Three One G Records

Five years ago today, the Toronto-based band METZ did a 7″ with Three One G that delivers beautiful moments that feel like a magic hammer to the teeth of all your worst enemies, like a unicorn shitting pure gold drizzle into your favorite coffee cup. Over the course of just a few glorious minutes, the “Eraser”/”Pure Auto” release gives and gives generously and keeps on giving. Put simply, these two tracks are spectacularly good.

Side A, “Eraser,” reminds me of Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes in all the best ways—the churning, cyclical guitar riffs ragged with distortion and shrieking feedback, the thrillride song structure, the screaming punk rock ‘n’ roll swagger which is a whole different beast (and so much more interesting) than plain ol’ rock band swagger. It’s a car chase of a song, a fight scene, an exploding jet streaking through the night’s sky in a trail of hot orange flame and raining fiery debris.

Side B, “Pure Auto,” races head-on toward a wall, but like some kind of ‘80s video game hero it bursts right through the bricks and keeps on going en route to saving the 8-bit princess and kicking the boss’s foolish ass. This is modern punk rock, stripped of bullshit and cliches, dirty but precise, who-the-fuck-cares yet life-or-death earnest. This beautiful clear vinyl 7″ is a vital document of one of the best live bands out there, a stunning moment captured in amber and held up like a weird ancient insect for posterity’s sake.

–Adam Gnade, author of the novels This is the End of Something But It’s Not the End of You and Float Me Away, Floodwaters (1/22/21)