Metric: Old world underground, where are you now?

I've taken myself a whole week to listen to a wonderful band I just discovered and came to love, Metric.
This was kind of unusual. I was awaken at 3 am on an insomnia night. Turned on the TV, channel 43, MTV (my... it really does show how capitalism works here eh? too underground for afterhours Justin Timberlake freakies? heh).
I've got no idea what the show was named but it had to do with videos of not-so mainstream bands. They played this very very unusually simple video which completely caught my attention (after a post-apocalyptic mini-film some artsy wannabe stupid band video). The video it seemed was filmed with an amateur cameraman, with poor lightning effects, cheesy dancing, etc. It was so reminiscent of the very first generation of music videos in the late 70s (think Blondie videos!) . By the end of the video I concluded two things:

1) It was an 80s band I hadn't ever heard of and,
2) They ought to be british

Well, none of them actually. The song name was IOU and it sounded so kitsch, so cardigans and pulp (the band, not porn), so... I don't know... so creative (in a sort of way). The song started Old world underground where are you now?" and it continued into a crescendo of guitar riffs and frenetic drumplaying, an heavy on bass and piano interlude followed (as if inhalating for a big explosion), hesitation lyrics, and then... "Every ten year-old enemy soldier thinks falling bombs are shooting stars sometimes, but she doesn’t make wishes on them..." with the initial guitars. This one has got to be one of the coolest songs I've heard recently.

Actually "Old world underground, where are you now?" is the name of their latest album (debut? I'm not sure myself. The album itself goes around the ideas of the first song I heard by them, "IOU". It's very varied in style but it retains the british/80's feeling in some way or another. the title of the album actually tells you a lot about the whole idea of the album in my opinion, as if calling for the styles and influences from the past (later part of the 70s, 80s) but using them in order to build something that sounds like a very stylish retro with an affection for the modernity of the years (90s) that left their legacy in the form of the heavy guitar riffs and melodic usage of heavy sound (think of all the influence bands like My Bloody Valentine and The Pixies left for music after the last decade).

As strange as this all might sound I find Metric a very interesting band to look into in coming times. This all mainly because of their originality to mix styles and rhythms (you'll understand this when you listen to it).

The front-woman of the band is EMILY HAINES who is in my personal opinion a great music and lyrics writer, most of them deal with sarcastic criticism to the system (yes, I know nowadays it sounds so cheesy... but that's why you do need to be creative in order to make it sound like really great words of energy and not toilet flush-able naiveness). As far as I know Emily has lived and made music in places around North America and the UK, which does somehow explain the variety of the styles she uses to achieve Metric's sound.

Anyway, this is a great band I have really come to like. I hope I can see them live someday (I don't live in North America). In the meantime check it out and tell me what do you think.

Facts:

Most interesting songs (IMHO): "IOU", "Combat Baby", "Succexy"
Similar artists: The Cardigans, Pulp, The Muffs, Letters to Cleo, The Brilliant Green (japanese, excellent band by the way)
Official site: www.ilovemetric.com (it has lots of mp3 samples and you can watch the videos as well... check out IOU, it's ferociously simple)