Radio Birdman-Zeno Beach

Rocknroll

Staff member
Administrator
Messages
6,174
View attachment 1316

Forget the old Eagles reunion joke: Hell has now truly frozen over. Radio Birdman -- the Aussie-American blitz-rock band that introduced punk to the South Pacific in the mid-Seventies, turned Sydney into Detroit Rock City with palm trees, then broke up in 1978 after hitting a brick wall of indifference overseas -- have made their first studio album in three decades and open their first American tour on August 30th. On top of those miracles, Zeno Beach -- which stars four of the six original Birdmen, including singer Rob Younger and Michigan-born guitarist Deniz Tek -- is as fast and fierce as the few, hugely influential records the band made in its first lifetime. Even then, Radio Birdman never played punk rock as Warped Tour bands now define it, instead creating a then-unprecedented attack music from surf music, Nuggets-style garage, the primal assault of the Stooges and the twin-guitar terror of Blue Oyster Cult. It is still a rare blend of gunpowders, and the rejuvenated Birdman pack fistfuls into "You Just Make It Worse," "Locked Up" and especially the opening resurrection bulletin, "We've Come So Far (to Be Here Today)." Few bands of any vintage can say that with a straight face. Radio Birdman play it like they never stopped.

by DAVID FRICKE(Rollingstone)
 
Top