This past month’s rain washed out plenty of events in the District; among them was our chance to see Metropolitan with Shwa and Five Four at Ft. Reno on June 12. Instead, for this month’s Three Stars we’re reviewing the band’s third album The Lines They Get Broken. Metropolitan have one of the more upbeat sounds in D.C., and stay away from political commentary or avant garde art rock. The band’s sound draws from cited influences Sonic Youth and Pavement, while blending bouncier British influences like The Jam and The Fall into a tight sound that strays from garage rock to chill psychedelic breaks to pop melodies, but never slips into the dark. Metropolitan rely more on changing their tempo and rhythm than their guitar effects to define their sound. The album is loaded with plenty of catchy hooks, danceable bass lines and cool jams, offering something for all music fans to enjoy.

Opening track “Here or There” is a pretty straightforward but very catchy driving pop rock tune featuring Master’s soaring vocals in the verse, and ironically offers a vocal-less chorus giving the band a chance to feature a musical hook instead. “Homeroom” and "Letterbox" continue on the same upbeat vibe, the former opening with choppy distorted guitar lines in the verse bouncing between your stereo’s left and right speakers before converging to support the song’s danceable chorus. The later is powered by overdriven guitar and the unmistakable tones from Shyam Telikicherla’s Rickenbacker bass, walking over chromatic lines that give the track a very free, floating sound. "Letterbox" ends with a jam featuring a carnival keyboard melody by guest musician Clark Sabine that nicely complements the song and alludes to the vibe of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s self titled album.

The verses of “Downstream” sound a bit too close to opener “Here or There,” sharing the same melody, but the song soon comes into its own with stops in the chorus, catchy bass hooks and a neat jam of swollen sound effects to close the track. "Is It Too Loud?” bears well the band’s Sonic Youth influences, with more reserved vocals, and the song’s jam is about as dark as the CD gets - - that is, slightly, but not very. The track’s tone contrasts well against the bouncier vibe of the previous songs, but won’t bring you down. “Pakistan International” is sung by drummer Saadat Awan and recounts his childhood travels to Pakistan in relatively breathy vocals. It is the only track on the album that has any non-fictional content, lamenting at the end of the track the alienation Awan now feels in a place he once held dear, with falsetto vocals over music that could easily have come from Q and not U. The song stands out well in view of the other tracks on the album and perfectly conveys the song’s feeling that you are on vacation. “Headway” and “Western Star” are rather calm track that gets back to the band’s core garage sound and Master’s downbeat vocal patterns, slowing to set up the meandering bluesy “Made the Cut.”

Overall, The Lines They Get Broken is a solid effort that showcases a band with the ability to cover much sonic territory and has many vocal and music hooks that will stay planted in your head for some time. Although we did not get to see Metropolitan live, it is clear from the album that their songs make for some good hip shaking.

Visit them at: http://www.myspace.com/metropolitan

See them next: August 13 at DC9

Questions for Metropolitan’s lead guitarist and vocalist John Masters:

What local bands are you listening to right now?

Greenland, The Hard Tomorrows, These United States, Deleted Scenes,
The Foreign Press, The Caribbean, The Plums among others.

In listening to your CD, it’s clear your band has pretty tight musicianship. Can you comment on that?

That just comes with playing together for many years. The trio that we’ve had has been since 2002 - - Saadat, Shyam, and I. Miguel has been with us about a year. We have a natural feeling for each other. Writing songs, it’s not even like we even tell each other what to do. We might give each other suggestions. But, we just let it flow and everyone does their thing and it seems to meld together pretty well.

Do you share similar influences?

Somewhat. When we first got together, the influences I had primarily and still have they didn’t know too well, which they’ve gotten to know better. At the same time, I like it better that they didn’t because it brought a fresh perspective to things and they were bringing influences that I didn’t know so well. I wouldn’t want someone who loved all the same music that I do, because that’s not going to add anything to what I’m doing.

What is the band’s songwriting process?

I usually write the lyrics and main guitar part, and everyone else writes their parts for their instruments. We give each other a little feedback when we’re writing, but on the whole everyone gets to write their own thing and do what they want and bring what they want to the song. I recorded my first album with a friend of mine who ended up leaving. So when they came around I actually had a whole album and they learned how to play those songs. The second album was the one where all three of us really wrote everything together.

What made you want to start a band?

When I first started I was heavily influenced by the whole early 90’s grunge scene; people like Cobain who barely knew how to play guitar but were rock stars. So I was influenced by a low-fi way of going about it. That way, there wasn’t so much pressure. Our sound definitely has that garage influence.

What are some of the things that you like, and don’t like, about the D.C. music scene?

I’ve been around for a long time because I grew up around here, and I’ve seen a lot of different things happen. When I was still writing that fanzine, I was working for a record label called Teenbeat. There was a band on there called Unrest that got pretty big and they got signed to 4AD. I went from being a fan and seeing all these shows, and I remember thinking when the Black Cat first opened it would be great to play shows there. I would go to the old 9:30 Club on F St. whenever I could sneak out of the house. So I’ve always loved the D.C. scene. The main problem with it is that this isn’t an entertainment town. This is a sleepy conservative town. And entertainment and music and art in general has a hard time surviving here. Not only because of the conservative sleepiness aspect but the fact that it’s expensive as well. It’s not that the people in this town aren’t looking to be entertained but they’re not looking in city itself for the entertainment. You see a big band come through town and the 9:30 Club sells out because that’s on the radar of most people. But local bands, people don’t look within as much as they should. There aren’t even people in the industry looking for bands. Any attention we’ve ever had in the industry with labels has been because we play in New York. This isn’t a city where people are looking for the next big thing.

So do you feel the attention comes from elsewhere?

I would never say there’s a lack of people interested in the music and art scene because there always has been and there always will be. There’s a ton of support all the time. It’s just tough to keep things going when you have to pay high rent. I worked at a record store called Now Music and Fashion for five years. We hoped to keep it open but it was too expensive and we went under. It’s hard if you can’t even keep a record store open in town. And it’s not for lack of interest.

The scene seems to de-celebritize personalities, how do you feel about that?

D.C. has always had that kind of aspect to it, especially with Dischord and that Do-It-Yourself scene being so big for so long. It’s definitely de-celebritizing in the sense that you go to a show and you’re going to see the guys in local bands all the time because they’re always going out supporting shows all the time which is great. Kids go to the shows and they see guys from other bands hanging out and that works. It’s a good thing. And people don’t have to worry about depending on the newspaper to find out about shows. They can go to DCist, or whatever local listings are going on and that’s helping the scene. Blogs and such promoting and sponsoring shows. That’s the way scenes keep going. It’s definitely a cool thing.

So where do you see the D.C. scene going?

It still has a scenester aspect to it, but it used to have a negative connotation in that people were standoffish about it. But that’s not really the case any more and I’m glad about that. We’ve been around for a while and it’s cool to see new kids come in with new bands who want to play with us and I look forward to hearing them. The club scene is pretty good now, especially with DC9 coming in - - that’s been a big part of it. Brian, the guy who runs DC9, has opened The Red and The Black and the Rock and Roll Hotel. I can remember when there were two places tops to play in the city and now there’s probably six or seven. That’s helping keep the good venues open. Everything is more on the radar and people are more accepting of the newer stuff, and that’s cool. It’s not a scenester thing anymore. It’s not a cliquey thing anymore. There’s a new feeling of supporting each other, which is exactly what any scene needs but especially DC.

And where do you see Metropolitan going?

Just to keep plugging along and doing what we’re doing. We’d definitely like there to be some time in my life where I’m living off music. Whether or not that involves signing, I’d like to not have a 9-to-5 and be able to be out there three-fourths of the year touring, and making records. If it never comes, at least I tried and gave it a shot and I’m having fun while trying to pursue it. If there’s ever a day where I get up on stage and don’t get that rush of adrenaline and excitement, I guess I’ll retire. Playing shows is my all-time favorite thing to do.