Today is the day that the new Redd
Kross lp “Researching The Blues” is released. Go
to iTunes and buy it! It’s the perfect combo of power pop, punk and even a
little glam. And, listening to it will make you very happy.
Which, these days, is a very good thing.
And I dig the first
video from the album- back when they covered Kiss on “Teen Babes From
Monsanto”, did they ever think it would come to this?
Yeah, probably!
Additionally, you might enjoy this
article on the making of the MC5’s “KICK OUT THE JAMS”. But you own that
already, don’t you!
Well, I think the above is pretty apropos. Provincialism at his finest. But then again, we have the best rock n roll in the world. So that counts for something, don't it?
Here's some examples of why it's America FUCK YEAH time here at Bleedin' Out:
(Explore your sensitive teen punk side)
(Bratty Punks make good)
(This could ONLY have been created in the good old USA!)
I saw Redd Kross the other nite in Brooklyn (aka Satan's Asshole). The brothers McDonald (Jeff and Steve) were awesome, as was non brother Roy McDonald on drums and Jason Shapiro (filling in for the Doctorate chasing Robert Hecker) on guitar.
They played a few songs from their upcoming Researching The Blues lp as well as a huge cross section of everything from their bratty El Lay punk roots (virtually the entire Born Innocent album) through their more mature power pop 80's and 90's oeuvre.
A great show and only a couple of times did I want to punch some scumbag Brooklyn Hipster in the face.
Hey kave kids, here's some more cooler than thou stuff from Redd Kross!
Here's a quick Redd Kross story. Back in the 80's around the "Teen Babes From Monsanto" era- RK played a NYC show with the Circle Jerks, Toxic Reasons and DOA. I still have the poster from the show. So me and Davey snuck backstage (it was at this old theater/club called The Ritz- now known as Webster Hall). We were pretty "enhanced" and struck up a convo with the bros McDonald that focused mainly on mushrooms, stealing liquor from our parents stash and of course "Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park". After awhile we noticed that there were girls around so we 2 obvious Noo Yawkers started hitting on the gash, making up stories about how we were surfers from Redondo Beach in Cali. The girls called us on our shit and I had to improvise, saying I used an ironing board as a surfing device because I was just so fucking punk rock.
We did not get laid.
But it was a bitchin' show.
Covering The Carpenters... so sweet!
And ABBA
Redd Kross paying tribute to Shonen Knife
Quid pro quo- Shonen Knife does a tribute to Redd Kross:
Today's selection goes out to Jeffen atMusic Ruined My Life. They posted up some awesome REDD KROSS stuff lately and here's something unhinged and Redd Kross related. It's the Tater Totz - which is the McDonald brothers from Redd Kross plus the Runaway's Cherie Currie and White Flag's Pat Fear. I assume it's Cherie doing the wicked Yoko Ono impersonations on this album, but I'm not sure.
On this album (Mono/Stereo) - they embark on some seriously acid crazed deranged versions of Beatles and solo Beatle work. And by solo, it's stuff like "The Luck Of The Irish" and "Two Virgins".
plus, as an added bonus, you get 2 Os Mutantes songs.
It can be for older, drunken douchebags too! Like me!
The annual CMJ fest in NY brings 100's of wet behind the ear little scumbuckets; who think My Chemical Romance is an oldies act and have only heard of Social Distortion from Hot Topic.
Into this maelstrom of ignorance and hipsetrism, your intrepid reporter ventured forth. No so much to see a billion bands that are weak and fey enuff to make Justin Bieber feel manly; but to sample the kinds of bands that I dig- YEAH, PUNK ROCK!
This past Saturday I said fukkit and went all out. Armed with a press pass (yeah, I be a member of the 4th estate), I went into the gaping maw of black clad nincompoops from the Tea Party states and took my chances.
My first stop was in Manhattan to see the mighty OFF!. Led by former Circle Jerk and Black Flag screamer Keith Morris and Redd Kross bass gawd Steven McDonald, OFF! was in town to show the little peckerheads how old skool punk rawk was really done. Supporting their new 4 song ep (4 songs 3:45 minutes!!!!!!), OFF! shredded the stage and kicked major ass.
OFF! Live CMJ
The OFF! thing was a pr event sponsored by vitaminwater and fader magazine. It took place in a huge space ugly with tons of college age squids. None of whom pretty much had a clue that Punk Rock wasn't invented by Green Day.
However, the venue had all the free spudweiser and vodka you could drink (and, ahem, I can drink alot of free swill). I ran into Steve McDonald before the show and innerviewed him (the McDonald interview can be found here and here) - sorry for the drunken slurring, but, I did mention the free beer and vodka, didn't I? )
OFF! were great- totally punk rock with an average length of one minute per song. Keith kept mentioning how no one there was old enuff to remember punk rock (he was right)- most of the people there were there for the "scene" and maybe the other really shitty synth twee pop crap bands and house music d-jays.
I could have hooked up with a 19 year old stripper chick who looked like Slash's sister and who kept rubbing up against me, but her very gay friend dragged her away after a few minutes- he said he had seen Black Flag one year at lollaforlosers. I corrected him and said maybe it was the Rollins band, and then he said- "who's black flag, I meant anti-flag".
One nice part was the beer was free as I mentioned and the kiddies were weaklings, I kept sending various sucknuts to fetch me more suds as I sat in a leather comfy chair.
Afterwards, I ended up meeting with my drummer j-lo and we headed over to Brooklyn (aka- Satan's armpit). This was to see Me First And The Gimme Gimme's- America's favorite cover band- punk versions of everything from "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" to "Desperado" to "Science Fiction Double Feature". The show was waaaaay sold out, but I was very drunk, and figured i could talk our way into the show. Which i did very easily. The bruthers at the door did not want to deal with a drunken Nazz and gave us entry.
Heckling Me First
Once again, a venue packed with cmj assholes. The bands were all good- old guy punk rock - I was chatty and had some encounters with stupid little girls (one was wearing a Queen 1982 tour shirt- i asked her the story behind the shirt and she said she had picked it up at Hot Topic by her college in Virginia). Oh, also things got weird with me, jlo and some older chick with a louise brooks/betty page haircut- she went out to ganjy with us and she essentially was daring us to molest her in an alley way. No kidding. Her Danish boyfriend (who was very cool and had a Joe Strummer/Robert Gordon haircut that must have cost $1000 krona or whatever they use for money) was back inside (line of the nite- I asked him if he had trouble making decisions - Hamlet!!!! Get it??????)
Me First were great- lots of insults thrown back and forth from/to the audience. I heckled Fat Mike. Alot. I kept calling him a hippie as i was standing 5 feet away from him. He was getting really really pissed.
Afterwards it was $2 taco's at the Mexican food truck.
"Dad, can we go see KISS this weekend before they die?" asked Nazz jr.
"No sooner said than done, son"; I replied.
So after an ebay negotiation, we were off to see Knights In Satan's Service at the world's most famous arena.
Unlike other shows, of course, I would be the responsible parent. As a result, as the smells of ganja wafted and beers were drank around me, I remained the sober one (as of course did Nazz jr). Here's where things get weird... they had some sort of contest that you could enter if you were going to be the "designated driver" and I entered it.
And we won!
Right before the show begins a couple of arena personnel come to our seats and hand us a gen-u-ine KISS program.
Irony, thy name is Nazz.
It was a great show of course... exactly what you would expect from Gene, Paul and the other mooks. Explosions, Paul's raps between songs, lots of stuff from KISS Alive. Nazz jr was sporting dad's old KISS ARMY t-shirt and laughing at the handful of folks dressed in their "komplete Kiss kostumes".
The openers, Buck Cherry were pretty good too. They even covered Deep Purple's "Highway Star".
This was the night after seeing Bob Weir in a trio set-up which really showcased three things:
1) He can actually play guitar
2) He still can't remember lyrics with-out a teleprompter
3) Deadheads are getting older and more annoying as the years go on.
The biggest cheer went up when (on a small screen), The Yankees beat the Twins. Woo hoo! This show was at a converted bowling alley called (duh) Brooklyn Bowl. Great venue, lotsa microbrews, and no, I most decidedly did not win the designated driver award!
We busted our cherry last nite and left a musical legacy. Caterwaul Of Sound hit the recording studio. We laid down the tracks for our soon to be hit single The Love Theme to Kids Go To The Woods, Kids Get Dead.
Most of the band, being noobs to the studio scene, were fascinated with the process. Scratch tracks? Overdubs? Multiple takes???? Crazy man, crazy.
And the biggest debate took place over what the "secret backwards message" would be. One hint... we actually didn't make it (too) satanic!
Caterwaul Of Sound played in hipster Williamsburg in Brooklyn USA Wednesday nite. Our first show. In fact, the first show ever performed by our rhythm guitar player and our singer! As reported before, we were on a bill with a bunch of metal and goth type bands. We, of course, are neither.
But, dare I say we acquitted ourselves nicely. There may have never been a band anywhere that had as much fun playing as we did on Wednesday nite.
People even came to me after the show and told us we were really good! And they weren't even our friends! In fact, our friends even said we were good (and our friends would've definitely told us if we sucked!). And, we had the biggest crowd. It was sorta like a reunion of sorts for a bunch of us folks who have drifted apart. So it was nice to get everyone together again. Lots of photos taken and a pro (2 camera video) with sound from the board is being mixed and will be ready next week. Maybe I'll even post some up!
There were some very strange "surgically enhanced" gals walking around in bustiers and whatnot, they ended up doing back-up vocals for my friends' band Guns Religion And Money (they were the ones who set up the show).
Unfortunately, we were promised a 55 year old "Betty Page" type stripper; and that failed to materialize.
Highlites included our lead singer falling down and doing a faceplant on the steps leading to the stage, the lead guitar getting kicked in the head, and yours truly tripping over his cord several times.
The setlist: nervous breakdown (black flag) surfin bird (ramones) in and out of grace (mudhoney) too much junkie business (johnny thunders) celebrity skin (hole) the jeffersons theme song - movin on up (dedicated to obama) > interstellar overdrive (pink floyd) > highway to hell (the short dudes from australia) > the ballad of kurt cobain (stormtroopers of death)
Feel like opening up a vein and, well, Bleedin' Out. A serious case of ennui as of late. Pressures of the job and worries about the economy are really doing a job on my psyche.
And it's affecting my desire for the rawk.
Blew off free tix for these guys, these guys, these guys and this guy, all in the past week. Yeah, I wouldn't see at least one of them without an ample supply of free booze (which was actually going to happen in skybox suites). But I just haven't had the head lately for anything but heavy duty PUNK RAWK.
However, I get to wake up at 3:30 am tomorrow and take my daughter (Princess Nomad) to see this chick perform a 7 am show. Yeah, 3:30 am. For teen pop. I'll be the guy in the Ramones shirt and the perpetual scowl.
With the horrible events that happened in Nebraska fresh, I now await the obligatory mass media coverage. This will undoubtedly include shit-hole magazines like US and People doing features on the murderer and the victims and that fat pig Oprah hugging some of the family's. Happy holidays.
How soon until one of the retail dot coms runs an ad that says something to the effect of "stay safe shop on-line".
Oh, yeah... today is the 66th anniversary of A DAY THAT SHALL LIVE IN INFAMY. Maybe you should hold off on ordering the sushi today.
Saturday night REDD KROSS is gonna be playing here in En Why See (actually Brooklyn, but that's close enuff for rawk n roll). Word is that they will be playing their tunes in chronological order from 1981's Born Innocent through their new album (soon to be released). You can click here for a Redd Kross post from a while back.
I am fukking psyched. If you are in the environs of Fun City, you should be at this show.
Here's the set list from the show (not including encores)
Yeah, they're mostly pretty obvious tunes, but hopefully they'll be somethin' on it that you don't have in digital format yet.
The ground rules were simple. One song per band and it hadda be a song that you can put on endless repeat... sorta like back in the day when you dropped 45's onto yer rekkid player. And it's a lucky 13 songs.
Hope you enjoy em! They're in one easy to download package.
One of my all time favorite bands. Red Cross (notice the different spelling) started out way back in the late 70’s/ early 80’s as a total punk band led by the barely teen McDonald Brothers (Jeff and Steve). Other fellow travelers included Greg Hetson (later of the Circle Jerks and Bad Religion) and Ron Reyes (later of Black Flag). They did a Charles Manson song and a song from Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls on their first record (Born Innocent) and then had to change their name to Redd Kross, since they were getting their asses in deep with the Red Cross.
After that album, they were joined by hippie freak Robert Hecker on lead guitar and quickly veered into a sorta acid casualty/70’s trash /punk glam thang and came out with Teen Babes From Monsanto… which was a cover album featuring songs from Kiss, David Bowie, Bewitched (yeah the TV show), etc. It kicked total and unadulterated ass and they followed this up with some of their L.A. compatriots on a movie called Desperate Teenage Lovedolls (playing on a Brady Bunch cover).
Other albums followed: Neurotica
(man, one of the McDonald’s is a dead ringer for Neil from The Young Ones in that picture!), Third Eye and Phaseshifter. All fucking great and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. In fact- go buy them now! 1997 brought Show World, which was poppier and lost its edge.
They broke up after that and recently reunited for some shows in 2006.
My memories of Redd Kross are from around 1983 or so. At The Ritz in NYC; which was this huge multi level concert hall (it’s called Webster Hall now) RK played with DOA, Toxic Reasons and (I think) the Circle Jerks. Me and my buddy Dave were outta our minds on lord knows what and sneaked back stage (no easy feat). We ended up hanging with Redd Kross, talking about Kiss Meets Phantom of The Park, Mushrooms and sneakin’ red wine out of our parent’s liquor cabinets. The convergence of Los Angeles long haired freaks (Redd Kross) and Noo Yawk City Punk rock hard-on’s (Me & Dave) was truly a perfect storm. I tried to pick up one of the Cali-chicks whilst pretending to be a surfer. That went well until she asked me what type of surf board I used and I told her I used an ironing board cuz I was so Punk Rock.
I have for your perusal three tracks from a radio show they did in Australia in the mid 80’s. This shows them more in their punk pop vein. The “overture from Tommy” (yes, The Who classic) is astounding. Tommy Trance What's Wrong With Me
And as a basis for comparison “Cover Band”: from their first ep (note that the riff is later ripped off by the Circle Jerks for Live Fast Die Young, but I guess since Greg Hetson played guitar on both, all’s fair.) Cover Band And here’s one of my favorites from Third Eye: Elephant Flares
And here’s some footage of Redd Kross from Phaseshifter : Jimmy's Fantasy Have at em!
All files posted on this site are for educational, testing and entertainment purposes only.If you like what you hear, please buy recordings, t-shirts, dvds and other merch from these bands. This is a non profit site and is here to give some publicity to deserving bands and artists. If you’re in a band whose music is found on this site and you want songs removed, please let me know. Songs and other media will be up for only a short time. After that, just like our hopes and dreams, they're gone.
(man, one of the McDonald’s is a dead ringer for Neil from The Young Ones in that picture!), Third Eye and Phaseshifter. All fucking great and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. In fact- 
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