Los Angeles pop-punk pioneers Redd Kross return to San Francisco
Anchored by the McDonald brothers Steven and Jeff for 45 years, Redd Kross brings its mix of punk energy and pop hooks to the Chapel Sunday night, showcasing songs from their acclaimed new self-titled album.
Inspired by the Beatles, bubblegum pop and glam rock at a young age, the McDonald brothers dove into the Los Angeles punk scene with their first band, the Tourists. The group played its first show opening for Black Flag in 1978 when Jeff (guitar/vocals) was 15 and Steven (bass) was only 11. Along with second guitarist Greg Hetson -- who would later play with the Circle Jerks and Bad Religion -- and future Black Flag drummer Ron Reyes, the crew would change its name to Red Cross right before recording it's debut self-titled EP in 1979.
The six-song effort clocked in at just under six and a half minutes and showcased the brothers' knack for catchy, trashy punk tunes. While Hetson and Reyes would move on, the brothers enlisted several collaborators for their first proper full-length album in 1982, Born Innocent. With its brief, buzzsaw songs focusing on subject matter like young actresses Linda Blair (star of The Exorcist) and Tatum O'Neal, cult leader Charles Manson and Runaways guitarist Lita Ford, the recording placed the band firmly in the more pop-minded end of the punk rock spectrum, following in the footsteps of the Ramones and the Buzzcocks.
The band's next effort, the 1984 covers EP Teen Babes from Monsanto, paid tribute to some of their cornerstone influences with versions of songs by Kiss, David Bowie, the Stooges and the Shangri-Las. The band would take a detour into filmmaking, appearing in and even contributing to the screenplays of Desperate Teenage Lovedolls and Lovedolls Superstar, a pair of low-budget underground films shot in Super 8 that would develop a cult audience that still celebrates the two punk movies.
In the meantime, a new line-up of the band had solidified with guitarist Robert Hecker and drummer Roy McDonald (formerly of the Things and later a member of The Muffs). The group would return to the studio and record their landmark Neurotica album that came out in 1987 on Big Time Records. Expanding their sound to embrace psychedelia and '60s garage rock, the album would prove to be influential not only on the SoCal rock scene but on the fledgling alternative-rock movement.
Through a steady rotation of players, the McDonald brothers would persevere, recovering from Big Tim folding to sign a deal with Atlantic Records to release the power-pop gem Third Eye in 1990, the first of three records for the label during the decade. But despite solid reviews, an appearance in the time-travel farce Spirit of '76, some MTV airplay and numerous tours with less accomplished bands -- Redd Kross at various points supported the Lemonheads, the Spin Doctors and Stone Temple Pilots during the early '90s -- the band never quite broke through to wider popularity. They eventually went on an extended hiatus in 1997.
The Neurotica line-up of the band would reunite to play a career-spanning set of songs in Los Angeles nearly a decade later, reviving interest in the group, leading to some limited touring and invitations to play at a variety of festivals including Coachella, the ATP vs Pitchfork Festival in England, NXNE in Toronto and the Turbo Rock Festival in Spain. In 2012, Redd Kross released its first album in 15 years with Researching the Blues on Merge Records, an effort that many hailed as one of the McDonald brothers' best yet.
While Steven McDonald has busied himself with other projects, playing bass in both the punk supergroup OFF! and more recently with heavy rock iconoclasts the Melvins, Redd Kross has still hit the road on occasion, touring extensively on their own and with the Melvins last year to promote the limited vinyl reissues of Teen Babes from Monsanto and the rarities collection Hot Issue on the band's own Redd Kross Fashion imprint.
In 2019, Jack White's Third Man Records reissued the band's long out-of-print '90s albums Phaseshifter and Show World in addition to the group releasing a new album for Merge entitled Beyond the Door. That Redd Kross effort featured covers of songs by Henry Mancini (the composer's theme to the film "The Party") and fellow pop-minded brother act Sparks ("When Do I Get To Sing 'My Way'") with Melvins drummer Dale Crover adding his propulsive percussion to the entire record that earned the band another round of glowing reviews.
While the pandemic curtailed plans to promote Beyond the Door, Redd Kross has emerged post-COVID with a serious burst of activity to help celebrate the band's 45th year of existence. In addition to the highly anticipated Andrew Reich directed documentary Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story that has already garnered raves from film festival audiences, the band is the focus of the new memoir Now You're One Of Us authored by Dan Epstein with hefty input from the McDonald brothers and this past summer released a new eponymous recording -- the first double album in the group's history -- before embarking on a nationwide tour that included an appearance at last years Mosswood Meltdown in Oakland.
Widely hailed as a crowning achievement in the band's over four decades of making music, the album released by In the Red Records received glowing reviews for its all killer, no filler arsenal of punchy, power-pop anthems. The double album's 18 songs at points recall the Beatles -- its cover, sprawling length and title all nod to the Fab Four's White Album, and Steve McDonald admitted in an interview to being inspired by the Beatles documentary Get Back -- the Who and the Kinks while still sounding resolutely like the McDonald brothers.
The band returns to San Francisco for its first headlining show in SF in several years, taking the stage at the Chapel Sunday for this show co-presented by promoter (((folkYEAH!))) after DJ and solo acoustic sets from Crover. While often busy with the prolific recorded output and relentless touring of the Melvins, the drummer has managed to squeeze in a number of side projects in over the years between his '90s band Altamont and his more recent solo recordings. In 2017, he released The Fickle Finger of Fate on Joyful Noise Recordings. His first proper solo album since the Melvins issued their individual efforts styled after the solo recordings of Kiss in 1992, the new songs ranged from brief drum experiments to angular yet melodic heavy rock anthems.
A health scare last year led to emergency spinal surgery for the drummer, which forced him to sit out the Melvins' co-headlining tour with Japanese heavy experimentalists Boris as well as the recording of the latest Redd Kross album. Crover has since recovered, touring with Redd Kross last summer as well as on his own for his latest release Glossolalia, the follow-up to his 2021 solo effort Rat-A-Tat-Tat! The musician's first solo recording where he wasn't able to draw on a well of already written material, the new record's mix of left-field power pop and catchy alt-rock tunes came together in a creative burst while drawing on guest contributions from such luminaries as Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayill, prolific psych songwriter Ty Segall, experimental music hero Tom Waits and prolific San Diego musician Rob Crow (Pinback, Heavy Vegetable, Physics, Team Sleep).
Redd Kross with Dale Crover
Sunday, Nov. 24, 7 p.m. $25
The Chapel
