Ha, you're not getting away that easily, Birdmonster. Inextricably shackled to the 2006 chain gang of heart-on-sleeve blog bands, the San Franciscan quartet throws on a pair of Groucho Marx glasses and makes a run for it, and who can blame them? They've seen their RIYL buds either shunned or put to sleep by indie audiences existing outside of comment sections and blog aggregators, and the only thing seemingly protecting these guys from a similar fate is their inferior exposure. Their escape plan? Trade in those jingle-jangle guitars for some rugged acoustics, essentially a last-ditch shtick-switch hoping to feed off of Feist, Sufjan Stevens, and a hankerin' for Americana that only an election year can bring.
Released digitally by Fader a month before it hit stores, From the Mountain to the Sea is so slick and inoffensive you'd think Lou Pearlman was managing these guys. 2006 debut No Midnight didn't exactly push the envelope musically, but its athletic 1990s rock sounds down right terrifying when compared to Sea's coffeehouse whimper. Frontman Peter Arcuni finally sounds as cute and cuddly as his press photos, and the band does its best not to overpower his whisper. They don't even deign to slap any indie signifiers on their Muzak this time, not a Springsteen chorus nor a droning Pixies riff.
Lost in this monstrous buzz kill are a few decent Ted Leo rips, led by the spunky "New Country" and "Greenland Sound". Even on these tracks, though, the occasional tacky hook or flourish recalls Toad the Wet Sprocket, the Goo Goo Dolls, and other 90s "alt" bands with names (and songs) too painful to remember. On the other hand, these areas on Sea prove far more interesting than Arcuni's conflict-free tales of happily requited love and obstacles overcome. Single "Born to Be Your Man" and folksy opener "My Love For You" are sure to kill teenage girls with their romantic testifying, and uplifters like "I Might Have Guessed" suggest that Arcuni, when armed with his trusty acoustic/mandolin backing, can solve anything from the Wall Street crisis to a stubbed toe.
Unlike their last effort, there's not even a fully fleshed-out song here to suggest Birdmonster is destined for more than teen drama soundtracks, which may be fine since they don't sound interested in indie rock anymore anyway. That's not intended as a put down, either. Birdmonster never pretended to shy from mass appeal in the first place, and looking back, it's likely their grassroots 2.0 origins erroneously linked them with concurrent blog bands. Either way, their days of opening for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah appear long over.
