Ensemble brings indie bands up an octave

Forget the typical rock trio. Forget the basic guitar, keyboard
and drums set-up. With operatic vocal-lines and a chorus made up of
“meows,” eight members including a cellist, a trumpet
player, and two percussionists, Margot & the Nuclear So and
So’s are bending the rules of folk-rock.

The band, who will play at The Troubadour tonight, began its
deviation from the norm at the onset of its formation. The two
founding members met in one of the more unlikely locations
imaginable: a pet store. Each looking for a furry friend to keep
him company, Richard Edwards and Andy Fry both wandered into the
store one fateful afternoon and ended up finding the companionship
they needed in one another. Soon afterward, they had gathered
together six of their friends from other bands, piled into a
three-bedroom house in Indianapolis, and there formed Margot &
the Nuclear So and So’s.

“We just wanted to have a lot of people record with us on
the record. We didn’t actually think we’d be touring
with this many people,” Edwards said.

The result, though, couldn’t have turned out better. Their
first album, “The Dust of Retreat,” is what Edwards
refers to as “Charlie Brown music”: a playful,
full-bodied approach to indie folk-rock with pop-centered themes
that is both insightful and entertaining.

“Pretty much everyone is a pop band or a rock band,”
Edwards said. “We’re a pop band. I’ve never
thought of it as an embarrassing term.”

In contrast to some of the more experimental groups in the indie
scene, Margot aims to achieve a straightforward, catchy sound.

“I don’t think (indie music has) songs anymore.
It’s not like Pavement was. Pavement still had really great
songs. They had good melodies,” Edwards said. “There
are some indie rock bands that I like or understand. But I
don’t get the esoteric meandering. I like straight songs and
I think there’s very little of that in what’s heralded
as indie rock.”

What separates the band’s music from others, though, is
its cohesiveness. The album is like a lot of solo albums in its
unification, as if there were just one or two people and the magic
of a studio responsible for the music. Yet because there are eight
people behind it, all of whom display an expertise with their
instruments, the resulting sound is lush, skillful and
fully-developed.

While Edwards wasn’t planning on bringing seven other
musicians on tour, he knew he wanted this big sound and a variety
of instruments for the album.

“It had to do with finding a balance between making the
song a little more interesting or ruining the really raw inert
quality of it, like just a man with his guitar,” Edwards
said.

That stripped-down sound, characteristic of artists such as Bob
Dylan and Paul Simon, whom Edwards cites as key influences, sneaks
into even the more produced songs.

But along with the bare emotion, there is a good amount of
tongue-in-cheek humor sprinkled throughout the music. It is a
similar tone to that which runs through the Wes Anderson films of
which the band members are fans. Edwards, a former film student at
Indiana University, cites “The Royal Tenenbaums” as one
of his favorite movies, and referenced Gwyneth Paltrow’s
character, Margot, as inspiration for band’s name.

That quirkiness is inherent in the band members, who spend their
free time drinking wine, smoking, reading, and watching films
together as they make their way from city to city, creating bonds
which project directly onto the stage.

“Touring with seven other people is, you know, a lot of
people,” Edwards said. “But it’s fun and makes
for a fun live show.”

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