REDD KROSS

“Jimmy’s Fantasy”

Live at the Echoplex, Los Angeles (11/02/07)

Redd Kross should have been the band that brought alt-rock to middle America.

This phone video might be unwatchable to you, but I was there last Friday and the show was epic. Jeff, Steve, Robert andRoy (the best Kross lineup) all survived the 90s, got healthy and got back together. They still aren’t playing any new songs but they did throw in their cover of “Citadel.”

If you can’t handle the video quality above, check out the proper music video of “Jimmy’s Fantasy,” starring a young Earl Hickey.

REDD KROSS

“Citadel” & “Blow You a Kiss in the Wind”

Teen Babes from Monsanto EP

(Los Angeles 1984)

Sometimes the evidence suggests that Redd Kross are missionaries from an alternate universe where rock bands mainline Cap’n Crunch instead of heroin, HR Pufnstuf is just as influential as Lou Reed and 1976 dominates pop culture in a way 1967 never imagined.

Item: When Redd Kross played NYC’s Roxy in support of their 1987 album Neurotica, backstage was dominated by Wendy, who wandered around the dressing room carrying one of those 70s portable cassette recorders.

Wendy had taped the laugh track from episodes of The Brady Bunch and filled one side of a cassette. Whenever anyone said something she considered funny, she hit play on the cassette and filled the room with canned laughter. No one acted like this was particularly weird; in fact, everyone seemed to agree with Wendy’s attempts to make real life more like a sitcom.

I think Wendy grew up to be a celebrity stylist. You can see her for yourself dancing in a fur bikini on the back jacket of the Every Band Has a Shonen Knife That Loves Them compilation LP.

Redd Kross manage to erase the air quotes. In a post-modern world, there’s never anything “ironic” about them. They take inspiration from anything that attracts their attention, giving equal weight to Bewitched and the Rolling Stones.

Neurotica was marred by Tommy Erdelyi’s muddy production and the sound on 1991’s Third Eye went all clean and shiny just when America was finally going loud. It’s the cover versions on 1984’s Teen Babes from Monsanto that come closest to capturing what Redd Kross does live.

Teen Babes was briefly released on CD as the bonus tracks to this 1992 Australian tour EP but good luck finding one of these. “Citadel” comes from the “bad” Rolling Stones album, Their Satanic Majesties Request, while “Blow You a Kiss in the Wind” was performed by Samantha’s cousin Serena on Bewitched.

Redd Kross returned to action last year with Jeff & Steve McDonald joined by Robert Hecker and Roy McDonald from the Neurotica band. The chemistry is still there; all the Phaseshifter and Show World songs sound way more exciting when these four play them.

• Download “Citadel”
• Download “Blow You a Kiss in the Wind”

(Teen Babes from Monsanto - Gasatanka Records E-110)

I have an overly simplified unified rock theory from my college radio days: all rock bands are either trying to be the Beatles, Dylan or the Stones. Under duress, the rule can be expanded to include Led Zeppelin as the fourth archetype but then you’re already backing down from the fights you’re trying to start.

Here’s the rule: no matter how you feel about the Beatles (overrated), Dylan (underrated by me at the time I made the rule but I grew up and learned better) and the Stones (still impossible to overrate), you always want to go for the bands that imitate the Rolling Stones. Failure to match the Stones gives you a garage band but unsuccessful Beatles makes for power pop. And failed Dylan is too horrible to contemplate.

The Turtles are a good test case; they made one of the better runs at being the Beatles but they achieved their most sublime moment here, the one time they decided to be the Stones.

JUNKYARD

“Hollywood”

(Los Angeles 1989)

Junkyard thrived during the Lip Service Era, those confusing four years between Appetite for Destruction and Nevermind. For a moment, the Sunset Strip sleaze-rock bands represented a return to the real rock n roll of the New York Dolls and the Faces. Unfortunately, those 80s drum sounds obscure many virtues but occasionally a song like “Hollywood” survives the major-label production.

Best of all, Junkyard featured Brian Baker on guitar just seven years removed from Minor Threat, a fact that defies commentary.

• Download: Hollywood

(Geffen Records 9 24227-2)