Band : Radio Dead Ones

Album title : Radio Dead Ones

Label : Bad Dog Records

Distributor : CoreTex Records – Sonic Rendezvous

Release date : 28/03/2008

Release : CD

This Berlin Based StreetPunk band was formed in 2003 by four friends. At first it was all just for fun, but as the live situation began taking the band outside the strict confines of the Berlin area, people were requesting recordings.

So, to release their first 7-inch single Out Of Tune, they founded their own label Guitar Mafia Music. Soon several additional releases would follow: the Holy Ghost 7-inch single (on the Squoodge/ Drunk'n'Roll imprint), split 7-inches with Berlin's Frontkick on GMM) and London's The Loyalties (on Not On Your Radio), the self-titled 12-inch, 6-track EP (on Wanda, released October 2006). Along the way, the guys also enjoyed the flamboyantly incestuous Berlin scene by starting up side-projects. First to side-track were drummer TV Moerk and Frontkick's singer/ guitarist Marti Neurotic (then an active member of RDO), who simply recorded a couple of songs after a RDO session, purely for fun. Thus they created Neurotic-TV, who have only put songs on-line and have yet to release 'em officially.Guitarist/ backing singer Rik Oldman and bassist Andru Bourbon joined their Belgian mates from The Heartaches in Enemy Rose, and stayed long enough to record the split EP with Mercy Killers and a couple of gigs, before deciding against the somewhat long-distance relationship. Oldman is somewhat of a restless heart though, and in September 2006 he started a new band under the monicker of Red Sensation (who, according to what I found on the 'Net, may be releasing an album soon).

Radio Dead Ones are fronted by the extremely hoarse Beverly Crime (a guy, in spite of the curious Christian name) who's frequently well-backed by some of the other guys in the band, the line-up completed by second guitarist Sonny who joined the band in early 2007. The band's music is quite simple Street Punk you may have heard so many times before, and possibly better, from other acts in the past. To the Berliners' defence, I feel I should stress the fact that in the first two weeks of release, the RDO album was the best-sold item in CoreTex' history to date.Think Bonecrusher, The Bones, US Bombs, and of course Frontkick, and you know what to expect: 18 relatively short (max length just under 3 minutes) songs (and a short hidden instrumental with a somewhat lesser sound – like as if it was something they'd put in at the very end – at the end of the album) of somewhat anthemic StreetPunk with high sing-along factor. Gotta admit they got their album a very nice sound though! Check out some of their music (only one track off the current album, but 4 more off previous releases which are equally as representative) at myspace.com/radiodeadones. The guys are currently on a short tour in Spain with additional gigs in France, and will be putting in some dates in the UK early next month, but for the rest their live schedule (see MySpace, or their own website radiodeadones.de which is currently being updated) does not include a lot of shows outside their home country for the time being!

80/100

Tony.