Review - The New Margot Albums

In March 2006, Margot & the Nuclear So and So's released The Dust of Retreat, arguably one of the most haunting and inexhaustible albums of all time. It came quietly--a self-released trophy of D.I.Y.-- and unexpectedly.

It starts off cold and and static-y, sinking you into the perfect, emotionless, winter state of mind. Lead singer Richard Edwards wastes no time getting to the heart of his lyrical style: he's a storyteller with a broken heart, disarrayed by his lack of control over the world and simultaneous profound effect on the events that happen around him. The first eleven minutes are euphoric compared to the rest of the album. Soon, we encounter the mid-album climax that is Track #4, "Quiet As A Mouse", which was made into a music video. The heartbreak continues with the simple, tragic "Jen Is Bringing the Drugs" which is followed by an upbeat song with profoundly depressing lyrics. The emotional roller coaster continues and finally ends with an epic duet between Edwards and the female vocalist, Emily Watkins. As a courtesy, the album ends with the cute and Winter-y "Bookworm".

As well as this, they've released The Daytrotter Sessions EP, a small collection of songs performed live in the studio of online music biggies Daytrotter.com.

Edwards' brilliant lyrics are supplemented by the complexity of the music itself. Margot consists of eight members: Richard Edwards, Emily Watkins, Andy & Chris Fry, Hubert Glover, Casey Tennis, Tyler Watkins (unrelated to Emily), Erik Kang and countless outside contributers. Together, they achieve sounds that have never been heard before and result in somewhat of a fusion of inexplicable sound that penetrates all activity within audible range. Think: a mixture of Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Matt Pond PA and the score from Bambi. Now, add everything good about Arcade Fire, Connor Oberst/Bright Eyes, a touch of Coldplay and a sprinkle of Ryan Adams for good measure. The collision of major musical forces that happens with Margot is a fantastic swirl of barely-there keyboards and drugs with Edwards' soft, permeating voice as a guide. It's a musical satisfaction that never stops working and quenches every desire a music lover could ever have.

Well, they've gone and released two new albums on us.

Animal! (48:23)

I have been waiting for Animal! for so long that I've spoiled it's surprise with live recordings and bootlegs. After hearing the new recorded album via the double LP vinyl, I'm certain that this is right on par with Dust of Retreat, only perfect for it's fall release.

It begins with a long, strange sound like a distorted version of the beginning of Dust of Retreat. The album is a bit of a stray from the storytelling of their first album, but definitely has inter-song themes: heavily featured is references to cults (in "Hello Vagina" Edwards wails "I am the way to heaven's gate/so pour me a drink, fore we fly away") and a mysterious woman named "Mariel" who even has a song named after her. The highlight on the album is the trippy "A Children's Crusade on Acid", with a chorus of perfect piano finger work and electric drums.

Overall, the album is very typical Margot: heavy on the bass drum, distorted guitar, trademark Margot violin, country-style crooning guitar and television static sounds. Margot and crew make their token reference to Chicago with "Love Song for a Schuba's Bartender", written in the basement of the legendary Schuba's bar on the north side. They also stick to form and end the album with the sunny, happy sing-along, "As Tall As Cliffs", which could very easily function as the album's promotional single.

It's a formidable challenger to it's predecessor. I've been comfortably listening to Dust once a week or more for the past year, and I have a feeling that in time it will prove to have more of a life than Animal!. If Dust is a 10.0 on a 10.0 scale, Animal! is a 9. I highly recommend the vinyl version, which comes with a digital download code. Support the vinyl arts, people.


Not Animal (48:33)

The second album, Not Animal, is a collection of work from the past and present to celebrate the band's signing with Sony BMG corp's Epic Records. The album is a commission by Epic and Sony, and features no relatively new material other than a few unreleased songs and some selections from their other new album. However, if you like what you hear in Dust of Retreat and Animal!, it's worth it to get this one for some of the rare tracks such as the band's signature song "Broadripple is Burning" about their hometown of Indianapolis and another classic Margot diddy, "The Ocean".


Margot is one of the best bands to hit the music scene for a while. I encourage you to buy their album(s), or at least iTunes preview them if you're not sure. Hit up the comments section with your thoughts.

www.margotandthenuclearsoandsos.com
www.myspace.com/margotandthenuclearsoandsos
(In a twist of fate, their website is run more by them and is much more informative and interactive than their MySpace, which is taken over by computer slowing, Sony-issued flash banners.)

Are You Depressed Yet?

I am a well-read person, so I get all my news from Reddit. I generally browse at various points throughout the day, as the stories change quickly. Today, all the stories had one thing in common: they made me want to cut myself. Take a look at some reddit posts from today:

DOW drops below 9000

“Terrorist” has been redefined by the Maryland State Police. If you oppose the death penalty or against the war in Iraq-now are a "terrorists."

[BASTAGE] US Mint Has Given AIG A Printing Press; AIG On Honor System Not To Abuse it

Republicans Mock Obama for Pronouncing Words Correctly

IMMEDIATE trial for kid that hacked Palin's Email- but still waiting on the trial for PALIN using the email ILLEGALLY... a much larger and more serious crime.

Barack Obama will destroy science funding in America because he is afraid that true science will reveal the white race to be superior to the black race. Ladies and gentlemen, the National Review

The Bush administration this month is quietly cutting off birth control supplies to some of the world’s poorest women in Africa.

Why isn't this big news? They figured out the structure of Senecavirus, a 'good' virus that works 10,000X better than Chemo in cancer cells

New York Times front page: "Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering."



Are you dead yet?

Friday Night Lights

October 1st marks the return of one of my favorite shows Friday Night Lights. However I won't get to watch it until 2009 on network TV. You see someone made a deal to put it out on Direct TV. I do not currently have Direct TV. My question is why? What do they have to gain? Just put it out mid season and let everyone watch it at the same time. If only there was some way to watch it. Maybe if there was this thing called the internet we bring it down, load it down, oh I got it download it. That's whats going to happen. Some Direct TV viewer is gonna put it online. See my point? The network just screwed itself. Why would I want to watch a rerun when it comes on NBC. I'm sure I would have downloaded it by then.

Ah who am I kidding I'm gonna watch it then too! Otherwise what reason would they have to keep it on at all. Check out this trailer for the show.

Time out guys

Come on guys' time out! I got something in my eye. Oh yeah what is it? I don't know but it feels like an economic crisis. So, time out. That's the word from the McCain campaign today. McCain is suspending his campaign to go back to Washington to fix the economic crisis. Yeah about 26 years late! Lets call it what it is FEAR. McCain wants to cancel the debate on Friday. Well not so much cancel he wants to post pone. We can have the debate but we should most likely cancel the VP debate, there might not be time. He'd rather not let his brain trust of a VP pick go unscripted in front of the country.

Well Senator McCain, Gov Palin being unqualified is about a big of a shock as the recent discovery that Clay Aiken is gay. She is however a tap on the shoulder away from being President if this relic is elected. So bad news we're gonna want to see if she can string words together to make a sentence.

The economic crisis is very real. We need our politicians to treat it like it's a real crisis. Not some note to get out of gym class. Or remember when you used to go to the dentist and you'd get to leave school at lunch? These are peoples lives you are screwing with. Nobody is going to fall for your crap. Those who do I don't want to talk to anyway. I was at work while Obama was trying to be President. Well guess what? You are going to have to multi-task. The war is going to go on time out. I could see the notes now:

Dear America,

We realize that things are going tough for you at home. Wall St. is being difficult and you just don't seem like your heart and mind is on bombing us right now. Well to make it easier we are going to stop. No terror attacks, no suicide bombing, and no more terror videos from Osama Bin Ladin. In fact I hear he's getting a part time job at El Pollo Loco. Have you tried the Ultimate Pollo Bowl it's to die for. I'm seriously looking forward to eating that in paradise with all my virgins ,so you know we'll just chill just until you're ready. We all have to keep busy. Hoping things get better.

Love

The people who hate freedom

P. S. We still don't have food, water and electricity in like half of our country. You know when you get around to it.

Yeah not gonna happen learn to multi-task John

Wait you want a trillion what?

A fast one has been attempted. Some nefarious plan has been hatched by our government. WHAT? You say. That’s impossible! Sec. of Treasury Paulson went on the Sunday shows with a plan. Give me a trillion dollars and I will fix the economy. Well that sounds expensive, how will you do it? I’m not gonna tell you. In fact there isn’t going to be any oversight. Oh and it won’t be reviewable by the courts. So we are just supposed to trust you? Yeah.

Give me a fucking break. Paulson came up with the national equivalent of let me hold your wallet a second. I just want to look at it. So who is this guy? Well he was former CEO of Goldman Sachs and financial counsel to the White House.So you are saying he was a former CEO? I wonder how his portfolio is doing. While good friends with the CEO of Morgan Stanley (who by the way will get a part of the trillion) he has made no mention of those CEO’s who get great big bonuses. Paulson has no intentions of eliminating those million dollar bonuses for CEO’s.

This is a throw back to Cheney giving no bid contracts to his former ( let’s face it current ) company of Haliburton. This is the last ditch effort to rob this country one more time. It won’t be one of those million dollars here, million dollars there. No! This is the big straight up jack. The give me your wallet and your watch! I wish I could end with an unbelievable, but I can’t.

The Emmy's get a couple of things right

In my opinion the Emmy's were about the TV shows tonight, like Fox News is about fair and balanced broadcasting. They did however get two things right. Tonight’s Emmy broadcast was the 60^th anniversary of the shows inception. It was a tribute to the years before. In my opinion the past over shadowed the future. Two awards were given to people who shaped comedy. Don Rickles a man who’s insults were the only thing to make Frank Sinatra laugh. Received an award for his HBO special Mr. Warmth : The Don Rickles Project. I’m going to mention however how disappointed I was that Kathy Griffen had to tell everyone to stand up for this legend, but baby steps.

The other award was given to Tommy Smothers. One half of the famous Smothers Brothers, he was recognized 42 years later for his work. He was an original political comic, who had no trouble criticizing power. His views later got his show cancelled and replaced by Hee Haw. Yes Hee Haw. The Smothers Brothers Hour was the jumping off point for writers Steve Martin and Rob Reiner.

I’m going to commend The Emmy’s and urge them to maybe continue to make up for past years of sucking.

Brace Yourself

It's epic. It's dramatic. It's on NBC. Folks, Heroes returns TONIGHT. THIS NIGHT. MERE HOURS FROM NOW.

Grab some adult diapers and prepare yourself for the brief-and-to-the-point Cargirl Heroes Season 3 Preview. Savor it, because all of my other reviews/previews will be novels.



QWICK LINX:
A very professional reminder of characters and their roles.
Season One overview on HeroesWiki (Tl;dr).

Let's begin with a quick overview of season two, shall we?


Season One ended with the final showdown in Kirby Plaza. When we open now, Hiro is in the past chilling out in feudal Japan with Takezo Kensei. Peter has just blown up in Kirby Plaza, and is nowhere to be found, obviously. For some reason Nathan is still alive. This is unpleasant for the viewing audience, but we soon find out he is an alcoholic, making it okay. Matt, the detective, and Mohinder Suresh form a civil union and adopt Molly who, OMFG, has superpowers too! Claire is in California sharing her powers and saliva with a creepy kid named West who can fly, and two Mexicans Hondurans are trying to find Mohinder Suresh because one of them has an evil power. Micah moved to New Orleans while Niki was off trying to kill herself and stuff, and he finds out his cousin has mad skillz at basketball, chicken-eating, and, simply put, being a "copycat" (she can see an action once and repeat it without training and stuff). Meanwhile, Peter is in Ireland BUT OMG WTF I THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD!?

Shut up, I'll get there. By the way, Takezo Kensei is really a dude named Adam with the same powers as Claire. He's fucking evil, and he is British or something. No one knows he's not azn except HIRO NAKAMURA!!!! and The Company.

Peter is alive by the grace of The Company and is running around with Adam trying to expose the world to the Shanti Virus, which will kill all the heroes and everyone else in the whole world. Then, he realizes this is evil and helps The Company capture Adam while saving the Shanti virus from exposure. In the end, a shit ton of heroes die: Adam has now failed, and is subsequently buried alive in an epic win. Nathan holds a press conference and begins to reveal secrets of The Company and his powers, and is subsequently shot in yet another epic win. Sylar had no powers (also as a result of an epic win), but then got a hold of Claire's blood and shot it into his veins. Besides now having AIDS, he is healed and his powers are back.

Have you shat yet?



Season Three will pick up right where Season Two left off. Here's what you can expect tonight:
- Nathan's assassin will be named almost right away, and all across America bricks will be shat.
- We will possibly learn of some of pedophilic wincest that everyone saw coming.
- We will meet a few new heroes, and old heroes will discover new powers.
- Elle will do some pretty dumb shit, but then again what else is new?

This season is going to be epic, and tonight we'll get our first taste of some mighty fine television. Speculate in the comments section, and come back Wednesday for a full review of tonight's show.

Don't forget to buy adult diapers. Cargirl out.