A mantra that runs through most pop songs, it’s both innocent and defiant. And it’s one that applies to Redd Kross.
Band mainstays (and siblings) Jeff and Steven McDonald are pop culture junkies. Riffing on KISS, The Ramones and John Waters movies, their music is a melting pot of 70’s glam rock, Beatlesy pop and nascent punk.
My introduction to them was 2012’s ‘Researching the Blues’. Their first album in 15 years, I remember reading about this band who had played their first gigs opening for Black Flag when they were teenagers, befriended and influenced Quentin Tarantino and were heralded by Sonic Youth. I was intrigued, even more so hearing single Stay Away from Downtown (which should have been a smash hit).
Although their albums have been hit and miss, the sense of fun and exploration evident in their finest moments is utterly intoxicating and keeps us coming back for more. And now, celebrating 45 years, this memoir comes out alongside a well-received documentary.
The McDonald brothers are natural raconteurs, discussing their childhood of going to big concerts, arguing over what the best Stones album is and watching The Partridge Family before discovering punk rock. In some ways, it’s a standard tale but Jeff and Steven’s endless enthusiasm for the life changing power of rock n roll makes even the most jaded want to pick up a guitar.
A gig in the Mojave Desert, long before the likes of Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age were talking about desert rock, is described as such:
There was no heat, no firewood, no water, no food, no bathroom facilities, and the buses that everyone had taken out to the desert were just rickety old school buses. I managed to hitch a ride home with D. Boon of the Minutemen; he probably saved me from dying out there, because suddenly people were leaving on the buses, and we found out that the person who drove us to the gig didn’t have plans to get us out of there. We were lucky to have had friends there with cars, but it was a total afterthought. We were all at the age where we hadn’t realized yet that people actually die out in the desert in these kinds of conditions.
After all was said and done, though, it was really fun. I remember walking way out on this plateau and hearing Sonic Youth’s music floating through the desert; there was no light pollution, and the night sky was beautiful. We later became friends with tons of people who were there that night, and for many of them it was like this Woodstock scenario, this mystical religious experience. But, you know, they were out in the desert on acid; for us, it had just been this stressful, terrible day. We did have fun with it, but there was no other choice; it was either that or start crying.
Not the sort of experience found in your local enormodome.
One aspect that I hoped they would discuss and wrestle with was how despite producing music that, at its heart, is commercial and joyous, Redd Kross have continually found themselves at odds with the mainstream: they shared influences and gigged with hair metal and grunge acts yet both camps did not take them to heart. Maybe their love of trashy pop culture and punk roots led to others viewing them with suspicion.
What they do talk about is how certain hardcore punk fans wrote them off after ‘Born Innocent’, declaring that they lost the plot. Both brothers are, quite rightly, dismissive of this attitude but it’s obvious that such a viewpoint vexes them. Unfortunately, retrospectives of music scenes tend to overlook the ones who defied scene conventions because they don’t neatly fit into certain categories. Hence why bands like Redd Kross fall in between the cracks.
Regardless, this is a fun, enthusiastic and at times eye opening read that will make those familiar with the band dig out their copies of ‘Neurotica’ and ‘Third Eye’. For those unfamiliar with them before now, this will act as a gateway to a world that you didn’t know you needed access to.
Jeff and Steve McDonald, Dan Epstein (editor), 2024, Now You’re One of Us: The Incredible Story of Redd Kross. Omnibus Press ISBN-13: 978-1915841056
⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.
Not only do you immerse yourself in the sound of music but your knowledge of the literature is immense. Music for the eye as well as the ear.
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