Metz

(Sub Pop)

“Metz” may call up images of a nebbish accountant feverishly crunching numbers on an ancient desktop (it’s actually the name of a French city), but the Vancouver trio bearing this unassuming sobriquet is more likely to throw the computer out the window and kick the desk over. It’s a simple sell: Alex Edkins, Hayden Menzies, and Chris Slorach come up with a dissonant but catchy riff, add a couple of clashing chords, and give it all a frenzied beating for two to three minutes. The bug-eyed “Wasted,” “Get Off,” and “Knife in the Water” leave bruises and broken furniture in their wake; the glitchy art dump “Nausea” provides a brief but unsettling throat-clearing. Like a sexually frustrated Public Image Ltd or Mission of Burma without the patience for “art,” Metz locates a bittersweet spot between post-punk calculation and garage-rock urgency. (10:30pm, Bar 96)

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This article appears in March 15 • 2013.

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Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.