Metric is a Canadian indie rock band founded in 1998 in Toronto, Ontario. The band consists of Emily Haines, James Shaw, Joshua Winstead, and Joules Scott-Key.
The band started in 1998 as a duo formed by Haines and Shaw with the name "Mainstream". After releasing an EP titled Mainstream EP, they changed the band's name to Metric.
members: Emily Haines, James Shaw, Joshua Winstead, Joules Scott Key
formed in: Toronto
labels: Last Gang Records, Arts & Crafts Productions
genres: indie rock
awards: CASBY Award
Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.
Emily Haines was born in New Delhi, India, to American-born parents, and was raised in Fenelon Falls, Ontario. She grew up as a dual citizen of both Canada and the United States. Her father, poet Paul Haines (best known for his lyrical collaboration with Carla Bley in the 1971 jazz opera Escalator over the Hill), often made cassettes of rare and eclectic music for his daughter to listen to, and her early influences included Carla Bley and Robert Wyatt.
Metric's music style has been described as indie rock and alternative rock, with elements of new wave, post-punk revival, synth-pop, and dance-rock. Sounds generated by synthesizers are prominent in their songs.
Underlined songs have their story further down.
"Gold Guns Girls" is the fourth single from the Canadian rock group Metric's fourth album Fantasies. The lyrics were inspired by the 1983 movie, Scarface.
The song was released in the UK and US for radio airplay in December 2009 and as a download single in the UK on April 25, 2010. Metric also released an acoustic version of the song on their EP Plug In Plug Out.
Singer Emily Haines said, "When Jimmy sent me this song as a rough sketch I listened to it over and over while watching Scarface, dreaming up ideas. The lyrics I wrote look at greed in all its forms, and the fact that we seem programmed to be insatiable. If we could do a million dollar video for this song it would be a remake of that montage scene from Scarface – including the tiger!"
The single was met with positive reviews. David Renshaw of Drowned in Sound said the song "is a ferocious battle anthem which sees rapid fire vocals interspersed with a machine gun like guitar which strikes through the song like a knife through butter". Tim Sendra of AllMusic called the song "laser beam-tight" and said it "should be blasting out of car radios on summer streets".
The song was the opening and ending theme for the 2009 animated feature film Totally Spies! The Movie, the 2009 live-action film Zombieland and the 2023 animated feature film Nimona. It was also featured in the football video game by EA Sports, FIFA 10 and Test Drive Unlimited 2.
The music video for "Gold Guns Girls" was shot by Eady Bros and Metric. It is presented in black-and-white film, and features the band racing around snowy New York City streets. Every so often, a band member will stop at an instrument on the sidewalk and play it (Haines would stop at a mic and sing).