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Background: I may have read something about the Irish punk band Radiators from Space somewhere in my past. Since I'm an amateur astronomer and space buff you'd think I'd remember the name. The Radiators bleeped my radar at a recent U2 conference at the Rock Hall in Cleveland. Apparently Bono has said the Radiators' 1977 single, Television Screen, inspired the band that became U2. So I bought the Radiators first album TV Tube Heart.
I was blown away. Absolutely freakin' amazing. My first thoughts: How did I miss these guys? How has a band this tight, this good stayed beneath the musical radar of Planet Earth?
Television Screen kicks off the album with guitar feedback that makes you wonder where this is going. You don't have to wait long. Television Screen explodes with a driving rhythm that doesn't slow down. TV Tube mostly has two speeds: Fast and Faster. This is punk for the party. You can't sit down. You gotta dance.
To my ear the Radiators are incredible musicians with a deep Knowledge of rock history. On TV Tube I hear musical echoes of the greats - the Kinks on "Press Gang" and "Not Too Late", the Stones on "Contact", the Who on "Electric Shares" and foreshadowing of REM - just to name a few. But I'm not a musician so I asked a friend who is. And he totally agreed -- and he was also surprised he had not heard of the Radiators. Great musicians who know rock crafting great music.
A few songs seem mixed so tight they sound like mono, small band, small stage, punk night. Others so expansive, so defined, they could fill an arena. The vocals are pure punk; the lyrics, generational angst and attitude.
Punk doesn't get any better than this. I doubt the Radiators ever played CBGB because if they had, we'd all know their music. I have discovered the Radiators. I now have their other albums (Ghostown, Trouble Pilgrim, Sound City Beat) - different but brilliant. Every album is better than the one before. But TV Tube Heart is the one I play really, really loud when I need to clear the cobwebs from my brain.
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AIDAN M WHITE
I hate those envelope sleeves as they aren't easy to find ...
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GREAT UNDER-RATED ALBUM
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 6, 2014
