Radio Birdman
Radios Appear
Although a version of Radios Appear was released DIY style in 1977--yes, that predates the existence of Dischord Records--the 1978 release of the album contained a changed ordering of tracks as well as multiple new songs. It's this version that made it out of Australia, and while the impact may have been less noticeable than other notable rock imports at the time, Radios Appear stands as a frightening tower of music that earns both its legendary local acclaim, as well as a lasting presence as one of the most formative albums of the Australian music scene. Radio Birdman didn't just inspire bands to form, it inspired a new form of touring and sales, carving a path throughout the country that served as a model for those who followed them. That, in itself, doesn't make it great. The music does that on its own.
Mixing standard power guitars with organs and pianos, all under the strange lyrics of vocallist Rob Younger, who throws a bizarre song about Rembrandt alongside a silly call-and-response to Hawaii 5-0, all couched with flashes of a crushing death-metal groove that Greg Ginn would get credit for in the mid-80's, Radios Appear earns the right for the band to make the contentious claim that whatever they were doing, it wasn't punk fucking rock. (They apparently preferred the term "Subpop".) What's most exciting about Radio Birdman, for our money, is crystallized in the final minute and a half of the tremendous "Non-Stop Girls", where the tempo reaches a sort of deep-breath, final-push and the band splits the song's power chords wide open to allow the sort of fret-melting solo that would find another 1978 home in the hands of Eddie Van Halen. While the 1980's became a decade where a thousand and one hair bands hung their entire careers on the power of a Guitar Hero Expert track, Radio Birdman used it for 30 seconds just to back up a song of complete ferocity that may or may not be about a guy who can't find his way back to the raw machismo that kept him alive. Where other bands saw the range of sound they could produce hemmed in by genre, Radio Birdman matched up alt-weird lyrics, punked out vocals, and the kind of lead guitar work that makes Yngie Malmsteem wet his spandex. Its no wonder they left spring-up bands behind on the way out of every city they performed in. It's just too bad few of them realized that the Birdmen weren't just about banging out tracks--these guys had a healthy dose of healthy ambition to match.
-Tucker Stone, 2009
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