Steve Barmash vs. Shawn Conner

Dear Payback Time: What does it take to get a good review in your mag? Shawn Conner should do some research, or at least look up the lyrics before he prints the wrong ones in his misleading reviews. Conner says "On the new album's 'Handshakes', for instance, Emily Haines chants, 'Drive this car to go to work/Go to work to buy this car' as though she's just discovered the absurdity of capitalism." The lyric is "Buy this car to drive to work/Drive to work to pay for this car". Secondly, save your critique of her lyrics for an album review. Plus, I was at the show and Metric had tons of energy and sounded great. I don't think guitarist Jimmy Shaw hit one bad note, and the rest of the band was sharp as fuck. If you can't recall the songs 30 seconds after you heard them, maybe you aren't the man for the job.

> steve barmash

Shawn Conner replies: Dearest Steve-You're absolutely right, we should've found someone who likes the band to review the show. After all, our job is to print nothing but glowing praise and not challenge the status quo. What would it be like if reviewers were encouraged to actually form their own opinions? Unfortunately, after searching the Georgia Straight's pool of eager scribes, the number of Metric fans amounted to zero. And so it fell to me, a reviewer who has little experience with Metric except a) having seen them perform live at least four times, b) having interviewed singer Emily Haines, and c) championed their debut when it came out. The fact is I pointed out many of the things you complain were lacking in the review, including the talent of the rhythm section, Haines's charisma, the band's on-stage energy, and that the second album is in some ways better than the first. It seems you would settle for nothing less than complete positivity, and that, my friend, is something I wasn't prepared to give a band after waiting for over an hour to hear one decent song that could justify the hype.

For taking the time to abuse us, Steve Barmash takes home a fabulous prize pack that includes the Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am”¦. You can voice your impotent rage by snail mail or by sending an e-mail to payback@straight.com.