well, after years of half heartedly wondering what david yow, ex-jesus lizard and scratch acid, was up to my search has come to an end. apparently, he’s fronting a newish los angeles based trio called qui. they arent exactly newish, i suppose, seeing as they have been around since 2000 but qui is newish to david yow. i would be lying if i said qui didnt bear a decent resemblance to jesus lizard, but i guess with mr yow at the helm its kinda hard to fit him into a different mold. this is not a bad thing by any means, im just sayin. they dont have any tunes posted anywhere, that i could find, outside of their myspace page. they have a record coming out sometime soon according to their myspace page.
if you are unfamiliar with the jesus lizard here is at least in my mind the quintessential jesus lizard song.
in other news from around the blogosphere, fellow antlantians rich and frank of that truncheon thing have a very cool springsteen boot up for your downloading/listening pleasure. you can find it by clicking right here
im going to be honest, i know nothing about radio birdman outside of this show from cats cradle on 6.29.07. a dear reader requested it so therefore i had to comply. for those familiar with australia’s radio birdman which record should i start with if i were to get into their catalogue?
1. opening
3. I 94
4. hot rails to hell blue oyster cult
9. remorseless
10. heyday
11. hand of law
12. descent into the maelstrom
15. what gives
17. crowd noise
18. unknown
21. locked up
22. new race
have i ever mentioned how much i love morgan webb? as far as i am concerned she’s every dork’s dream. she’s hot, she loves music, plays video games, has a tv show about video games, loves gadgets, and shes hot. check her out if you have no idea who i am speaking of.
Start at the start with Radios Appear (The Black Album / The Australian Version), then move on to the White / Overseas version. However there are some compilations around which provide the overview option. No matter where you start enjoy the descent into the maelstrom!
cool, thanks simon! after listening to this show a bunch of times i can see i was missing out.
Once you have heard Radio Birdman’s incomparable first release you are likely to want to track down everything associated with these ragged motherfuckers. You will not be disappointed - All Alone in the Endzone being a prime example. And that is one murderous cover of Hot Rails to Hell. Ya!
thanks beer n hockey! i just ordered the essential radio birdman. i figured i would give that a whirl before jumping into a full length.
Thank you for all your excellent posts…it feels like it’s 72 degrees in my head…all the time!
I’m looking forward to seeing the last night of the tour in Denver, this Saturday. They will either be amazing, ’cause they never play bad when we are in the audience; or death warmed over. Saw ‘em in Australia a few years ago. After just seven shows, they were so wiped out, they played the best gig of the tour. The two shows I saw last year were great. Amazing to see all those aging tatooed SF punks just lose their shit. It’s been a while since I lived in Cali, so I missed a whole generation.
You should also be aware, there are two different versions of Living Eye as well. The original Australian release is the 1978 mix they “stole” from Rockfield when the Sire money didn’t come through. The current cds are the modern mix, which is much better. There are bootleg lps which are sourced from the original cd release, hence the original mix. I scored a copy of the Australian original while in Sydney. Funny, only saw one copy the whole trip.
Roy Loney, from the Flamin’ Groovies, sat in with the Birdmen in SF for the cover of Til The End Of The Day. Someone told me Deniz plays on a new Roy Loney And The Longshots record that is coming out soon. He produced too. Might be good, eh?
correct titles
10. If You Say Please
12. Circles (Instant Party) Who cover
18 Heyday
great show…
Greggy - Yes, Radio’s Appear and then the Living Eye are my favourites. Zeno Beach is also very very good.
Picked up Living Eye at the Philly show last year and now am the proud owner of a Radios Appear T-shirt. It is always the coolest thing to ever wear to a rock show.
And, just because I know you don’t like You Am I, touring as the drummer (at least in 2006) for Birdman was none other than Rusty Hopkinson. Fan-funking-tastic drummer.
See yah - T
Birdman Trivia:
http://www.weeklydig.com/music/articles/radio_birdman/
Radio Birdman
Elder Aussies battle Berlin for “that *Top Gun* band” title
- by Chris Haire
- Issue 8.36
- Wed, September 06, 2006
American expat. Guitar-shredding godfather of Australian garage rock.
Quick-minded, brow-furrowing ER doctor. High-flying, Mach 5-pushing pilot. Deniz Tek, the principal songwriter and de facto leader of only-in-Oz rock legends Radio Birdman, has assumed many roles. But here in the States, where the legendary paramilitary proto-punkers are all but unknown, the most famous role associated with Tek may be Val Kilmer’s from *Top Gun*. You know, Iceman? Kind of a dick?
Well, that’s Tek. Not the kind-of-a-dick part, but Kilmer’s
cool-as-a-Copley-bench-in-February fighter pilot was inspired by the Radio Birdman guitaristor at least that’s how the story goes. And there may be a grain of truth to it.
After Radio Birdman broke up in 1978 and Tek had finished med school, he moved back to the States and joined the Marines. He was trained as a pilot and then sent to the Kane’ohe Marine Base in O’ahu, where he would be based. Then Hollywood showed up.
“What happened was the production that was doing research for that movie came to our squadron. They spent two weeks at Kane’ohe just hanging around and observing and taking notes of what we did,” Tek says. “My call sign was Iceman.”
Yo - If you at end up liking Birdman as much as us diehards who are posting comments, you NEED to check out Rob Younger’s other band The New Christs.
i am currently suffering from radio birdman overload. thanks for all the information guys and tualla! i am not going to listen to anything else until that comp hits my door and then i will further my investigation.
Radio Birdman’s show in Atlanta was awe-inspiring. Deniz Tek said that the EARL is a great club and that we’re lucky to have it. Rob Younger kinda resembles the Crypt Keeper these days, but he and Tek are both cooler than cool. Another great Birdman-related project is Deniz Tek’s album with Scott Morgan and Wayne Kramer, “Dodge Main”. Thanks for posting these, Greg!
Here are a three more Deniz Tek items and the Roy Loney I heard about http://www.CareerRecords.com
You have great taste!
Heap more info here:
http://www.i94bar.com
http://zenobeach.shorturl.com (band approved fan site)
http://www.radio-birdman.com (official site)
http://myspace.com/theofficialradiobirdman (official myspace)
http://www.radiobirdman.com (band approved fan site)
Thanks for the hollah, and keep up the great work!
Saw Radio Birdman last night in Kansas City, and they rocked. I have their “official” releases. Any links to any bootleg stuff?