Any why shouldn’t she?
Emily Haines, lead singer of the Canadian band Metric, sings on “Help, I’m Alive,” the hit single from last year’s Fantasies. It’s not so much a rhetorical question as it is a brave reclamation of self-purpose: it’s Haines flipping the bird at the imagined glass ceilings and self-doubt she condemned on previous records. Any why shouldn’t she? Even in a fractured musical climate that doesn’t invite or invent figureheads like it once did, Emily Haines has recently been elevated to the role of indie pop’s cool big sister. At a recent sold-out show at New York City’s Terminal 5, she prowled the stage with the devastating cool of a feline predator. (…)
NIKA: What about the Lady Gaga effect?
HAINES: I can honestly say it makes me laugh and I really don’t care. It has nothing to with music. I mean, it’s fascinating. Show up wearing Kermit the Frog, why not? It’s fun and she has a good time. It has nothing to do with the world that I live in.
