Remix)/12 Gimme Sympathy (Gabe Flaherty Remix)/13 Collect Call (Pierre In the Air Remix)/14 Twilight Galaxy (Cold Eyes Remix)

MAINSTREAM EP-01 Butcher/02 The People/03 The Battlecry/04 The Mandate/05 The Lifestyle

PLUG IN PLUG OUT EP-01 Gimme Sympathy/02 Gold Guns Girls/03 Help I'm Alive/04 Satellite Mind/05 Twilight Galaxy

STATIC ANONIMITY EP-01 Grow Up and Blow Away/02 Siamese Cities/03 Down/04 Soft Rock Star/05 London Halflife

EMILY HAINES-CUT IN HALF AND DOUBLE-01 Dog/02 Bore/03 Eden/04 Pretty Head/05
Freak/06 The View/07 Eau de Toilette/08 Carpet/09 Pink

EMILY HAINES-KNIVES DON'T HAVE YOUR BACK-01 Our Hell/02 Doctor Blind/03 Crowd Surf Off a Cliff/04 Detective Daughter/05 The Lottery/06 The Maid Needs a Maid/07 Mostly Waving/08 Reading In Bed/09 Nothing and Nowhere/10 The Last Page/11 Winning

EMILY HAINES-WHAT IS FREE TO A GOOD HOME-01 Rowboat/02 The Bank/03 Telethon/04 Bottom of the World/05 Sprig/06 Mostly Waving (Todork Remix)

Lotta stuff, lotta overlap, but an interesting band nonetheless.....as I said my WOXY posts got me thinking about them and after investigating and searching a bit, I found a bunch of stuff I never knew was out there......and pretty decent. Hope you like it, links coming up soon, and wishing all of you a fine Monday evening!


How about them BUCKEYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!