Margot to go Nuclear at Brillobox

Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s

Opening acts: The Lonely Forest, Cameron McGill… Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s

Opening acts: The Lonely Forest, Cameron McGill & What Army

Brillobox

4104 Penn Ave.

Saturday 9:30 p.m.

Tickets: $12 at the door

Only one band can give its songs names like “Let’s Paint Our Teeth Green” and “Lunatic, Lunatic, Lunatic” and seem believable, and that’s Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s.

The eccentric band is touring in support of Buzzard, its third and newest album — or third-and-a-half, depending on how you look at it. A dispute with label Epic Records led to two simultaneous releases in 2008 — Animal! and Not Animal. The new CD features the band’s characteristically surreal, languid lyrics and howling choruses.

Richard Edwards, the band’s vocalist, guitarist and driving creative force, said that he chose the title “Buzzard” because he  “liked the way it sounded, but it also sounded weird. And since the last album was called ‘Animal!’ it sort of worked.”

Edwards and the rest of his bandmates have been to Pittsburgh before and are eager to return.

“They requested to play the venue. They’ve played [at the Brillobox] in the past, and they wanted to have their own event there,” said Brendan Pester of Opus One Productions, the agency that handles Brillobox bookings..

The new songs that fans will hear this Saturday were the product of a bizarre approach to production. Much of Buzzard was recorded in an abandoned movie theater outside Chicago last winter.

Edwards said this method “was a different way to do things. We try to do each record slightly different than we have before and hope that it yields a different result.”

Furthering the eerie atmosphere, the recording sessions took place between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., using only candles as light.

“We were trying to create a different atmosphere to solicit different things from the musicians. The candlelight created a different vibe, a little bit more personal than just studio lights,” Edwards said.

Thankfully, Edwards had written all the band’s new material prior to the dimly-lit recording sessions.

“I write the songs and then bring the other musicians in, and we all work on them together, but the writing is really just me in my apartment,” he said, adding that he draws inspiration from “people I overheard in a bar — anything I can think of that inspires an idea can result in a song.”

Edwards said he hopes the band’s sound will continue to evolve.

“I always hope the songs are better on each album. I don’t know if they are or not, but the energy [in Buzzard] is a lot different from the other albums,” he said. “We had a lot more people involved this time, a lot more live recording.”

In response to the band’s frequent labeling as a chamber-pop group, Edwards said, “I don’t really identify with any of that stuff. It’s just songs to me.”

However, he said the chamber pop classification was inaccurate for the new album, which does not feature strings or horns as previous releases have.

“It’s a lot of electric guitar and some drums,” he said.

Edwards was inspired to name his band after Margot from the Wes Anderson film “The Royal Tenenbaums,” citing the pitch-black suicide sequence as his favorite scene. That could be a startling admission for newcomers to the band, perhaps, but for fans familiar with the groups’ surreal qualities, this shouldn’t come as any surprise.