Birdmonster is not your typical quartet. They will not stand still and stare at their feet. They will not whine about their girl troubles. They will not devolve into aimless instrumentals or rehash tired '80s fads. Birdmonster plays rock and roll. And they play it with enough energy and reckless abandon that when you find them after the show, they usually smell like barnyard animals and can barely breathe. Someone is probably bleeding. And everyone is very happy. Although they didn’t know it, Birdmonster started to sprout wings in the early ‘90s as guitarist David Klein and bassist Justin Tenuto spent their youth in suburban San Diego together playing bad instrumental metal in their parent's living rooms. “Those tapes have been destroyed,” quips Klein. Birdmonster began to rear its odd, little head even more when the two moved up to Santa Barbara for college. Here they met drummer Zach Winter, moved in together, and began making clamorous instrumental rock and roll in a garage in the student ghetto of Isla Vista. Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, singer/guitarist Peter Arcuni was making jangly country music, recording it all on a broken 4-track. Arcuni, like so many before him, was drawn to the romanticism of the West and headed to San Francisco. Somehow, all four ended up living in a three-block radius. Birdmonster has created their own unique brand of rock and roll by appropriating each other’s diverse influences, from Arcuni’s love of Springsteen and Tenuto’s fascination with Fugazi to Winter’s grunge beginnings and Klein’s Black Sabbath past. This amalgamation of sounds has forged an unconventional style, one that incorporates equal parts punk, country and good old-fashioned rock and roll. While they may not be showy players, their shows are quite a spectacle. They use banjos and melodicas, play bass with tambourines, and break cymbals onstage. And to call a Birdmonster show infectious would be a gross understatement: the fun they're having on stage and their ear-to-ear grins enrapture the audience, who can't help but get caught up in the band’s obvious love of playing. This infectiousness is only rivaled by their unbridled energy and intensity. Because, you see, Birdmonster plays every show like it’s their last, as if their lives depend on it. Word has quickly spread about the band’s phenomenal performances, which has led to a tour with Art Brut and shows with an impressive list of musicians such as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, The National, Tapes ‘n’ Tapes. In December 2005, Birdmonster grabbed top honors at a battle of the bands held by Bay Area rock station Live 105. Suddenly, this band that was accustomed to playing to 250 or 300 people in clubs was thrust into the spotlight opening for The White Stripes, Death Cab for Cutie and Coheed and Cambria in front of thousands at the station’s annual “Not So Silent Night.” However, keeping with their humble nature, the guys turned down drinks with Ben Gibbard and co. so they could go play their scheduled show at a small club in San Francisco later that night. “It would have been great to get drunk with Death Cab, but not playing the Hotel Utah show was never an option,” underscores Klein. This high profile slot came partly on the strength of their self-released eponymous EP. These three songs were just a hint at what the band was capable of. Opener “Resurrection Song” captured the band’s unleashed urgency while “Janine” and “All The Holes in the Walls” demonstrated the band’s rowdy charm. In early 2006, the Birdmonsters holed themselves up in a Los Angeles studio - far from the familiar city streets of San Francisco - to make a proper full-length. Together, with producer/mixer Brad Cook (Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age), the foursome banged out, fleshed out and poured out 13 songs for their debut long player, No Midnight. Since the band was pressed for time and money (the basic tracks were laid down in three days), the band’s approach was to come up with something that mirrored their live show. “We wanted to have every note single note, everything that was played, have as much heart as possible,” Arcuni explains. “We’d rather it sound interesting and live than polished and perfect.” It’s an album filled with twists and turns both from song to song but also within the songs themselves. At the core of all the band’s crazy time changes is a wealth of good ol’ fashioned song writing, both lyrically and thematically. “It’s a bit of a reflection of where we are as people,” says Arcuni of the subject matter. Regarding the band’s songwriting approach he says: “One component of the band is that it is all rooted in a song-writing background. It may be all this crazy music coming together but it’s all coming from a very real place. The innovation is rooted in classic songwriting where I try to paint a picture or set a scene. However, if you set up a scene then the music should go the same place. I’m just trying to tell a story with words and music in an interesting way.” So now after self-financing their album (from the production to the packaging) and getting a new van (the Birdvan had to be put to pasture), Birdmonster is ready to take their stories across the country. They will play anywhere, everywhere and to anyone who will just take a few minutes to listen. It’s this attitude that has gotten them to where they are. And if it’s any indicator of the future, one that will carry them much further.