Barely teenagers at the time, Redd Kross was one of the first bands in So Cal to pick up guitars and lash out at their laid-back homeland, studding their songs with arcane references to The Partridge Family and other 70s kitsch, along the way developing a keen power pop sensibility.
The band started out in Hawthorne, California, in 1978 when bassist Steve McDonald was just 11 years old. His brother, Jeff, was only 14.
They were called Red Cross until 1982, when the international Red Cross threatened them with legal action, and early iterations of the band featured future punk icons like Greg Hetson (later of Circle Jerks and Bad Religion) and Ron Reyes (later the singer with Black Flag).
Critics marvelled at the clever artistry and high-decibel energy of the McDonald’s popcraft.
The brothers’ songwriting and arranging flaunted musical influences – a dizzying array of icons that ranged from The Beatles and The Brady Bunch to KISS and The Ramones.
Despite the borrowed bits, their records emerged as engaging, ingenious works.
By the time the group found its true voice on the near-classic Neurotica (1987), the band was rocking harder than a barrelful of Monkees.
The evolution culminated with Third Eye (1991), on which they came on like a junior Cheap Trick with a superb collection of songs that the Bay City Rollers would have killed for, and Phaseshifter (1993), on which they flawlessly balanced melody and alterna-punk, not once burning themselves on the irony.
Following the release of Show World (1997), the band went on an extended hiatus.
They re-emerged in 2012 with an album titled Researching the Blues. Fresh, immediate, and melodic, yet played at full volume and clocking in at under thirty minutes, it is the work of a band in peak athletic form – a group that has, above all, made peace with its lack of commercial success.
To celebrate their 45th anniversary, the band released a critically acclaimed, 18-track self-titled double album in 2024.
Jeff McDonald Vocals, guitar Steve McDonald
Bass, vocals
Edward Kurdziel
Lead guitar Robert Hecker
Lead guitar Jason Shapiro
Lead guitar Eddie Kurdziel
Lead guitar Tracy Lea
Lead guitar Gere Fennelly
Keyboards
Brian Reitzel
Drums Roy McDonald
Drums John Stielow
Drums Brian Reitzell
Drums Dale Crover
Drums Josh Klinghoffer
Drums
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Critics marvelled at the clever artistry and high-decibel energy of the McDonald’s popcraft.
