45 Glorious Years Of Redd Kross

'Redd Kross' Is A Love Letter To The History Of LA Outsider Rock Music

Redd Kross never forgot that punk’s roots sprang from the seeds of ‘60s garage rock.

In Hollywood, where garage rock collided with psychedelia during the British Invasion, the scene included everybody from The Standells and The Leaves to The Electric Prunes, The Music Machine and Love. It was a tumultuous proto-punk era, the zeitgeist of which is best encapsulated in the Sunset Strip riots in 1966.

That teen curfew rebellion—centered around the closing of famed club Pandora’s Box—was a cultural flashpoint that inspired seminal songs like Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” and “Riot on the Sunset Strip” by The Standells, title track for the exploitation film of the same name. It also later gave us Domenic Priore’s excellent book Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock'n'Roll's Last Stand in Hollywood.

In the ‘70s, the spirit and music of that era was kept alive by dedicated LA scenesters like Greg Shaw from Bomp! magazine/record label, and club promoter and DJ Rodney Bingenheimer—Hollywood luminaries who played important roles in ushering the City of Angels into the ‘80s punk, power pop and new wave eras.

That’s the landscape onto which Redd Kross emerged in the late ‘70s and they have valiantly waved rock and roll’s tattered outsider flag ever since.

With a core sound that—to my ears—combines early Beach Boys (who also hail from the McDonald brothers’ hometown of Hawthorne, CA), ‘60s garage, ‘70s pop and punk, and the campy earnestness of KISS, Redd Kross arrived as a snotty punk band with Red Cross (1980), Born Innocent (1982), and Teen Babes from Monsanto (1984).

“My experience is so weird because it’s very rare that anybody my age actually saw Led Zeppelin (in 1977),” Steven McDonald told me in an interview for Forbidden Beat: Perspectives on Punk Drumming. He and his older brother Jeff founded Redd Kross and have been the only consistent band members over their colorful 45 year history.

“But in the time that lapsed between when we bought those (Led Zeppelin) tickets and when we went to the show, we discovered the Ramones—so we had already moved on in our tastes. The punk movement had changed the way I listened to music, and it changed my enthusiasm for being a part of music on some level. It was the first time my brother and I felt like we didn’t just admire those musicians, we wanted to take a stab at being those musicians.”

Redd Kross never forgot that rock and roll’s meant to be fun.

Although associated with heady hardcore bands like Black Flag early on, I always thought Redd Kross (originally Red Cross) had more in common with pop-oriented punks like The Last and The Go-Go’s than The Germs and The Gun Club.

With the release of 1987’s Neurotica, Redd Kross emerged as a glorious, shapeshifting garage/glam/psych/power pop butterfly that helped bridged the gap from punk and college rock to alternative. They never shied away from wearing their influences on their sleeves, in turn inspiring disparate bands such as Guns ‘N Roses and Nirvana.

Redd Kross released three excellent albums in the ‘90s—Third Eye (1990), Phaseshifter (1993) and Show World (1997)—before going on hiatus. They made a triumphant return in the new Millennium with Researching the Blues (2012) and Beyond the Door (2019).

Through it all, the band retained its garage punk ethos while adding a Willy Wonka sense of whimsy that much of mainstream rock music somehow lost along the way.

The result is a talented, inventive band that isn’t afraid to enjoy themselves—an approach that is infectious for their faithful, multi-generational fanbase.

Redd Kross released one of their best albums in June 2024.

The self-titled, 18-song collection of new material almost plays like a greatest hits compilation by encompassing elements of all the styles, sounds and modes the band has toyed with over the decades. Incredibly, they achieve this by combining their unique brand of playful, child-like wonder with a more mature musical approach earned through years of experience in the rock and roll trenches.

But the thing that really struck me upon repeated listens was how rooted this album is in the history of LA outsider rock music.

Built on a fuzzy foundation of ‘60s garage and psych, the brothers McDonald (with guitarist Jason Shapiro and drummer/producer Josh Klinghoffer) weave together elements of glam, first-wave punk, power pop, Paisley Undergound and alt rock in a way that only veterans of their caliber possibly could.

Among my favorite tracks are stompers like “Stunt Queen,” “Born Innocent,” “Cancion Enojada,” “Emmanuelle Insane” and “Too Good To Be True.” I’m also a sucker for the hooky guitar pop of “What’s In It For You,” “Simple Magic,” “Stuff” and “Good Time Propaganda Band.” And you definitely can’t go wrong with the psych-tinged genius of “Candy Coloured Catastrophe.”

2024 is the long overdue “Year of Redd Kross”—and I am absolutely thrilled.

In addition to the excellent new album, Andrew Reich released the documentary Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story. And later this year, the McDonald brothers and co-author Dan Epstein will publish the band’s official biography, Now You're One of Us: The Incredible Story of Redd Kross (check out Epstein’s excellent Substack).

To celebrate, Redd Kross has embarked on extensive U.S. and U.K./European tours through the end of the year. I grabbed tickets to see their show at The Lodge Room in LA on August 13.

That club might not be on the Sunset Strip—and the ‘60s were a long time ago—but I’m pretty sure that’s one of the places the band will transport us with this excellent new music.

It’s gonna be a riot.

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The third volume of our semi-annual music journal features some of today's best music writers and the most talented modern musicians:

Carl Cafarelli on Ramones

Jordan Oakes in Conversation with Paul Collins (The Nerves/The Beat)

Rich Tupica on Big Star's Radio City

Mary E. Donnelly in Conversation with Stina Tweeddale (Honeyblood)

Blue Broderick on The Apples in Stereo

Kevin Alexander on The Yellow Melodies

Dan Epstein on Redd Kross

Jim Ruland on The Last

James Harding on New Zealand Guitar Pop

S.W. Lauden on Weezer

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