Artist: Radio Birdman Genre(s):
Rock
Indie
Discography:
Zeno Beach Year: 2006
Tracks: 13
Living Eyes Year: 2006
Tracks: 14
Ritualism Year: 2001
Tracks: 12
Essential Radio Birdman 1974-78 Year:
Tracks: 22
Although the best-known dance orchestra of the early Australian goon scene of the late '70s was the Saints, the low gear dance orchestra to wave the punk rock'n'roll masthead in the res publica downward under was Radio Birdman. Formed by Australian émigré Deniz Tek (originally from Ann Arbor, MI) and Aussie surfer-turned-vocalist Rob Younger in 1974, Radio Birdman's glide slope to rock & roll was rooted in the high-energy, apocalyptic guitar rant of the Stooges and MC5, sprinkled liberally with a little East Coast resistance difficult rock-and-roll courtesy of Blue Öyster Cult. Their number one EP,
Burn My Eye, released in 1976, was a great record and still clay a seminal chunk of Aussie tinder. Loud and snot-nosed, with Younger bellowing his backbone out and Tek on a search-and-destroy commission with his guitar, this was a majuscule debut that dress the degree for the imminent cloudburst of Aussie tinder bands wait in the wings.
After the release of their debut LP,
Radios Appear (the title comes from a lyric in the Blue Öyster Cult vocal "Laterality and Submission"), in Australia a year subsequently, Radio Birdman seemed poised to interrupt Aussie tinder worldwide. And although the American judge Sire (and then the home of the Ramones) was speedy to sign of the zodiac them and distribute
Radios Appear internationally in 1978, there was a gap of three years in front they released a second album,
Living Eyes. During that time, gobs of other Aussie tinder bands stole their thunder, and Radio Birdman split up about immediately after
Living Eyes was released. Sire ne'er released the record outside of Australia, and Radio Birdman, wHO should get been the biggest band in Aussie tinder, was nowadays a highly regarded punk father.
After the ring split in 1978, diverse members were busy forming early bands: Tek formed the New Race with Younger, ex-Stooges guitar player Ron Asheton, and ex-MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson, released a smattering of solo singles and EPs, and became a sawbones; Younger started his possess band, the New Christs, and produced records by the second generation of Aussie tinder bands influenced by Radio Birdman, to the highest degree notably the Celibate Rifles; other Radio Birdman alumni terminated up in mixed Aussie bands such as the Lime Spiders, Hoodoo Gurus, and Screaming Tribesmen. Now the grand erstwhile man of Aussie tinder, Tek formed a part-time project with Celibate Rifles guitar player Kent Steedman that rocks with the same foolhardy abandon Radio Birdman did when they were ever-changing the course of Australian stone everlastingly.
2001 saw a renewal of interest group in Radio Birdman thanks to an excellent compilation,
The Essential Radio Birdman: 1974-1978, released by Sub Pop in the States.
Dispatch City Nights: Live arrived in 2003, followed by the all-new
Zeno of Elea Beach in 2006.
