Dear Friends,
Well, “meet the teacher night” went well. I have more students this year who don’t speak a whole lot of English. I guess I need to brush up on my Spanish. The upside, though, is that the majority of my students seem like really good kids.
I’m ready for a long year. A long, good year full of growth. That’s the plan.
*****
I spent most of last night writing, so I’m keeping this brief today.
It was hard being apart from Rhondi yesterday. Every day is a little bit hard, but with it being our anniversary and the death of Shelton, it just felt heavier than usual. I can’t help but just be a little big mad about the whole situation. This is why I keep busy, I suppose. October will be here soon.
*****
Fuck Fentanyl. Fuck Heroin. Fuck Meth. Fuck all of them. I’m tired of my friends dying. I’m tired of seeing people I love slowly killing themselves. Enough, already. Please.
*****
When I started on this project, I hadn’t really considered falling in love with any new records this year. It just didn’t seem very likely at all. Then the Shellac album came out.
A month later, on June 28 of this year, Redd Kross put out a self-titled record that is the 8th album in their storied career. I listened to it about five times straight right off the bat and have probably listened another 25 times in the last month. Needless to say, I love it.
I’ve loved Redd Kross since the mid-80s. I think the first song of theirs that I heard was “Annette’s Got the Hits” or maybe something else, but I think I’m right there. That one got my attention right away and I’ve been a fan ever since.
To be honest, I was very curious about this record. I heard the first single, “Candy Coloured Catastrophe” and was super intrigued by it. The rest of the album is right up there with anything Redd Kross has done.
Redd Kross is eighteen tracks of power-pop, punky, psychedelic goodness. There is stuff that sounds like a Beatles tribute band and stuff that sounds like it would have been more at home as the soundtrack to I Love You, Alice B. Toklas. This should be no surprise since the band has been cranking out this type of thing for forty years.
While Jeff McDonald is still the primary song writer in the band, there are more Stephen McDonald songs on this one than usual and I love that. Stephen is such a great bass player. He’s a fantastic showman, too, but his bass playing has just gotten better and better over the years. I especially like his work on “Too Good To Be True.”
“I’ll Take Your Word For It” is also really good. Stephen seems to have a bone to pick with some people in his life and if you listen to the words, you’ll probably think of a few people in your life that should mind their own P’s and Q’s, too. Good stuff from the bass man.
I’m so stoked to hear these songs live this weekend. They are playing at Valley Bar on Sunday night (August 11, 2024). I will be there with bells on.
Other songs that I really enjoy are “Good Time Propaganda Band” which has some Beatles stuff going on, but also some great lyrics. In fact, I need to mention that the lyrics on Redd Kross are among my favorites of theirs. It’s almost like a “self-help” record in a way.
“Emmanuelle Insance” has a really clever nod to “Annette’s Got the Hits” in it, too. Give it a listen and see if you can tell what it is. It’s pretty blatant at one point.
“Simple Magic” is another good one and if you make it to the end (you will, trust me), you will be bowled over by “Born Innocent” if you are a long-time fan. It will get you right in the feelers.
The thing about Redd Kross that turns a few people I know off is that they used to kind of come off like they thought they were cooler than everyone else. In a way, I suppose they were right. I’ve been lucky enough to have spent a few hours at this point talking with Stephen and about an hour with Jeff. They are interesting, funny, and genuinely nice dudes.
That makes Redd Kross even better. Nice guys finish first sometimes, too.
*****
See you tomorrow.
AI has never seen Redd Kross.
Comments