radio birdman, last of the bad men
this yr, it seems like 30-yrs-on reunions of punk-era icons have supplanted katrina benefits as the genre o' the moment, and i'm having mixed feelings about that. the new alb by the new york dolls is fine for what it is (namely david 'n' syl gettin' together to reprise their classic selves) but the missing guys' absence is muy conspicuous (and not just 'cos of the new york doll arthur kane doco). for different reasons, i dunno if i really wanna hear a new stooges alb (i can live without hearing the asheton boyzzz backing iggy's post-bowie opera voice).
and then there's radio birdman, the band that pert near singlehandedly (yeah, yeah, i know -- the saints) started punk in the antipodes around the time the wheels were coming off the stooges and the ramones were taking their first toddling steps as a band. birdman has been regrouping periodically since '96 for the aussie festival season, and principals deniz tek and rob younger even joined forces a few yrs back for the second deep reduction album, but zeno beach is their first bona fide studio alb as a band since they folded the tent back in '78 before they could even release their second alb living eyes (which didn't see release in orstralia until '81). on that rekkid, tek kinda established the style as a writer that's sustained him through the next two decades of music-making (with some time off for a stint as a u.s. navy flight surgeon) that included incarnations with the visitors, the deniz tek group, deep reduction, the three assassins, scott morgan's powertrane, and the golden breed. for his part, younger's fronted various lineups of the new christs and produced recs for loads of other acts.
what's different this time around is that dr. tek has ceded some of his compositional hegemony (which wound up being a bone o' contention the first time around) to his bandmates, with mixed results. it's impossible to listen to this alb without being reminded in places of the deniz tek group, the new christs, and old-school birdman. the opening "we've come so far (to be here today") sounds like an outtake from the dtg's classic outside alb, while "if you say please" wouldn't have been out of place amid the rawkin' experimentalismo of the solo band's le bonne route. the mysterioso sunset boulevard saga "heyday" woulda fit right in on the new christs' slow-burn masterwork distemper (surely one of the most emotionally intense rawk albs of all time), while "subterfuge" rocks along in its loping way like something off the nc's lower yourself. for my money, the best moment here is "locked up," with its stoogey riff and distorto tek solo that kinda defines the curious expression "face-melting." most valuable players: the new engine room of longtime tek collaborator jim dickson on bass 'n' you am i drummer russell hopkinson.
this is dark stuff, thematically. take song titles like "found dead" and "die like april" (with nasal everyaussie lead voxxx by second gtrist chris masuak that make it sound like it was the hoodoo gurus or something; thisun woulda benefitted from some of "last angry man" younger's vitriol 'n' bile imo); add lines like "this is how it feels with seconds to go...everything screams it's over...let go, baby" (from "heyday") and "death is just a drumbeat away" (from "hungry cannibals," a slice of garage grunt with "she's about a mover" farfisa organ from keyb man pip "dr. gonzo" hoyle) and one could say, as "c. and d." recently did about boris in arthur, "this one's a real death-affirmer."
pip hoyle even gets a coupla writing credits here, for the alb's least-snazz moment besides "die like april," "the brotherhood of al wazah" -- really just a vehicle for dr. gonzo to extemporize at length on the ivories in the manner of "man with golden helmet" on birdman's epochal debut radios appear, with lyrics about an insidious, mafia (or is it al qaeda?)-like secret society -- and the title track, which evokes the cali surf mythos in the same way as birdman classics like "more fun" and "do the movin' change." as "zeno beach" fades out with its "woo-woo" backing voxxx, you can imagine the birdmen riding the wild surf into the mists of history.
being the perpetural overachiever he is, tek's also a member of the last of the badmen, a sort of skate-punk supergroup with the godoy brothers art and steve (ex-exploding fuck dolls and tek's golden breed, legendary skaters 'n' tatt artists who, wouldn't ya know it, went to l.d. bell high school in euless, tx, for a semester back in '83), vocalist danny creadon from cleveland's curb slappys and bassist troy zak from canada's daggers. it's retro, hard-edged stuff, a lot more redolent of '77 england than anything i'd have associated with dr. tek, which probably just goes to show the limits of my imagination.
(thanx 'n' a tip o' the hat to dan l. lightner, the last of the old-school recordmen, for the birdman cd.)
and then there's radio birdman, the band that pert near singlehandedly (yeah, yeah, i know -- the saints) started punk in the antipodes around the time the wheels were coming off the stooges and the ramones were taking their first toddling steps as a band. birdman has been regrouping periodically since '96 for the aussie festival season, and principals deniz tek and rob younger even joined forces a few yrs back for the second deep reduction album, but zeno beach is their first bona fide studio alb as a band since they folded the tent back in '78 before they could even release their second alb living eyes (which didn't see release in orstralia until '81). on that rekkid, tek kinda established the style as a writer that's sustained him through the next two decades of music-making (with some time off for a stint as a u.s. navy flight surgeon) that included incarnations with the visitors, the deniz tek group, deep reduction, the three assassins, scott morgan's powertrane, and the golden breed. for his part, younger's fronted various lineups of the new christs and produced recs for loads of other acts.
what's different this time around is that dr. tek has ceded some of his compositional hegemony (which wound up being a bone o' contention the first time around) to his bandmates, with mixed results. it's impossible to listen to this alb without being reminded in places of the deniz tek group, the new christs, and old-school birdman. the opening "we've come so far (to be here today") sounds like an outtake from the dtg's classic outside alb, while "if you say please" wouldn't have been out of place amid the rawkin' experimentalismo of the solo band's le bonne route. the mysterioso sunset boulevard saga "heyday" woulda fit right in on the new christs' slow-burn masterwork distemper (surely one of the most emotionally intense rawk albs of all time), while "subterfuge" rocks along in its loping way like something off the nc's lower yourself. for my money, the best moment here is "locked up," with its stoogey riff and distorto tek solo that kinda defines the curious expression "face-melting." most valuable players: the new engine room of longtime tek collaborator jim dickson on bass 'n' you am i drummer russell hopkinson.
this is dark stuff, thematically. take song titles like "found dead" and "die like april" (with nasal everyaussie lead voxxx by second gtrist chris masuak that make it sound like it was the hoodoo gurus or something; thisun woulda benefitted from some of "last angry man" younger's vitriol 'n' bile imo); add lines like "this is how it feels with seconds to go...everything screams it's over...let go, baby" (from "heyday") and "death is just a drumbeat away" (from "hungry cannibals," a slice of garage grunt with "she's about a mover" farfisa organ from keyb man pip "dr. gonzo" hoyle) and one could say, as "c. and d." recently did about boris in arthur, "this one's a real death-affirmer."
pip hoyle even gets a coupla writing credits here, for the alb's least-snazz moment besides "die like april," "the brotherhood of al wazah" -- really just a vehicle for dr. gonzo to extemporize at length on the ivories in the manner of "man with golden helmet" on birdman's epochal debut radios appear, with lyrics about an insidious, mafia (or is it al qaeda?)-like secret society -- and the title track, which evokes the cali surf mythos in the same way as birdman classics like "more fun" and "do the movin' change." as "zeno beach" fades out with its "woo-woo" backing voxxx, you can imagine the birdmen riding the wild surf into the mists of history.
being the perpetural overachiever he is, tek's also a member of the last of the badmen, a sort of skate-punk supergroup with the godoy brothers art and steve (ex-exploding fuck dolls and tek's golden breed, legendary skaters 'n' tatt artists who, wouldn't ya know it, went to l.d. bell high school in euless, tx, for a semester back in '83), vocalist danny creadon from cleveland's curb slappys and bassist troy zak from canada's daggers. it's retro, hard-edged stuff, a lot more redolent of '77 england than anything i'd have associated with dr. tek, which probably just goes to show the limits of my imagination.
(thanx 'n' a tip o' the hat to dan l. lightner, the last of the old-school recordmen, for the birdman cd.)
posted by stashdauber at 2:53 PM
1 Comments:
That's not Masuak on Die Like April, it's Younger.
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