Aloha Real Kids

Helping ensure that my work day passes quickly are two cds of pre-punk fun: Radio Birdman's The Essential (1974-1978) [Sub Pop SPCD 553] and The Real Kids self-titled debut [Norton Records CED-222].

To be perfectly honest, I probably wouldn't have liked the bands the first time around. What was I listening to at the time? Mostly Euro-Art Rock of the Rock In Opposition variety and was just getting into The Clash, Sex Pistols and the Buzzcocks. So on the one hand, over-reaching poker-faced progressive rock (I'm talking to you Henry Cow) and on the other, the art school shocks of the first generation British bands. Groups like Radio Birdman and The Real Kids would have struck me as too traditional sounding. Ack, what did I know, I was young. But as the years went on, The Stooges and the Velvet Underground climbed ever higher in my estimation, and their children along with them.

The main hook for the Radio Birdman cd is their song "Aloha Steve & Danno", an irony-free hommage to Hawaii Five-O. But the other twenty-one tracks are winners as well: think the MC5 meets The Doors minus Jim Morrison's college-boy-Carlos Castanedaisms. Never forget that they were named for a Stooges' mondegreen: Iggy was actually singing radio burnin'.

Here is Radio Birdman's video for "Aloha, Steve & Danno":



The Real Kids album was originally released on Marty Thau's Red Star Records back in 1977. Thirty years later the 'Kids' stripped down catchy-as-hell garage rock ("All Kindsa Girls", "Reggae Reggae") still sounds amazing. To think that I believed that the Flamin' Groovies were the only band keeping the traditional flame alive.

The following video is the band performing "All Kindsa Girls" at CBGB's in 2004. The Real Kids still have what it takes.