Metric

Live It Out (Last Gang)

While the mothership – Broken Social Scene – disguises its jam act in marching band outfits, orbiting Toronto quartet Metric dons an altogether sexier antecedent: Blondie. They’re tight as Debbie Harry’s dresses circa 1978. 2003 debut Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? was deceptively stiff, Emily Haines’ front chick insouciance and the band’s pinpoint New Wave masking herky-jerky material. Problem mostly solved. Jimmy Shaw’s guitar rips opener “Empty,” resurrecting Nineties femme fatales like Belly and the Breeders, while his bullying swagger shivers follow-up “Glass Ceiling,” Haines’ stonewall vox verging on the gothic. Frenching “Poster of a Girl” approximates her own lyric (“coming in your pants for the off-chance with a poster of a girl”). The duo’s endlessly sympathetic, Shaw’s no-frills structures always in service of Haines and her neon keys (“Handshakes”). It hardly takes more than a deadly Haines verse and Shaw’s muscled melodies to Live It Out. Once again this camouflages upbeat tossers (“Monster Hospital”), midtempo demos (“Too Little Too Late”), and musty Victrola players (“Ending Start”), but even those tickle the ear with stainless steel sonics. The title cut closer never quite catches. Live It Out is no Plastic Letters, but still, we’re always touched by your presence, dear. (Metric jolts the Parish Friday, Nov. 11.)

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This article appears in October 21 • 2005.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.