Redd Kross have been a band for about 45 years, and they've had a fascinating run. Brothers Jeff and Steven McDonald were little kids -- 15 and 11, respectively -- when they formed Redd Kross in 1979. Starting with their 1982 debut album Born Innocent, they combined hardcore punk with '60s pop, and that fusion made for a lot of great music and inspired plenty of other bands. Redd Kross had a brief major-label run in the post-Nirvana '90s era, but they never blew up. They're still a band today, and they just gave their first late-night performance since that major-label era.
In 1993, Redd Kross signed to Mercury, and they released a deeply underrated album called Phaseshifter. To promote it, they performed on Jay Leno's Tonight Show, Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and MTV's Jon Stewart Show. I bought that CD, but not many other people did, and Redd Kross' major-label era ended after just one more album. The band went on hiatus for a while before getting back together in 2020 and putting out some records on Merge and In The Red. Last year, Redd Kross released a self-titled LP. It ends with a song called "Born Innocent" -- a full-circle moment, even if that song doesn't come from their debut album. It's also the title of the new band documentary that doesn't yet have distribution.
Redd Kross were on Kimmel to promote their self-titled album and their documentary, and they were cool splattery white suits while blazing their way through "Born Innocent." Their specific combination of big harmonized hooks and sloppy riffage still goes hard, and their fire is undiminished. Watch them below.
Redd Kross is out now on In The Red.
