Amoeba Music

Redd Kross is a rock band from Hawthorne, CA with two brothers - Jeff and Steve McDonald - at its core. The brothers formed the Tourists in 1978, with schoolmates Greg Hetson (guitar) and Ron Reyes (drums), when the oldest member was 15 years old (Jeff, vocals) and the youngest was 11 (Steve, bass). Famously, their first gig was opening for...More

Redd Kross is a rock band from Hawthorne, CA with two brothers - Jeff and Steve McDonald - at its core. The brothers formed the Tourists in 1978, with schoolmates Greg Hetson (guitar) and Ron Reyes (drums), when the oldest member was 15 years old (Jeff, vocals) and the youngest was 11 (Steve, bass). Famously, their first gig was opening for Black Flag. They released their first EP, Red Cross (Posh Boy), in 1980, having changed their band name to Red Cross around the same time. After Reyes and Hetson left the band to join Black Flag and the Circle Jerks respectively, Red Cross' lineup changed repeatedly, including drummer John Stielow, guitarist Tracy Lea, drummer Janet Housden, guitarist/singer Robert Hecker, drummer Roy McDonald, guitarist Eddie Kurdzeil, keyboardist Gere Fennelly, drummer Victor Indrizzo, drummer Brian Reitzell, guitarist Pat Smear, and a number of others.

Red Cross released their first full-length album, Born Innocent (Smoke 7), in 1982 and faced a lawsuit from the International Red Cross, ultimately forcing the band to change its name to Redd Kross. Their next album, 1984's Teen Babes from Monsanto (Gasatanka), was a collection of classic rock covers. That same year Redd Kross acted in and contributed to the soundtrack of the Super 8 LA punk feature film, Desperate Teenage Lovedolls. Lovedolls director David Markey and the McDonald brothers co-wrote its sequel, Lovedolls Superstar (1986), with the band again acting in the film and playing on the soundtrack. In 1987, Redd Kross released their sophomore full-length, the hard-rock classic Neurotica (Big Time).

Redd Kross signed to a major label, releasing their third album, Third Eye (Atlantic), in 1990, followed by two more albums, Phaseshifter (This Way Up/Mercury, 1993) and Show World (This Way Up/Mercury, 1997). Guitarist Eddie Kurdziel died of a drug overdose in June 1999 and the band went on hiatus for a number of years, returning in 2006 with the Neurotica-era lineup playing festivals and touring across the US, Europe, and Canada.

In the summer of 2012, the reunited core of Redd Kross released Researching The Blues (Merge Records), their seventh studio album and their first new release in 15 years. The band celebrated the new album with a blistering in-store set at Amoeba Hollywood, in fact playing so f*%&ing loud that they blew our PA. Steven McDonald mixed the recording for us and you can download an exclusive track from that performance, one of our best live shows of 2012.