Description
Label Review.
2019 album. Punk. Also available on CD.
Our Overview.
Canadian post punk rock trio Metz are delivering a feast to fans worldwide with their new release - via Sub Pop Records - ‘Automat’, which is a blinding collection of the bands non-album singles, B-sides, and rarities dating back to 2009, available on LP for the first time, and including the band’s long out-of-print early (pre-Sub Pop) recordings. And ‘Automat’ is a chronological trip through the lesser known material of METZ. All tracks on ‘Automat’ have been lovingly remastered for maximum soundiness by Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service.
Metz, Sub Pop’s own widely-adored and delightfully noisy Toronto based three-piece punk band have been laying waste to stages around the globe for over 10 years. During that tumultuous chunk of time Metz, comprised of Alex Edkins, Hayden Menzies and Chris Slorach, havecemented their reputation as one of the planet’s most exhilarating live acts and trusted providers of bombastic outsider rock.
Along the way, the band have earned enthusiastic support from The New Yorker, Mojo, NPR, The New York Times, KEXP, Pitchfork, Stereogum, The AV Club, Q, Uncut, Exclaim and a bunch of others. Referring to the trio’s tireless tour regime and unquenchable thirst to bring their music to the people, John Reis (Hot Snakes, RFTC, Drive Like Jehu) once said, “your ambition is really unflattering, chill out.” They did not listen. Instead, their love of the road and passion to create uncompromising and challenging music remains unwavering and has only grown over time.
Their recorded output to date, a cornucopia of pop-inflected noise punk and damaged fuzz anthems, includes three critically-acclaimed albums with Sub Pop, as well as a plethora of limited-edition releases, collaborations, covers and rarities. Which brings us to ‘Automat’, a collection of non-album singles, B-sides and rarities dating back to 2009, available on LP for the first timeand including the band's long out-of-print early (pre-Sub Pop) recordings.
Included here are the band’s first three 7” singles, recorded 2009-2010 and originally released by We Are Busy Bodies Records; a demo version of ‘Wet Blanket’, the explosive single from 2012’s ‘Metz’; two tracks from the limited-edition bonus single that accompanied preorders of ‘Metz’; ‘Can’t Understand’, originally released in 2013 by [adult swim]; and both tracks from the band’s 2015 single on Three One G.
Consumers of the vinyl formats of ‘Automat’ will be rewarded with a bonus 7” single that includes three additional tracks: a cover of Sparklehorse’s ‘Pig’, from a very limited 2012 Record Store Day split single originally released by Toronto’s Sonic Boom record shop; ‘I’m a Bug’, a cover of TheUrinals’ art-punk classic, originally released on YouTube (not an actual record label) in 2014; and Metz’s previously unreleased rendition of Gary Numan’s ‘M.E.’.
Metz are currently hard at work on their fourth full-length album which will be released on Sub Pop when they’re damn good and ready.