Metric is a Canadian independent rock band from Toronto, Ontario. It was formed in 1998 in New York, but is currently based in Toronto, Ontario (Canada).
Their first EP, Static Anonymity EP produced by Jimmy Shaw, was released in 2002. Grow Up and Blow Away was to follow under the label Restless Records, but it will never be released due to a conflict with the record company. These demos however circulate on the Internet (a reissue of the album finally lives on June 26, 2007). At the end of the previous year, the band expanded to include two Americans: bassist Joshua Winstead and drummer Joules Scott-Key. The second album, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? was published in 2003 in North America. Following the appearance of the band in Olivier Assayas' film Clean, the album was released in France some time later. Live it Out was released on October 4, 2005 in Canada and the United States. Fantasies, 2009 album, contains the new title Help I'm Alive.
Mike Shinoda (from the Linkin Park group) contacted the band about the song Gold Guns Girl (on the Fantasies album) which he felt was a perfect theme for his latest Glorious Excess (Dies) art show. He asked the group if it was possible to make a remix for the occasion, proposal that the group accepted. This track is available for exclusive viewing on Shinoda's personal website. The title Gold Guns Girls is part of the soundtrack of the game FIFA 10, the soundtrack of the film Welcome to Zombieland but also as a starter and the end of Totally Spies, the movie, released in 2009. Haines and Shaw also played with Broken Social Scene, and Haines was featured on Stars' album, KC Accidentall and Delerium. In 2007, Haines embarked on a solo career with the album Knives Do not Have You Back. Emily Haines is the daughter of Canadian jazz poet Paul Haines (author of Escalator over the Hill's libretto (Carla Bley, 1971)) and the sister of television journalist Avery Haines.
In 2010, Metric also participated in the soundtrack of two highly anticipated films: Twilight, Chapter III: Hesitation with the song Eclipse (All Yours) and Scott Pilgrim (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) with the song Black Sheep. In 2012, they participated in the soundtrack of David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis, in collaboration with Howard Shore. Their fifth album is Synthetica and was released on June 12, 2012. The song Speed the Collapse is part of the soundtrack of the video game FIFA 13.
