Who knew in 2020 Redd Kross would be rescheduling these shows to 2022?… no one!!! they’ve lost a couple stops but gained a few more. Yay to Vigo, Vienna, Orëbro and Newcastle,… and don’t forget Rotterdam! All 2020 tickets will be honored. If you have a ticket for a town not listed refunds are available. They were excited last year to do this,… but now they are electrified!!!
Well, we’ve reached that time of year again where the writers of RPM were forced into the voting both given a blunt pencil and forced to vote for their album of the year. Unlike a certain General Election result this time I don’t think people were too disappointed with the final result and by a landslide rock and Roll won.
Interestingly this years winner didn’t win any single writers vote but featured very heavily throughout the writers lists more than any other artist or artists so its a fair cop guv and, to be honest, had the live show count been anything to go by it was a landslide and another good year all around. With writers coming from several continents and five different countries there might be a few miles between us but we all have some things in common and one of those is a love for Rock and Roll. I’m sure had it been a Top 20 people would have still had a headache as to what to put in. Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s been a shit year for new music as there were plenty of records released and many of them reviewed on RPM Online and with over 50 albums getting a mention from the team of writers (that’s just their top 10!).
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank not only all the artists who’ve released new records in 2019 and to all the excellent press departments and Labels especially the independent ones who’ve worked tirelessly to bring us the music and obviously to the songwriters and musicians whose work we’ve had many many hours of enjoyment listening to and raving about you know who you are many of whom it’s been a pleasure to get to know throughout the year.
What we’ll do is give the top ten a rundown in reverse order then each individual writers ten albums in no particular order so here goes.
Duff McKagan – ‘Tenderness’ (UMC)
Jim Jone & The Righteous Mind – ‘Collectiv’ (MaSonic Records)
Jesse Malin – ‘Sunset Kids’ (Wicked Cool Records)
Redd Kross – ‘Beyond The Door’ (Merge Records)
Rich Ragany & The Digressions – ‘…Like We’ll Never Make It!…'(Glunk Records)
Andy McCoy – ’21st Century Rocks’ (Ainoa Productions)
Hunt Sales Memorial – ‘Get Your Shit Together’ ( Big Legal Mess Records)
The Hip Priests – ‘Stand For Nothing’ (several independent labels)
The Wildhearts – ‘Renaissance Men’ (Graphite Records)
So congratulations to all the bands who made the RPM Online top ten. Especially Michael Monroe for taking top spot in the hotly contested category as well as all the ones that didn’t there were dozens and dozens of albums released in 2019 that we reviewed. We managed to catch up with a few of the bands who made it onto the pages of RPM Online in 2019 to find out what made it onto their turntables this year and to find out any highlights they might have had. Here is some beginning with Jeff from The Brothers Steve…
Jeff Whalen (Guitar /Vocals – The Brothers Steve)“I don’t think I listened to any records that came out in 2019! So I picked my top 5 records that were new to me in 2019!”
Duncan Reid – Duncan Reid & The Big Heads
Lee Love (The Hip Priests)
Clowns – ‘Nature/Nurture’
TV Crime – ‘Metal Town’
Bitch Queens – ‘City Of Class’
The Drippers – ‘Action Rock’
Schizophonics – ‘People In The Sky’
Melchior Quitt (Bitch Queens)
Clowns – ‘Nature / Nature’
Amyl & The Sniffers – ‘Amyl & The Sniffers’
The Hip Priests – ‘Stand For Nothing’
Saint Agnes – ‘Welcome To Silvertown’
The Schizophonics – ‘People In The Sky’
As for the Highlight of 2019, There are several. Two for Bitch Queens were to put out our brand new album ‘City Of Class’ and to finish our new recording studio to keep on doin’ what we are doin’ far away from the big business.
The Best event this year was Sjock. “What could be better than hanging out with my boys from The Hip Priests and seeing the best Action Rock bands from all around the world! I am looking forward to touring with Bitch Queens in Europe next year and to record a shitload of new singles and split 7“ And of course, there are two of the probably best records 2020 in the pipeline – The Good, the Bad & the Zugly and Kvelertak. 2020 is gonna be good!
With a bunch of great live shows charging around the UK and the never-ending list of great albums being released RPM has a top 20 for you pop pickers and this list includes Michael Monroe and his ‘One Man Gang’ and one off the brand new More Kicks album the awesome ‘Blame It On The Satellite’. Giuda guitarist Lorenzo has an album ready to go entitled Zac and we have ‘Count On Me’.
There are some old-timers still kicking up a shitstorm like Necromantix who have a new DVD / CD out and Sonny Vincent has a Testors tribute album that’s available with all proceeds going to a great cause that we fully support and will be reviewing this coming month so we have a Testors original in our playlist.
Rocker Pete Way hits the road this month for some live shows and has a vinyl issue of his ‘Amphetamine’ album. After finishing another round of superb dates with The Wildhearts Ginger gets back on the saddle and begins an acoustic band run of shows entitled Ginger and The Sinners. Also on tour is Wayne Hussy whos doing the rounds with his guitar and passages from his autobiography.
Recently released was the awesome and intriguing 40th-anniversary demos and sessions of Tubeway Army’s ‘Replicas’ so we’ve added the classic ‘Down In The Park’ to our list. Recently Rebellion Festivals announced some cracking additions to 2020’s line up and that included some RPM favourites so how could we not include the likes of The Hip Priests who also have some shows this month so have an earful of ‘I Hate The City’ ponder the lyrics and remember it when you go to vote UK peeps.
A new album and some live dates on the way see a welcome return to the awesome Urban Voodoo Machine with their brilliant ‘Johnny Foreigner’. Announcing tour dates for 2020 Redd Kross are a shoo-in for our playlist. Finally, with an official release and stock, The Brothers Steve make our playlist with ‘Angeline’ from the fantastic ‘#1’ CD.
This month also sees the New Model Army play every corner of the United Kingdom with a proper tour to back up their excellent new album so ‘Where I Am’ makes our playlist.
To finish off this November playlist and to highlight our diversity we have a hattrick of rock from South Wales to show the hills are indeed alive with the sound of music as Buck and Evans ‘Sunrise’ is up and there is the return of Forever Vendetta with ‘Come Alive’ and to close off the November RPM playlist we include Deathtraps who are busy putting the finishing touches to their new album so we’ve included ‘Get Loose’ so take their advice and ours and get loose and we’ll see you in December when we’ll have a splash of new tunes to rock the year out!
California legends Redd Kross have announced their first UK and European headline dates in several years including two intimate dates at The Lexington in London which promise to be evenings to remember.
Steven McDonald had the following to say:
“This is the most comprehensive headlining tour we’ve done of the UK and Europe since ‘97. We are beyond thrilled to be bringing our booty shaking, mind melting party to your shores. So get your head fixed right and polish up those dancing shoes, because we are ready to DO THIS!”
The evergreen band’s latest album, “Beyond The Door”, landed in August on Merge Records to critical acclaim worldwide. Long famed for their raucous live show you can catch the band live on the following dates:
25.04 – The Albert – Brighton
27.04 – The Deaf Institute – Manchester
28.04 – Broadcast – Glasgow
29.04 – Brudenell Social Club – Leeds
30.04 – The Exchange – Bristol
01.05 – The Lexington – London
02.05 – The Lexington – London
Tickets now on-sale from reddkross.com
Order the album via Merge Records
Further details on Redd Kross & Beyond The Door:
Beyond the Door is available now on CD, digitally, and on limited-edition opaque purple Peak Vinyl in the Merge store.
Beyond the Door is an album inspired by the band’s “total commitment to having the best f*cking time we can have while we’re all still here” (what they like to call “The Party”). Musically, it’s guitars, bass, and drums topped with a generous portion of sweet vocal melodies often delivered with an ambiguous edge. The album marks Redd Kross’ most collaborative record to date. Steven describes this evolution: “Jeff is still very much the driving force behind the compositions, but with more help from me than ever. Jeff and I haven’t shared this much of the writing and singing since Born Innocent in 1981.” Guitarist Jason Shapiro and drummer Dale Crover (Melvins, OFF!) are longtime members of the Redd Kross live band, but this album marks the pair’s recorded debut with the group. Mixed in Los Angeles by Steven McDonald, Beyond the Door includes notable guest appearances from Anna Waronker (That Dog), Geré Fennelly, Buzz Osborne (Melvins), and Josh Klinghoffer.
On the surface, the album title is a playful reference to an Italian horror film the McDonald brothers watched as children, a loose rip-off of both The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby that stars Juliet Mills of ’70s television program Nanny and the Professor. But like all things Redd Kross, it would be a sad injustice to stop digging there. No one knows what lies Beyond the Door… but we’re all in front of it.
Inspirations as varied as K-pop, glitter gangs, embarrassed tweens, long-term relationships, a mysterious character named Fantástico Roberto, and much more all contributed to Beyond the Door, an album that lures the listener into Redd Kross’ secret club full of riddles and inside jokes, with the ultimate reward of the perfect pop moment!
With 2019 quickly rolling downhill towards 2020 and with Halloween just around the corner and Shit Island still under Tory rule heres a playlist to take you away from the humdrum of real-life and to take a peek at whats on the RPM turntables and MP3 players this month.
Alice Cooper is in the house with Go Man Go taken from his excellent EP ‘The Breadcrumbs EP’ and how could we not include Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind so get down and get with it as ‘Shazam’ is in the house on the virtual player.
Also on the live front we’ve caught up with the awesome Cyanide Pills who are ‘Still Bored’. this month we’ve got an exclusive interview we recently did with Spunk Volcano so it seems right we should include ‘Shit Excuse’ from ‘Double Bastard’. It seems that every man and his dog is attending one of The Cult winter tour dates so why not play ‘New York City’ from the 30th Anniversary ‘Sonic Temple’.
Hands up if you’re heading to one of the Black Flag dates around the UK this month? We are so ‘My War’ is on the list. Pulled Apart By Horses rode into Newport and left a mark so ‘The Big What If’ is on the list.
As for new albums we’ve reviewed how about a few new ones starting off with Pardon Us with the opening track on their debut album ‘Wait’ ‘check out ‘Beyond The Valley Of The Wolves’. The Hangmen are back with ‘Cactusville’ as are Starcrawler who we’ve included with the excellent rock and rolla ‘No More Pennies’, Bitch Queens bring ‘Superboy’ and their brothers from different mother are back with a new single. The Hip Priests ‘I Hate The City’ from their recent split but fear not pop pickers they have another single on the way this month we’ve heard it and its a no brainer kids all killer and no filler was written for them.
As we say goodbye to Barrie Masters we’ve included Eddie And The Hot Rods cover of ‘Once Bitten Twice Shy’. Since they’re having a movie made about them we think it’s apt that we include the awesome Redd Kross with ‘Motorboat’ on this months playlist. turn it up baby because Charger make the paylist with ‘Victim’ from their self titled record. Cockroach Clan released their new/old record so why not sample some Norweigan punk rock whilst youre here.
It wouldn’t seem right not to have a Wildhearts tune in our playlist seeing as they have a new mini-album out this month and are playing the UK again so heres ‘A Song About Drinking’. Supporting them on this round of dates are Janus Stark who also have a headliner at the hope & Anchor so with news of their new album released last week heres one from them for good measure – We can’t play you anything new but trust us when we say it’s going to be worth the wait so to keep you going heres ‘Every Little Thing Counts’. It only seems fair we offer up some Shitbaby Mammals with the opener from their record ‘Heart On My Sleeve’. To wrap up this months playlist heres some Black Star Riders with the second track from their new album and title track ‘Another State Of Grace’. So until next month…
There’s a case to be made that Redd Kross is the seminal Los Angeles band of the last 40 years. And ‘BORN INNOCENT’ is gonna make it.
Formed in 1978 by brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald, and still actively playing and recording today, Redd Kross are the ultimate rock and roll lifers. They have influenced independent music in ways that beg to be acknowledged. From helping invent Beach Punk to influencing the Grunge and Glam Metal movements, Redd Kross have maintained the highest level of musical integrity, originality and quality for over forty years.
Born Innocent will introduce a wider audience to two of the coolest people alive. The McDonald Brothers embody Southern California, rock and roll, and what it means to be an artist.
In 1978, in the Southern California beach suburb of Hawthorne – home of The Beach Boys – two brothers, Jeff McDonald, age 15, and Steven McDonald, age 11, started a band called The Tourists. They wrote a set of songs including “Annette’s Got the Hits” and “Clorox Girls” that would become classics and define the genre known as “Beach Punk”. The first time The Tourists played in front of anyone was at Black Flag’s legendary rehearsal space, The Church in Hermosa Beach. They got the older band’s seal of approval, along with a new name – Red Cross. They were so young that their first studio recordings were financed with money from Steve’s paper route.
But when Jeff saw hardcore being codified into a set of musical and fashion rules, he rebelled. Red Cross was the first band from the hardcore scene to grow their hair long, and their second record, Born Innocent, was unlike anything that had come out of the underground. It’s a record drenched in 70’s pop culture references: Linda Blair, Tatum O’Neal, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls… even a cover of a Charles Manson song. Steven Malkmus of Pavement listed it as one of his top five biggest influences, and Mark Arm of Mudhoney has said that it was the record that got all the Seattle grunge bands started.
Red Cross fought back against hardcore’s anti-rock star stance, dressing in outlandish thrift-store-glam stage costumes like their idols, The New York Dolls.
The high school-age McDonalds received a letter from the International Red Cross threatening legal action if they continued to use the name “Red Cross”. Jeff’s response was to change their name to “Redd Kross” in an homage to comedian Redd Foxx. With their new name, Redd Kross continued to evolve their sound. Their Neurotica record would prove to be one of the crucial influences on the Grunge scene in Seattle that changed music in the 1990’s.
When pop music caught up to what they were doing and grunge was on the rise, Redd Kross pivoted again, making a sugary bubblegum record for their major label debut, Third Eye, which sported a nude Sofia Coppola on the cover. And while they had previously starred in the cult classics Desperate Teenage Lovedolls and Lovedolls Superstar, the 90’s saw them star in their first studio movie. Before there was The Brady Bunch Movie, there was The Spirit of 76, a 70’s nostalgia movie that saw Jeff and Steve starring alongside David Cassidy, Leif Garrett and Devo.
Their next evolution had them perfecting a beefy power pop sound, with their records Phaseshifter and Show World. This was the phase that garnered them fans from Robert Plant to Joe Elliott of Def Leppard to Dave Davies of The Kinks.
While chart-topping success in America eluded them, they have toured the world to massive acclaim, treated like rock gods in the UK, Spain and Japan. Steve has played with Beck, Hole, Sparks, and Tenacious D. He currently plays in both The Melvins and Off! Redd Kross have always followed their artistic muse, wherever it led. Forty years later, they are still going strong, heading out on tour in support of their seventh studio album, Beyond the Door.
Redd Kross has long been a cult band, a band’s band, a secret code word among music fans that signifies taste and cool. But unlike many cult bands, their music is eminently accessible. If you like The Beatles or The Ramones or Cheap Trick, basically if you’re a rock and roll fan, you’ll like Redd Kross.
Join the Campaign here
OK, bank holiday so the commute is on hold – what better way to celebrate than with some kick-ass rock and roll. Here ya go have some ear candy courtesy of Los Pepes with ‘Let Me Tell You Something’ from their album “Positive Negative”. Out UK/Europe via Wanda Records and Adrenaline Fix Music and the USA via Spaghetty Town Record. Pick it up, folks! Hear full LP Here:
Second up this band holiday is this New Jersey Band we love they play some mean anti-folk punk rock Called Crazy and The Brains. Check out this video from earlier this year
Finally, you can bounce along to this bad boy from Redd Kross. A simply delicious way to spend any day regardless of this one being a bank holiday here on shit island.
Because its a bank holiday get an earful (and eyeful) of this stone-cold bad boy from Dead Furies with ‘Stay Gold Ponyboy’ taken from their soon to be released album ‘Stay Gold’ another one to add to the list of must-own albums.
“No one knows what lies Beyond the Door… but we’re all in front of it.”
So reads the PR blurb that accompanies the all-new eleven-track studio record from South Californian powerpop punk legends Redd Kross, their first new set of songs since 2012’s amazing ‘Researching The Blues’ album, and you know in many ways that opening statement pretty much summed up how I first approached ‘Beyond The Door’, largely because I really did not know what to expect from the band this time around.
With band mainstays Jeff and Steven McDonald promising their most collaborate record since their ‘Born Innocent’ debt from way back in 1981, would the inclusion of Anna Waronker (That Dog), the returning Geré Fennelly, Buzz Osborne (Melvins), and Josh Klinghoffer (Red Hot Chilli Peppers) really mess with the powerpop magic formula I have come to know and love the band forever since first discovering them via their genre-defining ‘Third Eye’ album released back in 1990?
Cautiously dipping into ‘Beyond The Door’ the most immediate thing that strikes me is that it is a very “UP” sounding album, in fact the gangs total commitment to having the best fucking time they can have while they’re all still here is obvious during the stunning opening 1-2 of ‘The Party’ and ‘Fighting’, both tracks sounding like the natural progression to the sixties psych-pop perfection of ‘Researching The Blues’. Guitarist Jason Shapiro and drummer Dale Crover (Melvins, OFF!) are long-time members of the Redd Kross live band, and here they kick off their recording debut with the band in very fine fashion indeed, with both of the opening four to the floor rockers being what I would consider soon to be live favourites.
That live energy continues into the KISS meets Glitter Band swagger of ‘Beyond The Door’ whilst ‘There’s No One Like You’ could very easily be something the McDonald brothers recorded during their post-grunge ‘Show World’ days. ‘Ice Cream (Strange And Pleasing)’ meanwhile is the kind of sugar-sweet bubblegum pop that the band excelled at during their ‘Third Eye’ days as is the uptempo glam slammer ‘Fantastico Roberto’. Phew!! That’s one hell of a set of tunes right there. Tunes which whilst maybe not quite as refined as the ‘Researching The Blues’ album they do possess a vibrancy and unpredictability that record did miss at times.
‘The Party Underground’ is a classic example of this as it sounds like Bob Mould has just popped into the studio and cracked off a tune whilst the closing cover of Sparks’ electro-dance anthem ‘When Do I Get To Sing “My Way”’ really is a truly inspired choice, turning out to a perfect fit for the Redd Kross sound.
So, with that in mind what is the Redd Kross sound here in 2019? Well, it’s probably best summed up the trio of songs that remain for me to mention on ‘Beyond The Door’. ‘What’s A Boy To Do’ is yet another lesson in how to write bubblegum pop perfection whilst ‘Punk II’ thunders along like the Hamburg Beatles speeding their tits off before Lennon and McCartney then get whisked off to Seattle around the turn of the nineties for ‘Jone Hoople’ and all hell is duly let loose.
Look you can stand outside that door forever wondering “what if” but the real magic always lies beyond it. Redd Kross are most certainly back with a bang with ‘Beyond The Door’ and with US dates already planned with the Melvins we here in the UK can but hope that they will finally return to these shores sometime soon.
Buy Beyond The Door Here
Author: Johnny Hayward
Desolation Center, the indie music festival documentary which has played numerous film festivals worldwide, is set to begin a national theatrical rollout starting on September 13th in Los Angeles. The film is the untold story of a series of guerrilla music and art performance happenings in the 80s which inspired the birth of contemporary festival culture including Burning Man, Lollapalooza and Coachella. The film combines interviews of punk and post-punk luminaries with rare performance footage of Sonic Youth, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Perry Farrell, Redd Kross, Einstürzende Neubauten, Survival Research Laboratories, Savage Republic and more, giving viewers unprecedented access to a time when pushing the boundaries of music, art, and performance was like an unspoken obligation. Directed by the creator and organizer of the original events, Stuart Swezey, Desolation Center tells the true story of how the risky, and at times even reckless, actions of a few outsiders were able to incite seismic cultural shifts.
The story of the guerrilla music and performance events of the Desolation Center is inextricably linked with the director’s own story as a young adult in the punk and post-punk music scene in the early 1980s. Desolation Center is more than just the story of a series of wild and unorthodox happenings. The film is also true to the spirit of freedom and possibility that punk and it’s clarion call of creative deconstruction embodied.
Beyond the Door is an album inspired by the band’s “total commitment to having the best f*cking time we can have while we’re all still here” (what they like to call “The Party”). It’s a rock and roll record and a celebration of everything brothers Jeff and Steven McDonald love, from cultures both high and low. Musically, it’s guitars, bass, and drums topped with a generous portion of sweet vocal melodies often delivered with an ambiguous edge.
Beyond the Door marks Redd Kross’ most collaborative record to date. Steven describes this evolution: “Jeff is still very much the driving force behind the compositions, but with more help from me than ever. Jeff and I haven’t shared this much of the writing and singing since Born Innocent in 1981.” Guitarist Jason Shapiro and drummer Dale Crover (Melvins, OFF!) are longtime members of the Redd Kross live band, but this album marks the pair’s recorded debut with the group. Mixed in Los Angeles by Steven McDonald, Beyond the Door includes notable guest appearances from Anna Waronker (That Dog), Geré Fennelly, Buzz Osborne (Melvins), and Josh Klinghoffer.
On the surface, the album title is a playful reference to an Italian horror film the McDonald brothers watched as children, a loose rip-off of both The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby that stars Juliet Mills of ’70s television program Nanny and the Professor. But like all things Redd Kross, it would be a sad injustice to stop digging there. No one knows what lies Beyond the Door… but we’re all in front of it.
Inspirations as varied as K-pop, glitter gangs, embarrassed tweens, long-term relationships, a mysterious character named Fantástico Roberto, and much more all contributed to Beyond the Door, an album that lures the listener into Redd Kross’ secret club full of riddles and inside jokes, with the ultimate reward of the perfect pop moment!
Recent Comments