Courtesy
of The REDD
KROSS web page
Few
bands just out of their teens command respect from the US underground indie
scene, but Redd Kross managed to overcome an appallingly wacky choice of
name to influence the likes of Sonic Youth and Faith No More. The band's
good-natured enthusiasm and ear for a top tune has ensured that this respect
has been maintained, although the band's consistency level has been dangerously
threatened at times by a failure to keep their lead guitarists on a leash.
Early
Redd Kross material was often hilarious, ranging from songs about Linda
Blair in The Exorcist to the self-explanatory "Notes & Chords Mean
Nothing To Me". 'I wanna break my guitar . . . it won't get me nowhere!'
yelped the teenage Jeffrey McDonald, supported by his
even
younger brother Steven (bass/vocals) and a cast of whoever their mates
at school were at the time. Two-chord, sixty-second bursts of pre-pubescent
tantrums made up the debut Redd Kross album, Born Innocent (1981), which
was cute and chaotic, and helped to establish their underground credibility
- the band always saw themselves as a kind of punk Partridge Family.
The
band paid tribute to their influences with typical youthful gusto on the
Teen Babes From Monsanto mini-album, released on Reckless in 1984, giving
the full Redd Kross garage treatment to, among others, David Bowie ("Saviour
Machine"), The Stooges ("Ann") and The Rolling Stones ("Citadel"), with
a re-recording of "Linda Blair" thrown in for good measure. Surprisingly,
for a band so keen on The Beatles, no Beatles material was attempted, although
Redd Kross have been
known
to play live sets consisting entirely of Beatles covers.
Following
one more indie album, Neurotica (1987), which veered wildly between the
inspired and the overly cheesy, the band's crossover potential was spotted
by Atlantic, who put out Third Eye in 1990. The timing of the release was
unfortunate, however. The rough edges had been smoothed away, and Redd
Kross now sounded far too pop to appeal to the hardcore 'alternative' underground,
and yet fell uncomfortably close to the hard rock market, mainly due to
lead guitarist Robert Hecker's fretboard noodlings. "Annie's Gone" was
a hit single to anyone with a pair of ears, but the band's campy, andro-gynous
image probably confused much of their potential audience, and Atlantic
decided that one bite of the cherry was all Redd Kross were getting.
To add insult to injury, the debut album by Jellyfish (who were heavily
influenced by Redd Kross, and even featured Steven McDonald on one track)
was doing the business around this time.
However,
dejection would never have suited the happy-go-lucky Kross, and a new line-up
-Eddie Kurdziel replaced Robert Hecker on guitar, Gere Fennelly was brought
in on keyboards and Brian Reitzell on drums - was followed by an indie
deal with This Way Up Records, and a higher profile in the UK due to regular
tours and appearances at festivals. A couple of singles ("Trance" and "Switchblade
Sister") were followed by the confident Phaseshifter (1993). Although "Jimmy's
Fantasy" was standard riffola, the follow-up "Lady In The Front Row" single
was a deserved Single Of The Week in Melody Maker, drawing comparisons
to "Paperback Writer" and the Stone Roses. Never the most prolific of bands,
they've been fairly quiet since then.
