Margot And The Nuclear So And So's - "Rot Gut, Domestic"

Margot And The Nuclear So And So's return today with a self-released new album Rot Gut, Domestic, their fourth overall.  Produced by John Congleton (The Walkmen, Modest Mouse), the album follows in the footsteps of 2010's Buzzard with a raw sound centered on crunchy, distorted guitars and fuzzed out bass.  While retaining the depressive wit and off-kilter pop sense, it is still a far cry from the folk-leaning chamber pop of their first two albums. 

The album opens on the ringing guitars and big crashing chords of "Disease Tobacco Free", making a loud statement for the songs to come.  "Books About Trains" follows with a noisy, wall of sound made of up squelching guitars and faint screams and a locomotive rhythm.  The stomping new single, "Shannon" stands out with a fuzzy, bottom end blended with a little 70's glam rock on the chorus and some self-deprecating lyrics we have come to expect from singer/songwriter Richard Edwards.  "Prozac Rock" features a catchy, howling chorus on the sinister first single.  As a change of pace, "A Journalist Falls In Love" is a slow-waltzing country-leaning acoustic song that trades in the haunting folk-pop of their excellent debut.  The piano-led "Frank Left" adds pedal steel, sweeping wire brush drums and some female vocals to the mix.  "Fisher Of Men" brings the album back into focus with a heavy blues-rock stomp and a rousing, sing-along chorus.  "Arvydas Sabonis" is in tribute to the Lithuanian-born NBA basketball player of the same name, all set to a slice of vintage organ-drenched, Nirvana-esque grunge-pop.  Another standout track, "Coonskin Cap" is bouncy, with liquid guitars and a room-filling ambiance.  "Ludlow Junk Hustle" features a super-catchy off-kilter guitar riff and the album's title is taken from the lyrics.  The album closes with the tense, darkness of "The Devil" and the piano and church-bells of the lighter yet mournful "Christ".

With the well-documented label struggles behind him, Edwards was able to write from the heart, (or from the gut), and Rot Gut, Domestic stands as a great album filled with raw emotion that translates to both the lyrics and the music and though the style may have changed, it is still uniquely Margot.            


Download "Shannon" here: http://soundcloud.com/margotcloud/shannon


For more info: http://margotandthenuclearsoandsos.net/