Album Review: Redd Kross - Researching The Blues

Bassist Steve McDonald hadn't even hit his teens when he and his brother Jeff – only a few years his elder – were playing gigs with Black Flag in the halcyon days of early-'80s hardcore, yet here they are more than three decades later still waving the flag, and doing a quite remarkable job of it.

Their sound morphed dramatically over the intervening years – as you'd expect – and what they're peddling now is a distinctive, hook-laden brand of glam-imbued power pop, all fuzzy melodies, catchy harmonies and a vibrant worldview you'd expect from a band half their age. New album Researching The Blues – their first studio effort in 15 years – is a typically exuberant affair, the effervescent title track opening things up and setting the pace for the rest of the quick-fire proceedings (ten tracks clocking in at under 33 minutes). Tunes like Stay Away From Downtown and Uglier fit perfectly into their oeuvre – irreverent and immediate in the best bubblegum tradition – and Jeff still sounds remarkably like a nasally John Lennon, their love of the Fab Four manifesting in tracks like Meet Frankenstein and Choose To Play, albeit wrapped up in crunchy guitars and distortion.

In an alternate universe Redd Kross might have been a massive sensation but it wasn't to be, yet it doesn't seem to have affected their love of music and popular culture one iota. Researching The Blues is far more than a token reunion album, rather a welcome return from of this fine underground outfit, and should also be held up as a beacon of light for experienced musicians everywhere, an apt reminder that that where there's life there's hope.