The Essential Radio Birdman Is a Must if You Care About Rock

The Essential (1974-1978) Radio Birdman (Sub Pop) Although they only made one LP and a handful of EPs during their all-too-brief lifetime, Birdman's legacy suggests that they were among that elite class of bands who totally understood and upheld the whole notion of rock-as-salvation. This is why almost every song on this compilation is a real cliffhanger: guitars burn like shrapnel, tempos race like nitro-burning hotrods and the sentiment runs along the lines of the "live fast/die fast" ethos. Which is probably why Birdman did just that?imploded prematurely so that they were never really able to reap the glory of their own brilliance. But how many other groups can you say that about? The Real Kids, the Stooges, the original Flamin' Groovies, Minor Threat? In fact, most of the ones who stuck around?see Rock Til You Drop?became moldly oldies or just noodled on forever like the Grateful Dead or Sonic Youth. Radio Birdman was like a meteor on a crash course with a universe far too small to contain it.

This reissue picks up the remains. First thing you notice is how much these guys acted as a conduit between the original Detroit rockers and the later Scandinavian scarab-pluckers like the Hellacopters and Gluecifer. One look at the promo pic that accompanies this album tells the story: vocalist Rob Younger kinda looks like Dennis Thompson, while bass player Warwick Gilbert looks like Fred "Sonic" Smith and guitarist Chris Masuak looks like Ron Asheton. The Detroit preoccupation was no accident?de facto Birdman leader Deniz Tek was born in Ann Arbor, where the seedlings of the revolution were first planted. That's why the anthemic "Do the Pop"?which contains the lyric "saw the Stooges/and the MC5"?has the ring of truth to it, instead of coming off like an empty boast. With the influence of the Motor City trench barons planted firmly in his musical ferment, Tek set out for Sydney, Australia, in 1972?originally to study medicine but ultimately to provoke mayhem in the form of Radio Birdman, which he formed with Rob Younger in mid-'74, about the same time the Ramones were forming in the U.S.

There are even more parallels?Birdman's first album got released on Sire, along with the first two Saints albums, which were also synapse-fryers. This was the age when the ethos of punk was still caught somewhere between the stun-guitar technique of 70s hard rock and the neck-breaking adrenaline of hardcore. That's why, along with the Stooges and MC5, Birdman was equally influenced by Blue Oyster Cult: check out the sinister-sounding "Man with the Golden Helmet" with its flesh-flaying guitars, rolling organ and cryptic lyrics, all rendered at your mid-70s mid-tempo pace. The BOC influence was so profound that Birdman even named its one and only U.S. album, Radios Appear, after a lyric taken from BOC's epic "Dominance and Submission" (the name Radio Birdman itself was taken from the Stooges' "1970").

More often than not, however, Birdman was looking to the Motor City for its influence. Perhaps their signature anthem is "New Race," with its dramatic intro, drag-strip tempo and incendiary lyrics about how "the kids are gonna mutate." Similarly, "Murder City Nights" is a classic road-worthy rock anthem with a well-greased Chuck Berry riff and lyrics about "lookin' in the mirror for the highway patrol." Once again, Birdman's influence on future musical generations is unmistakable: not only does this song sound like a probable prototype for the Hellacopters, but it's obviously where the Murder City Devils got their name. And the way Younger dragged himself around onstage with his mung-like mane of blonde hair falling in his eyes predated the similar antics of grunge gods like Mark Arm and Kurt Cobain. Given all that, you really have no excuse not to own this album if you care anything at all about rock's trajectory over, say, the past 25 years.