Indie rock music usually has a few staples. An odd and incomprehensible name is good start, and then your lyrics should be really offbeat and difficult to understand, finally the music cannot sound mainstream in the slightest. Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s have all of these qualities, including a few others they put on display on Buzzard, their third studio album.
Their songs aren’t loud and in your face, but they carry a level of gravity and soul that leaves you with the impression that these people picked up their instruments and just starting playing. “Lets Paint Our Teeth Green” is anything but your refined, record label cleaned up song; its raw sounds are the musical version of a skinned knee. It’s not mastered or plastic feeling, the songs each has their musical souls intact.
The group features an incredible range of sounds, from female vocalist Cameron McGill to the sounds of violins and harmonicas. Songs like “New York City Hotel Blues” and “Claws Off” are not easy listening songs you’ll ever find over the radio, but rather the type of songs where you need to just lay on your back and let the music wash over you. There is nothing commercial about the So and So’s, they don’t necessarily have a place in any genre, even indie rock. What they do have is an innate ability for music that is so personal you tend to feel like you’re at a private club even when the sound is coming through your pair of cheap headphones.
For more information on Margot and teh Nuclear So and So’s check them out on MySpace, Facebook and follow them on Twitter. Get Buzzard now on iTunes!