After helping put on a show with Birdmonster back in March, we’re doing it again as the foursome supports the excellent new album From the Mountain to the Sea.
The show, on Oct. 13, will be at Yucca Tap Room again, which means no cover. I’m excited about tentative plans for local support that I’ll announce soon.
The other night I actually started on a post about Birdmonster that devolved into long-winded rant. My intent was to discuss how good the new Birdmonster record is. Instead, I started tailing off into a pissing match about how blogs so easily turn their back on bands after propping them up (nothing new, I know). The irony here is that From the Mountain to the Sea is so deserving of that original adulation, but the finicky tastemakers have chosen instead to ignore it. Too bad for them.
I liked No Midnight, the band’s first album. But I’ve been helplessly pulled in by From the Mountain, especially with those inviting hand claps on Born To Be Your Man. Oh, how I love hand claps.
Promotional material that came with the record (out on the Fader Label) gets all deep, talking of the band’s “previous abrasive style” and something about a “landscape of honest sincerity.” If that’s a hoity-toity way of saying Birdmonster seamlessly scaled back but fleshed out its sound, then I’m in total agreement. One of my favorites on the album, the opening My Love For You, is a vintage-sounding ballad that sort of catches you off guard, with singer Peter Arcuni’s voice affecting an almost AM-era vibe over what sounds like … a banjo. I’ll have to confirm that.
Check out the band performing Born To Be Your Man outside, at a park, in the glorious embrace of nature’s wind at the Bay Bridged.
Oh, yeah: From the Mountain to the Sea is available digitally now. It will be released in physical form Sept. 2.
Loving these guys too, top sound. Also a big fan of the hand clap – a totally underappreciated instrumental phenomenon!