Daily Agenda Aug. 18: Metric and These United States
Take your pick of indie rock shows tonight
Sarah Law
These United States
It took a solitary excursion to Buenos Aires for Metric lead singer-songwriter Emily Haines to hammer out the material for the band’s fourth full-length, the recent Fantasies. After finding success with indie-rock superband Broken Social Scene, Metric, and her own solo efforts, like 2006’s well-received Knives Don’t Have Your Back, Toronto-based Haines holed up in the Argentine city to find inspiration for Metric’s new record. It would be the first in almost four years as 2007’s Grow Up And Blow Away was actually a reissue of the band’s 2001 debut. The result is a record that hones in on Haines’ ability to turn out new wave-inspired indie pop stuffed with hooks that live on repeat in your head, as on the single “Help I’m Alive.” See the band tonight at The Rave/Eagles Ballroom. (Read our interview with Haines here.)
Bubbly yet moody, D.C.’s These United States employs lackadaisical electronics and lead-knuckled strums on Crimes, the trio’s sophomore full-length from 2008. There’s a hint of early Beck to the band’s hazy drift, not to mention its mumbled, trembling vocals and scattershot arrangements—including diffidently tickled keyboards and asthmatic horns. It’s a lazy kind of genius for sure, but it’s clear that These United States has only started an artistic arc that just might take it to bigger places. Nice boys who play perky, off-kilter pop tunes face some tough competition, not to mention skepticism, in these days of Vampire Weekend and Tokyo Police Club. The band plays tonight with The Daredevil Christopher Wright at Club Garibaldi.
