Members Of Hoodoo Gurus, You Am I, Hard-Ons & More Ask Redd Kross The Tough Questions
As Redd Kross enter a new era in their 45th year, they say: "Our third act is going to be badass."
Redd Kross (Credit: Wanda Martin)
Back in June, iconic Los Angeles punks Redd Kross released a massive self-titled double LP, and if you thought the brothers – Jeff and Steven McDonald – were done there, there’s more. Yesterday, it was announced that they’re the subject of a new biography.
Now You’re One Of Us: The Incredible Story Of Redd Kross will be published in Australia via Omnibus Press on Wednesday, 8 January 2025.
Telling their definitive story alongside music journalist Dan Epstein, the book will track the brothers’ beginnings – Jeff was 15, and Steven was only 11 when they started the band in 1979 – to their 45th anniversary this year.
“It’s our 45th anniversary, but we’re still defining who we are,” Steven commented in a press release. “And it feels like the beginning of something. It’s so exciting to us that there’s still more to discover.
“We’re publishing the memoir, the movie’s coming out, we’re releasing a new album – and getting the machine started up again makes me nervous, and that’s thrilling. Our third act is going to be badass.”
The biography was preceded by the eponymously titled double album and a new rockumentary, Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story, directed by Andrew Reich.
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Such is the band’s impact that Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore regards Red Kross as “one of the most important bands of the last 30-40 years.”
To celebrate everything to do with Redd Kross in 2024 (and 2025, really), The Music has rounded up a Q&A with the brothers, with Aussie stars Hoodoo Gurus, You Am I, Hard-Ons, and more dishing out the hard questions.
ASK REDD KROSS!
Ray Ahn - Hard-Ons, Nunchukka Superfly
RA - What is your all-time favourite TV show and why?
Steve McDonald (SM) - New show - Survivor, because everyone cries at some point during the competition. Reminds me of tour.
Old show - The Partridge Family, because they’re a great band with great songs, and they’re a family… sorta.
RA - What is the best Kiss album, and why?
SM - Kiss Alive all the way!!!
Bethany - Itchy & The Nits
B - Do "notes and chords still mean nothing" to you?
SM - Well… I call BS on us as kids. I mean, I suppose what we were saying then was that the names of the notes and chords mean nothing to us… but the actual power of those chords and notes have always meant a great deal to us. And, yes, I know the names of them now. Fine, I sold out.
B - With all that hair, especially back in the '80s, did you guys ever get nits?
SM - I’m gonna guess a nit is what we might call a knot or a dread. Yes, I did get them, but I was addicted to conditioner to try and avoid them.
Billiam - Billiam, Billiam & The Split Bills
B - There's an excellent 90s Glasgow band called Pink Kross that I've always been a big fan of. From asking a few people who were around at the time, the band name was purportedly a parody/tribute to Redd Kross. Were you aware of Pink Kross at the time, and what did you think of them?
SM - We invited them on stage to do a mini set at the Marquee in London in the middle of our show. Always big fans.
Peter Black - Hard-Ons, Nunchukka Superfly
PB - We know your love for 60s bands. Which Aussie bands from that period did you dig?
SM - I’m sure this is lame cuz [they’re] so world-renowned, but I love the Bee Gees.
Dave Faulkner - Hoodoo Gurus
DF - Hey Jeff, did you and Charlotte ever use that croquet set I gave you as a wedding gift? I had visions of you emulating the Hollywood stars of yesteryear.
Jeff McDonald (JM) - Yes, we do still have the wonderful croquet set you gave us. We often like to pretend we’re Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks while having a game of croquet.
Bill Gibson - The Eastern Dark, Lemonheads, Pyramidiacs, Hellmenn
BG - Given the relatively steady turnover of musicians in your ranks, has there been a time when a newer member has contributed something from out of left field to your performance of an older song that's particularly wowed you or made you reassess the song?
SM - Every member is free to interpret the material as they choose.
BG - Did getting to hang out with the likes of David Cassidy and Leif Garrett on the set of Spirit Of '76 outweigh the endless tedium of waiting around for the next take? And were they cool, and did you get wasted with 'em?
SM – I regret not getting wasted with either of them. They both were entertaining in their own way, but ultimately, David was cool (RIP), but he was not Keith. That was sobering to realize. Probably the moment when I should have gotten wasted with him. Leif,… well, yeah, he was into Jane’s Addiction at the time and was dating Justine Bateman. He kept a framed paparazzi photo of them by his bedside. We shoulda got wasted.
Wally Meanie (Meanies, Even, Cheersquad Records & Tapes)
WM - Redd Kross and the Hard-Ons both played the Hoodoo Gurus' Dig It Up invitational in 2012. Who was Best On Ground for that run of shows?
SM – You mean MVPs?… the star quarterbacks, the Hoodoo Gurus!
WM - Do you recall any of the amazing local acts you played with on your first visit to our distant shores back in 1992?
SM – Of course, The Hard-Ons and Hummingbirds!
Nadine Muller (The Prize, Loose Lips)
NM - I read that at some of your early shows, you would throw a curveball if you got wind of any ‘industry’ or A&R people coming to suss you out in an attempt to deter them, such as playing the whole Tommy (The Who) soundtrack rather than your own songs.
Do you now, in hindsight, wish you had played the game and tried to impress the major labels, or do you think you would do it all the same if you had your time over?
SM – Well we did get signed a few times, so I suppose I regret our attempts at self-sabotage failed. I like that, though… my only regret is that I was a failure at self-sabotage.
NM - And what’s your favourite song by The Rutles?
SM – Ouch
Jake Robertson - Alien Nosejob
JR - Who is Annette? Do they still have the hits?
SM – Annette Joanne Funicello (October 22, 1942 – April 8, 2013) was an American actress and singer.
She began her professional career at age 12, becoming one of the most popular Mouseketeers in the original Mickey Mouse Club. In her teenage years, Funicello had a successful career as a pop singer recording under the name "Annette".
Her most notable singles are O Dio Mio, First Name Initial, Tall Paul, and Pineapple Princess. During the mid-1960s, she established herself as a film actress, popularizing the successful Beach Party genre alongside co-star Frankie Avalon. Poor Annette passed away too soon. She had MS.
JR - Ya’ll been a band since 1978… You have played with thousands of amazing bands... Have you ever seen another punk band with an 11-year-old, or a cover of The Partridge Family or a song from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls?
SM - I have not. What’s up with these kids? They’re asleep at the wheel?!
JR - How the hell did Steve not get an Oscar for Desperate Teenage Lovedolls?
SM – I was robbed!
Owen Penglis - Straight Arrows
OP - I've heard you guys spent a decent chunk of your early teenage years making crank calls, including maybe, allegedly, some to Elizabeth Montgomery of Bewitched, from where you got Blow You A Kiss In The Wind! I know you've made some incredible albums, but what are your greatest crank call moments?
SM – I once got Tito Jackson on the phone disguising myself as Michael Jackson. I got past Tito’s wife, Dee Dee. My girlfriend at the time worked at an appliance store and got the phone number off her check. Such invasive bad karma! Tito knew immediately I wasn’t Michael. Said in a ridiculous high voice, “Tito, hi, it’s me, Michael” Tito “This ain’t Michael” Click! 🤦
OP - Which band did the better album, the Banana Splits or the Evolution Revolution, and which would ya rather have backing you?
SM – The Banana Splits,… they seem a little less jittery.
OP - You'd have seen Black Flag a whole lotta times (and at one point shared a couple of members). Who is your favourite Black Flag vocalist?
SM – Love em all, but I’m a BF purist, [so] I gotta go with Mike Vallely.
OP - Redd Kross's fashion sense has always been second to none. I'm pretty sure you started the late 60s/70s thing in the 90s. Is it true the clothes all came from some abandoned Midwest shopping mall? Where was this goldmine?
SM – We shopped all over… or we would dive into the goodwill drop-off bin in supermarket parking lots late at night after gigs. That’s where we first got the high fashion bug.
Tim Rogers - You Am I, Hard-Ons
TR - Jeffrey, besides yourself and Zal Yanovsky, who else has elevated the Guild Thunderbird to such giddy heights? And is yours, gulp, retired?!?
JM – Muddy Waters was also in the Guild Thunderbird cult. I used it exclusively on the new Redd Kross album, but I’m not sure I’ll be taking it on the road. I don’t feel like retiring so I guess my guitar should keep on keeping on. We’ll see.
Brad Shepherd - Hoodoo Gurus
BS - I value your opinions. Can you recommend a series to stream?
SM - Gwen Shamblin: Starving for Salvation was a good stream that informed some of our new record. Love ya, Brad. ❤️✨
A single favourite song? That’s a tough one!
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