Today’s Sounds: Metz

Have you ever been yelled at, shaken, punched and kicked, and then totally charmed, sleazed and swept off your feet by your abuser? You’re probably a masochist, with Stockholm syndrome. But this is how I feel about Metz.

Record:

Metz Metz (Sub Pop)

 
Have you ever been yelled at, shaken, punched and kicked, and then totally charmed, sleazed and swept off your feet by your abuser? You’re probably a masochist, with Stockholm syndrome. But this is how I feel about Metz.

(Um, are they cute?)

I like pop music. And there are tunes buried beneath the punishing, grinding, distorted squelching here. Noise aside, there’s also a fair bit of deliberately difficult songcraft and production at play: the repetitive, lurching riff in “Knife in the Water,” ready to derail at every rotation; the too-aptly-titled, mercifully brief “Nausea,” little more than a ragged vamp and sluggish drums pushed way too far into the red; the annoyingly grungy bends on “Wasted” (a personal pet peeve, so why do I love it here?); the insulting finale “Negative Space,” which ends with a shot of industrial slams and an ambient new age chaser. The nerve of these guys.

Granted, part of the attraction is songs like “Get Off,” which is basically cranked up glam rock (or even new wave), and “Wet Blanket,” with its thundering echoes of classic punk/college rock. But perhaps the strongest track is the opener “Headache,” which will pound your grey matter into submission.

Way to make a first impression.
 

Track:

Cadence Weapon, “Loft Party”

 
From Montreal rapper Cadence Weapon, coming soon on the b-side of a Scion Sessions seven-inch single (the a-side is “Conditioning” from Hope in Dirt City), a new one about the uptown afterhours scene. RIP Torn Curtain. Rock on la Brique.


 

Video:

The Child of Lov, “Heal”

 
The Child of Lov is a mysterious Double Six/Domino signee (and ” intergalactic r&b / spaceshiphop artist”) from somewhere in Georgia, with such collaborators as Damon Albarn (who’s responsible for the bass line here), DOOM and Thundercat. Check him out via this video, directed by Focus Creeps.

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