Radio Birdman

While the Saints earned the greatest fame among late-1970s Australian punk acts, Radio Birdman actually became the first group to hoist the punk banner in that country. Deniz Tek, an émigré from Ann Arbor, Michigan, joined forces with surfer-turned-vocalist Rob Younger in 1974 to launch the band, whose hard-driving sound drew from the Stooges and MC5’s ferocious, end-of-the-world guitar attack and also incorporated East Coast underground hard rock influences borrowed from Blue Öyster Cult. Their debut EP, Burn My Eye, appeared in 1976 and still stands as a landmark slice of Australian punk; its raw, insolent attack, driven by Younger’s full-throated roar and Tek’s scorched-earth guitar work, provided the blueprint for the wave of local punk bands that soon followed.

A year later the group issued its first full-length album, Radios Appear—its title lifted from a Blue Öyster Cult lyric in “Dominance and Submission”—and seemed ready to export Australian punk globally. Sire Records, already home to the Ramones, promptly licensed the record for worldwide release in 1978, yet three years passed before Radio Birdman delivered the follow-up, Living Eyes. By then numerous other Australian punk outfits had eclipsed them, and the band dissolved almost immediately after the album’s appearance. Sire never issued Living Eyes outside Australia, leaving Radio Birdman as a revered but overlooked pioneer rather than the international success many had anticipated.

In the aftermath, the members pursued separate paths: Tek assembled New Race alongside Younger, ex-Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton, and ex-MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson, issued scattered solo singles and EPs, and later trained as a surgeon; Younger formed the New Christs and produced releases by the next generation of Radio Birdman-influenced acts, notably the Celibate Rifles; remaining alumni surfaced in such Australian groups as the Lime Spiders, Hoodoo Gurus, and Screaming Tribesmen. Tek later teamed with Celibate Rifles guitarist Kent Steedman for an occasional project that recaptured the original band’s reckless drive, and he rejoined vocalist Rob Younger in 2001 for Deep Reduction’s second album. Radio Birdman itself resumed sporadic live appearances, beginning with a 1996 slot at Australia’s Big Day Out Festival.

Renewed attention arrived in 2001 with Sub Pop’s Stateside release of the retrospective The Essential Radio Birdman: 1974-1978, which rescued much of the catalog from domestic unavailability. The 2003 archival set Murder City Nights: Live captured a 1976 Sydney performance, and in 2006 Tek, Younger, Chris Masuak, and Pip Hoyle entered the studio with newcomers Jim Dickson on bass and Russell Hopkinson on drums to record Zeno Beach. Extensive Australian dates followed, and the album’s American release finally brought the band to U.S. stages for the first time; two 2007 American shows later surfaced on the 2010 collection Live In Texas. By the time that album emerged, Radio Birdman had again disbanded after Younger chose to concentrate on the New Christs, though the group reconvened for an Australian tour in 2014 that drew fan criticism over Chris Masuak’s absence and served partly to preview a career-spanning box set containing remastered albums, studio rarities, and an unreleased live disc.