Margot & the Nuclear So and So's: A review/preview

It’s not uncommon for a band making the leap from the indies to the majors to have some disagreements with its deep-pocketed but often creatively impaired new boss. What is uncommon is resolving those conflicts by releasing two different albums—one to appease the band, the other to appease the label.

But that’s the route Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s and their new label, Epic, decided to take. The Indianapolis eight-piece just released Animal! (the band’s preferred version) digitally and on vinyl, while Not Animal is available on CD, digital and vinyl. The two records have five songs in common, but according to Margot member and Columbus musician Erik Kang, Animal! feels a bit darker.

“It probably reflects the fact that we were cooped up in a studio in Chicago during the coldest months of the winter,” Kang said. “I think there’s some songs on (Not Animal) that are a little bit lighter. Some people may like it better because of that.”

Kang, an alumnus of cowtown bands Tiara, the Emerald Down and Alasdair, joined Margot in 2006—a few months after the release of the band’s debut, The Dust of Retreat—and now handles violin and lap-steel duties. He admits there was some uncomfortable wrangling over the new album(s).

“It’s a complicated situation when you present music that you spent two months working on night and day,” he said. “To present what we felt was the strongest record, to have that rejected, you can’t help but take that personally and be hurt and be upset by it. It was really important to us to have that record released.”

At the same time, though, Kang said the band recognizes the strengths of Not Animal. “These were not songs that we never wanted to see the light of day,” he said. “We were proud of all of them. It was just a matter of which songs flowed the right way.”

Still, Kang recommends purchasing Animal! to hear the album the way the band intended it to sound. “We picked the songs that flowed the best and made sense as an entity itself. Not Animal is more just a collection of songs. They don’t necessarily flow as a record,” he said.

Both new albums reveal a much different band than Dust of Retreat-era Margot, trading some of its slightly emo tendencies for more orchestral, layered, atmospheric chamber pop. The hooks aren’t as immediate, and some of Retreat’s childlike spark is gone, but the slow burn usually pays off.

Is Animal! vastly superior to Not Animal? Not really, but it would have been a shame to miss out on the former’s boozy, string-heavy “Mariel’s Brazen Overture” and “There’s Talk of Mine Shafts.” Both find singer Richard Edwards in a duet with keyboardist Emily Watkins, whose ethereal harmonies can be found all over the new songs.

In general, Margot has discovered how to be an eight-piece without always sounding like an eight-piece, forgoing the bombastic tendencies of large bands. Edwards’ voice is always up front in the mix, often with scant accompaniment.

“Having all the instruments isn’t a gimmick,” Kang said. “It just makes sense for the songs that we’re doing. We’re very cautious and sensitive to only having the parts that really matter for the song and not overcrowding it.”

On the current tour, which will make a stop in Columbus on Sunday for the first time since Kang joined the band, fans can probably expect to hear more from Animal! than Not Animal because that’s the record Margot wanted to put together, Kang said.

Plus, the band has been keeping tallies of which album is selling better, and overall, Animal! is winning.

“So we’re right,” Kang said, laughing.

Margot & the Nuclear So and So's will perform Sunday at Skully's, 1151 N. High St., along with Judgement Day and David Vandervelde. Doors open at 6 p.m.; all ages. 614-291-8856.

(Also at The Other Paper)

The National - A Skin, A Night & The Virginia EP

Parisian filmmaker Vincent Moon has made a name for himself capturing impromptu, lo-fi performances of dozens of indie rockers for La Blogotheque. The popularity of these “Take Away Shows” led to collaborations with Arcade Fire and R.E.M.

Moon has also had an association and friendship with The National for a few years, and Beggars Banquet recently released his film about the band, A Skin, A Night, on DVD. Like the Take Away Shows, the documentary is a lo-fi affair, with extra-bright whites and dark, grainy blacks.

It’s also far from the typical band documentary, in that it doesn’t really document any events in particular. Rather, Moon’s impressionist approach sheds just a little light on mostly mundane moments. A Skin, A Night is filled with anxiety, nervousness and an overall lack of confidence, focused especially on singer Matt Berninger--whether he’s looking worried and tired in front of a computer screen littered with sound waves, mumbling his baritone lines tentatively into a mic or carefully listening back to an unfinished track.

The whole film has the feel of a band in those tense moments before taking the stage, which makes sense. Moon happened to catch The National at an interesting time, revealing a band right on the cusp of something. It’s that period just before the band finished recording its breakout fourth album, Boxer (my personal favorite of 2007), and all the rave reviews that followed. One of the band members sums it up best in the film when he says, “The film comes at a very interesting time for The National. It’s after we’ve found our audience a little bit, but at the same time we’re making this record, which is taking forever. We’re very much in the middle of something and we don’t know where we’ll end up.”

That fortunate sense of timing, combined with Moon’s fresh approach to filmmaking, are the film’s redeeming qualities, but it’s no masterpiece. For one thing, it’s aggravatingly difficult to decipher many of the interviews with band members because the music alongside their spoken words completely muffles them beyond recognition. Better mixing would help.

Also, the film probably won’t grab you unless you’re already a fan of the band (a fault it does have in common with many band documentaries). The painstaking atmosphere surrounding a group of perfectionists trying to record an album is captured well, but watching that can itself become laborious. Plus, there’s not a whole lot of great music in the film, more ambient snippets, so it wouldn’t be a good introduction for non-fans.

The same can be said for The Virginia EP, a 12-track collection of B-sides, covers, demos and live recordings that accompanies the DVD. It all feels vaguely familiar, with Berninger’s baritone carrying the mostly mellow tunes. But his vocal delivery feels uninspired, and few of the songs come together as nicely as those on Boxer. As is the case with most collections of afterthought songs released between full-length albums, most of the arrangements, lyrics and production never reach the talented band’s full potential. There’s usually a good reason a song has remained a demo instead of morphing into a fleshed-out album track.

Had the band decided to whittle the hodgepodge down a bit to the length of most EPs, it could have worked. The previously unreleased opening track, “You’ve Done It Again, Virginia,” with contributions from Sufjan Stevens and Marla Hansen, nestles up nicely against UK B-sides “Santa Clara” and “Blank Slate,” making for a strong opening. Top it off with “Lucky You,” taken from the band’s Daytrotter session, and you’ve got a strong EP to tide fans over till the next LP.

But in The Virginia EP’s current form, listeners have to slog through some ho-hum demo tracks, an over-ambitious cover of Springsteen’s “Mansion on the Hill” and superfluous live versions of “Fake Empire” and “About Today.” Here’s hoping the band’s much-anticipated next album avoids similar pitfalls.

mp3: The National - You've Done It Again, Virginia

Southeast Engine

After releasing its third album on Misra Records last October, Athens, Ohio group Southeast Engine has finally been deemed worthy of a review by Pitchfork. Better late than never, I guess. A Wheel Within a Wheel, the title of which is a biblical reference to a trippy vision in Ezekiel, is absolutely stellar--probably one of the most overlooked albums in 2007. I still have no qualms about including it in my top five from last year.

Fortunately for the arty, alt.-country indie rockers, P-fork gave it a respectable 7.1. What's the difference between 7 and 7.1 you ask? Nothing. Still, love 'em or hate 'em, Pitchfork can make or break a band, and I hope they end up making this one. I particularly like this description in the review: "A Wheel Within a Wheel is more complex than the average Christian rock tract. The Biblical/religious imagery running throughout the disc doesn't tip the group's hand so much as provide the album a fruitful thematic framework as Remnant shouts into the abyss in search of answers."

For a better review, though, Paste's Andy Whitman wrote about the band a while back here (scroll down to Dec. 15).

Here in Ohio, you can catch Southeast Engine at the Nelsonville Art & Music Festival, along with the Avett Brothers, Akron/Family, Moviola, O'Death, Justin Townes Earle and others, May 16-18.

mp3: Southeast Engine - Oh God, Let Me Back In

Beach House - Devotion

Once upon a time, in what feels like a different lifetime, I went to a North Carolina beach with some college friends for spring break. We piled into the car with beach clothes, towels, sunscreen, Easy Mac, Ramen Noodles and copious amounts of alcohol. When we pulled up to the house we rented, the sun was shining and the waves were breaking gently onto the white sand in the distance. All that was missing from the postcard image were cartoon letters across the sky saying, “Welcome to Nags Head!”

But after exiting the car, something was very wrong with the picture. It was freezing. Well, not freezing, but spring break fell in early March, so it was still in the low 50s. In that moment, the environment changed from an idyllic beach setting to a bizarre scene of shivering in the sunshine with your feet in the sand.

It’s that atmosphere that Beach House has captured on its sophomore album, Devotion. The record creates a mood that has moments of warmth and light but never gets too comfortable. Singer Victoria Legrand’s whispy, reverb-laden vocals set the tone, with a Nico vibe that’s dreary and drony yet consistently pretty. Completing the Baltimore duo is Alex Scally, who contributes fuzzy, finespun layers of guitar and keyboards; Legrand lends her piano/organ/keyboard skills as well, and she comes from a good pedigree--her uncle is French composer Michel Legrand. Beats are usually carried by minimalist electronic drums.

Countless blogs have lavished praise on Beach House’s 2006 eponymous debut, and they’ll most likely do the same for Devotion. Most of that comes back to that hazy, dream-like ambience the duo has created. I’m a big fan of artists creating a particular, one-of-a-kind atmosphere for an album, but mood alone only goes so far. The songs themselves have to sparkle, and while there’s nothing particularly unpleasant about these tunes, there’s nothing spectacular about them, either.

Sure, there are some bright spots, like “Gila,” “Heart of Chambers” and the Daniel Johnston cover “Some Things Last a Long Time.” And most, if not all, of the tracks feel more finished and composed than those on the band’s debut. But after a couple of listens, it’s hard not to say, “OK, I get it,” and move on. Devotion never quite lives up to its atmospheric potential, eventually becoming mildly boring. Sort of like being stuck indoors for a week at the beach.

mp3: Beach House - Gila

The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride

In the mid ’90s the Mountain Goats released a series of lo-fi boom-box recordings on cassettes. Many of the songs featured only singer/guitarist John Darnielle, who became known for his highly literate lyrics, prominent ultra-nasal vocals and frantic guitar strumming.

Some things have changed drastically since Darnielle’s days of tape hiss. The passion, the anger, the heartbreak and the cinematic storytelling with larger-than-life characters are all still there. But along the way, starting with Tallahassee in 2002, he abandoned the homemade aesthetic and started making studio-grade headphone albums filled with subtle layers of sparse instrumentation that compel you to invade a song’s personal space. The production has the effect of forcing the listener to hear every word, whether solemnly or vigorously delivered. The songs are rarely packaged in bright wrapping paper with a big bow, but the gifts reveal themselves after closer inspection. For me, a particular phrase usually latches onto my brain, and from there the discovery process begins.

Heretic Pride follows in the same vein. It’s filled with engaging stories about an imaginary cult (“New Zion”), Prince Far I (“Sept. 15 1983”) and a persecution fantasy (“Heretic Pride”). As usual, Darnielle is not one to use common metaphors or analogies in his songs. “Autoclave,” a reference to the gadget used to sterilize surgical instruments, came about after Darnielle learned of a bacteria that can not only resist an autoclave, but thrives in the high temperatures. “This got me thinking about people whose hearts involuntarily pulverize any good feelings that come within a city block of them,” Darnielle says in an illustrated companion to the album. The song’s hook explains further: “I am this great, unstable mass of blood and foam. And no one in her right mind would make my home her home. My heart’s an autoclave.” Like most of the album, it’s an upbeat song--a stark contrast to last year’s hushed Get Lonely.

Heretic Pride takes more than a casual listen to fully appreciate, as do most Mountain Goats releases, but there are some weaknesses that place it below The Sunset Tree and Tallahassee, two of the band’s strongest records that also follow Darnielle’s trend of writing concept albums. Sunset Tree focused on an abusive stepfather, Tallahassee explored a couple’s misfortunes in Florida and Get Lonely was a somber coming-to-grips breakup album. After a few listens to Heretic Pride, a strong interconnecting theme never emerges. It’s purposeful for sure, but there’s not as much payoff for the investigative listener as there was in previous albums.

The Mountain Goats’ sound is also becoming predictable. While the subject matter varies wildly, the instrumentation, subtle production, vocal phrasing, etc. has stayed fairly constant between the last few albums. It’s so familiar, in fact, that it doesn’t have quite the impact that it used to. Part of me relishes the band’s oeuvre and never wants Darnielle to change, but it has also reached the point where I think I’ve had too much of a good thing, and it’s time for the Mountain Goats to branch out and experiment more.

Still, even if Heretic Pride doesn’t come together in a nice, tidy package, the crackpot characters Darnielle cooks up still hold enough interest individually to make the album a worthy addition to the Mountain Goats catalog.

Heretic Pride is out now on 4AD.

mp3: The Mountain Goats - Sax Rohmer #1

British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?

So I listened to this album again, thought about it some more, then listened some more. Here's the "official" review I came up with, which will be in the The Other Paper on Thursday:

Arcade Fire is the elephant in the iPod when you listen to British Sea Power’s Do You Like Rock Music?, so we might as well talk about it. It’s so impossible to avoid that on the first few listens I had a hard time giving the band much credit. After all, since Arcade Fire released Funeral in 2004, its influence is felt more and more every year. Some bands take inspiration from the Canadians and merely pay homage, while others all of a sudden want every song they write to be “epic.” And even though British Sea Power was around before Win Butler’s group, Arcade Fire is now so pervasive and glorified that it’s hard not to think of it the other way around.

British Sea Power does sound more like Arcade Fire now than Arcade Fire has ever sounded like British Sea Power. (It’s probably not coincidental that one of the album’s producers, Howard Bilerman, has worked with Arcade Fire.) But after acknowledging that fact, I realized that endlessly playing the influence game with Do You Like Rock Music? would do a disservice to the band. Because, in answer to the album title’s query--yes, yes I do like rock music, and this is pretty good rock music, no matter who came first or who influenced whom.

For this disc, British Sea Power abandoned most of its post-punk leanings. You’d be hard-pressed to liken this album to anything by Joy Division. This is also the band’s most melodic and therefore its most accessible showing yet. Though there’s an eight-minute closer, you won’t find much similar to the meandering 14-minute track “Lately” from the band’s 2003 Rough Trade debut. Some of the melodic quirkiness and surprising turns are gone, which in theory might be something to mourn, but fortunately they’re replaced by well-constructed pop tunes. “Open the Door” could even be a James song. And yes, it all feels brazenly epic, especially “Waving Flags,” which is supposedly a tribute to Polish plumbers. The album even kicks off with a two-minute, swelling chant of, “We’re all in it and we close our eyes.”

British Sea Power certainly hasn’t lost its quirkiness lyrically. The boys from Brighton, England, are known for their diverse and bizarre subject matter. “Atom” tackles physics: “When you get down, down to the subatomic part of it, that’s when it breaks you know, that’s when it falls apart. Oh caveat emptor, open the atom’s core.” Offbeat lyrics make British Sea Power more interesting in some ways, but it’s probably also why Do You Like Rock Music? doesn’t make quite as much of an emotional impact as Funeral or Neon Bible, both of which have a specific theme and mood. The opening track, “All In It,” does come full circle with the last one, “We Close Our Eyes,” but Rock Music could use a little more thematic glue to hold together all its anthems in between.

It would be tough to find tracks more epic than these, and who doesn’t like epic rock music? But even if you like it, the next question becomes, do you care about it? For me, it was a resounding, “Usually.”

mp3: British Sea Power - Waving Flags

Times New Viking - Wexner Center, 1-25

Times New Viking will most likely be the most polarizing band of 2008. Previously, the Columbus noise-pop/garage-punk trio were able to stay on the fringes, garnering mostly praise from its dedicated followers. Fans of Times New Viking’s lower-than-lo-fi sound gobbled up previous releases on Siltbreeze, but as respected as the resurrected label is in some circles, its reputation and influence pales in comparison to the band’s new label, Matador--considered by many to be the pinnacle of the indie rock world.

So while TNV wasn’t exactly hard to avoid before, it’s firmly planted at the forefront for the time being, and on the heels of an 8.4 rating by Pitchfork, people are listening. The reactions, though, are not even-keeled. Scanning through some recent emusic.com user reviews of the band’s Matador debut, Rip It Off, you’ll see “I like the noisy, lo-fi thing” and “This band actually is quite good” alongside comments like “Distorted, irritating, poorly recorded garbage” and “Listen to this if you want to blow your brains out from the stress this will cause.”

I guess I’m in the minority, because before Friday night’s record release show at the Wexner Center, I didn’t love or loathe Times New Viking. What I found appealing in the band’s fun, super-catchy pop songs was always undermined by fuzzy layers of pretension. The busted quality of the recordings wasn’t an impenetrable barrier aurally, but I couldn’t help thinking that all that messiness was affected and overblown--DIY gone too far.

On Friday night, however, all that perceived pretension melted away to reveal a band that was just plain fun. Times New Viking made a believer out of me.

The band played what it professed to be its longest show ever, which made for a whole bunch of manic, noisy pop songs that usually hovered around the two-minute mark. Early on in the set, drummer/vocalist Adam Elliot introduced one song as “the only dance song we have,” but that was entirely untrue. In fact, there was a sizable group up front that danced and moshed to the entire set. A few times I had to look around and make sure I was still at the Wexner Center. (It also should be noted that a local band headlining a Wex concert is a rare feat, and the room was packed.)

Times New Viking’s love for Guided By Voices is even more apparent live as each no-frills tune was playfully and expertly deconstructed to its bare essentials. The best songs featured keyboardist/vocalist Beth Murphy prominently, particularly “My Head,” “Devo & Wine,” “Faces on Fire” and “DROP-OUT”--a song the band screwed up, then reluctantly (but fortunately) restarted. Most of the reluctance came from guitarist Jared Phillips, but skipping the song entirely would have been the height of live-show laziness; as someone in the crowd noted, the song is only a minute long.

Everything TNV does, from the fuzz to the minimalist drum kit, is intentional, yet the band’s laid-back approach and rough-around-the-edges musicianship gave the set a feeling of playful spontaneity. That mood also lightened up dark lyrics such as “Everything that you know has been an accident” and “I don’t want to die in the city alone.” The band describes its lyrical approach as “romantic nihilism.” Perhaps that’s why Elliot dedicated to several songs to dead rock stars and Heath Ledger.

And, I’ll have to say, it was nice being able to hear the vocals rise above the clutter and the drums really carry the beat of the punky tunes. On TNV’s albums the snare tends to sound more like someone tapping tin foil with a twig.

If you’ve yet to see Times New Viking, the romantic nihilists will probably be in your hometown before too long, and you just might love them. If not, you’ll hate them.

More photos.

mp3: Times New Viking - DROP-OUT
mp3: Times New Viking - (My Head)