Thursday, July 6, 2017

Yeah Hup



Radio Birdman : New Race


Next to The Saints, Sydney's Radio Birdman were the loudest and hardest rocking punk band in Australia. One of the founders of the band, Deniz Tek,  is actually a Michigan native who grew up hearing the Motor City's maddest bands like The Stooges and MC 5. 



Birdman's debut album, Radios Appear,  named for a Blue Oyster Cult lyric, opens with a Stooges cover. Like their EP Burn My Eye, the album doesn't let up, even when acoustic guitars come into the fray as on "Love Kills".


The first single was "New Race". It was hoped that the teen anthem lyrics would catch on. Lines like 

There's gonna be a new race 
Kids are gonna start it up 
We're all gonna mutate 
Kids are saying yeah hup 


Unfortunately some critics thought the song smelled a bit like a fascist anthem. Nevertheless, the Australian version of Rolling Stone gave the album its highest rating and The Ramones label, Sire. soon came calling.


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