Devyn
Local Modern Rock Junkie
Number One: twenty one pilots - Heathens (1 Week)
Posts: 2,591
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Post by Devyn on Jun 17, 2006 18:48:51 GMT -5
This is the solo effort from Metric's Emily Haines. It's out September 26th. Can't wait for it ;D
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Post by jt40 on Jun 17, 2006 18:58:23 GMT -5
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Post by banet2001 on Jun 18, 2006 8:44:24 GMT -5
Exclusive: Emily Haines of Metric Talks Solo AlbumMatthew Solarski reports: Hot on the heels of fellow Broken Social Scenester Amy Millan (and in line with speculation about pretty much everyone else in BSS), Metric frontwoman Emily Haines has just announced a foray into the sometimes treacherous realm of solo-record-dom. Will she soar all Justin Timberlake stylee, or crash-n-burn like that dude from the Dismemberment Plan? How will Metric fans respond? How will the blog-o-verse receive her? What will the adult contemporary community think?? In an attempt to dispel at least some of the drama careening through these questions, Pitchfork caught up with Miss Haines for a revealing little tête-à-tête. But first! The facts: Canada's Last Gang Records (also home to Metric, DFA1979, MSTRKRFT, and Tiga) will deliver Haines' debut solo outing, Knives Don't Have Your Back, on September 26. There's talk Knives may come with a bonus disc, or possibly even be a double album. Tentative tracklist? You got it: 01 Our Hell 02 The Lottery 03 Doctor Blind 04 Nothing & Nowhere 05 Crowd Surf off a Cliff 06 The Maid Needs a Maid 07 Mostly Waving 08 City of Night 09 Reading in Bed 10 Detective Daughter 11 Winning 12 The Last Page Just don't expect the slick, hooky, electro-tinged rock that has Metric fans living it out on the dance floor. Knives is a decidedly quieter affair, awash in plaintive piano, deeply personal, and downright melancholy at parts. "An intimate and subtle collection of mellow, piano-driven tunes complimented by soft string and horn arrangements," exclaims the press release. However, as Haines told Pitchfork, these two sonic outlets have more in common than one might think. Knives draws from "the same source material as every Metric song," she said. "That's pretty melancholy, too. We just have the mandate to put energy behind it. [Metric] is all about pulling yourself out of what's making you feel bad by being honest about it, by naming it, you know?" "These [solo] songs are still the same, they're the source mood for every Metric tune, but without the benefit of my friends rocking out behind them." To sharpen Knives, Haines enlisted the aid of producer John O'Mahony, as well as Metric's Jimmy Shaw, Sparklehorse's Scott Minor, string-arranger Todor Kobalov, and some requisite Canadian indie supergroupies: Stars' Evan Cranley and Chris Seligman lay down some horns, while BSS's Justin Peroff provides occasional drum-work. So why take the solo plunge? "I've always written [music]. I've always played the piano," Emily explained. "And until recently-- with Metric being a touring band-- that's what I did. I'd be at home, usually hiding in some room playing the piano. It just made sense that I would finally release some of this music. Friends sort of encouraged me to do so." Four years in the making, Knives serves as a collection of story-songs from Emily's life and wears its influences proudly: namely noted jazz-composer Carla Bley, art-rocker Robert Wyatt ("when I was a kid I always wrote him letters, because he just meant so much to me," mused Emily), and most of all, her father, the late poet Paul Haines (who, incidentally, wrote the libretto for Bley's Escalator Over the Hill). The unexpected death of her father in 2003 gave Emily a renewed sense of purpose. "When he died, I was just like, 'Oh f*ck.' It's important that these things don't get lost-- just a sense of urgency and just that if there's music, we should make it." Emily plans to play out her songs later this year, and already has a gig set at the Toronto Film Festival in mid-September. For the occasion she hopes to put together a multimedia presentation invoking images from Canadian film director Guy Maddin. That is, if she can summon the nerve to perform! "Really, it's scary. It's so hard to just be alone up there. But I like it." Wait, Emily Haines, scared? "Oh, that's funny. A lot of people tell you, usually there's a reason, that when people have to get up a lot of nerve, it's because they're really shy. Why do you think Prince needs all those outfits?" www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/06-04/24.shtml
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I Got Soul.
Mr. Brightside
All this work keeping people from having sex. Now I know how the catholic church feels. ZING!
Posts: 10,836
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Post by I Got Soul. on Jun 18, 2006 11:45:44 GMT -5
I hope she doesn't completely abandon the "dance floor" roots of Metric. That's what makes them so refreshing and appealing.
However, that is one clever album title. And, this is definitely one of my most anticipated albums for the fall.
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I Got Soul.
Mr. Brightside
All this work keeping people from having sex. Now I know how the catholic church feels. ZING!
Posts: 10,836
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Post by I Got Soul. on Sept 7, 2006 12:49:47 GMT -5
It's actually coming out September 12th now
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Feelin' X
Member à la Québécoise
Are You Feelin' X?
Posts: 7,494
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Post by Feelin' X on Sept 7, 2006 16:14:54 GMT -5
it leaked today by the way
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Post by Jawshii on Sept 7, 2006 16:22:14 GMT -5
^ Link?
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Feelin' X
Member à la Québécoise
Are You Feelin' X?
Posts: 7,494
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Post by Feelin' X on Sept 7, 2006 17:07:15 GMT -5
I don't have it, but I know it leaked
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Devyn
Local Modern Rock Junkie
Number One: twenty one pilots - Heathens (1 Week)
Posts: 2,591
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Post by Devyn on Sept 7, 2006 17:36:49 GMT -5
IT DID? ?? I WANNA HEAR I WANNA HEAR!!
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Feelin' X
Member à la Québécoise
Are You Feelin' X?
Posts: 7,494
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Post by Feelin' X on Sept 7, 2006 22:03:59 GMT -5
oookay, go to Request Centre!
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Us Kids Know
I want your babies. Natasha Bedingfield totally stole my line! Therefore: We have beef.
Posts: 1,938
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Post by Us Kids Know on Sept 12, 2006 17:06:43 GMT -5
Hehe, I'm so buying it. Rog, I remember on Much they were doing a phone interview with Haines about the solo career, and they had asked if Metric was breaking up. She simply said "Hell no, we're definately not done yet." Does that make you feel better? It makes me feel better, too.
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I Got Soul.
Mr. Brightside
All this work keeping people from having sex. Now I know how the catholic church feels. ZING!
Posts: 10,836
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Post by I Got Soul. on Sept 12, 2006 22:02:48 GMT -5
Haha, I was never worried. She was on MuchOnDemand today and completely emphasized her love for both facets of her career - the Metric / BSS, etc - and the solo Emily Haines.
She is honestly, stunning. I had a smile on my face the entire interview; she is that enticing.
And how brilliant is the album? Honestly, one of the best of the year!
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Post by banet2001 on Sept 19, 2006 13:12:22 GMT -5
Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton Knives Don't Have Your Back [Last Gang; 2006] Rating: 7.3If Metric is all about "sweaty f*cking," as the band once suggested, lead singer Emily Haines' first official solo outing, Knives Don't Have Your Back, is a poisoned-cigarette come down. While Metric's pedestrian neu wave often glosses over Haines' political and feminist tracts, Knives delves into her incisive gloom full-bore-- and her misery is good company. Metric's clunky riffage and hi-hat beats are replaced by simple piano figures and subtle adornments (strings, feedback, breathing organ) that draw out Haines' most stirring vocal performances to date, and the muted milieu highlights her natural, sensuous whisper, lending a sympathetic thrust to these broken-down anthems for a thirtysomething girl. The daughter of an admired jazz poet, Haines takes advantage of the solo spotlight, crafting words that mix her world-weary bite with newly homed ambiguities and painful self-awareness. "I really don't relate to the female singer-songwriter," Haines said in a recent Under the Radar interview. "You're all precious and everyone has to hush while you go over the shadows of your emotions. I've always hated that." The sentiment is admirable but misleading; while obviously taken with Chan Marshall and Juliana Hatfield confessionals, Haines adds her own peeking shadows-- coping with her father's sudden death, the instability of life on the road, and the currently confused feminist fight-- that make Knives' piano elegies dark like diary entries inked during anxious, sleepless nights. As her surroundings crumble, Haines attempts to make sense of the ruin. Struck through the singer's prism of pessimism, her role as the driving force behind a successful indie act becomes emotionally ravaging on "Crowd Surf Off a Cliff". Dismayed with success ("it won't be enough to be rich"), contemplating two-and-a-half-kids normalcy ("All the babies tucked away in their beds, we're out here screaming, 'The life that you thought through is gone!'"), and exhausted by long-distance love ("You'd better make it quick 'cause this call costs a fortune and it's late where you live"), Haines doesn't seem ungrateful as much as drained. There's no breathing room on Knives, no hint of forced uplift. Even when Haines seems to run from her own life with the dreamy observations of "Reading in Bed", she's quick to catch herself: "With all the luck you've had why are your songs so sad?" Though the unyielding dourness of death marches like "The Last Page" and "Nothing & Nowhere", and confusing hallucinations like "Detective Daughter" add little to the minor-chord canon, Haines employs a skillful cast-- including Metric's Jimmy Shaw and Sparklehorse's Scott Minor-- to add textural variation. Both "The Lottery", a lament addressing the regression of feminist ideals, and the anti-pharmaceutical diatribe "Doctor Blind" benefit from flittering strings and distorted echoes that sounds like Jonny Greenwood climbing up the walls. At its most haunted, the album is reminiscent of Elliott Smith's final compositions, with Haines' voice sunken and drifting. Knives starkly places Haines' vulnerabilities on view. It's a brave move that trumps her usual combative cleverness with Metric. On the closing track, "Winning", she offers the album's loveliest lullaby melody and inherits the role of comforting parent: "What's bad?/ We'll fix it/ What's wrong?/ We'll make it alright/ It's gone/ We'll find it/ Takes so long/ We've got time, all the time." The brief respite from sullen existentialism is defensive but palpable; a deep, stipulation-filled grin-and-bear-it. But while often excruciating, Knives' catharsis is mostly inclusive. As a sobering meditation on modern melancholy, it's mired in loss but never completely loses. www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/38620/Emily_Haines_and_the_Soft_Skeleton_Knives_Dont_Have_Your_Back
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I Got Soul.
Mr. Brightside
All this work keeping people from having sex. Now I know how the catholic church feels. ZING!
Posts: 10,836
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Post by I Got Soul. on Sept 20, 2006 12:32:31 GMT -5
Debuts at #28 in Canada.
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Post by banet2001 on Sept 25, 2006 9:07:31 GMT -5
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