RADIO BIRDMAN "Zeno Beach" Yep Roc

RADIO BIRDMAN"Zeno Beach"Yep Roc

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IT WOULD REALLY be intimidating if guitarist Deniz Tek were a musical innovator. After all, the guy is an emergency-room surgeon, a former fighter pilot whose "Iceman" tag was borrowed for the movie "Top Gun" and a rock legend down under, where his Radio Birdman sparked the Sydney punk scene. As a musician, however, Tek is merely an apostle of the Stooges and the MC5, the bands he followed as a Michigan teenager in the early '70s. On the reunited Radio Birdman's first studio album in more than 25 years, Tek and his five Aussie cohorts -- three of them original members -- barely deviate from the Detroit proto-punk sound.

That turns out to be a fine strategy. "Zeno Beach" is no revelation, but it's a solid album from a band that hasn't lost any verve during its 28-year layoff. (The group has played several reunion tours but hadn't recorded together since 1978.) The title of the opener, "We've Come So Far (To Be Here Today)," suggests a grand statement, and a few songs, notably "Heyday," show goth tendencies. But "Subterfuge" and "Hungry Cannibals" are Stoogey shuffles, with singer Rob Younger sounding as cocky as ever, and even the more intricate songs are driving and direct. The title track closes the album with Ventures guitar and Jan & Dean harmonies, playfully reminding longtime fans that this bicontinental garage band always kept one toe in the surf.

-- Mark Jenkins

Appearing Wednesday at the Black Cat with Easy Action.