Redd Kross just released its first album in 15 years, which we honestly didn’t think was going to happen. Researching The Blues (Merge) is as close to our Platonic ideal of what a rock ‘n’ roll record should sound like: punk-rock fury mixed with power-pop hooks and tinged with a fringe of psychedelia. Researching embodies the best of what the band has done since it started out 34 years ago (during the first wave of L.A. punk) and continued throughout the ’80s and ’90s while taking perpendicular approaches to the prevailing trends of the era. In an age where the tenets of genre conventions and the rigidity that once separated sounds and scenes are no longer relevant, Redd Kross returns as prodigal sons. Brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald, Roy McDonald (no relation) and Jason Shapiro will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new feature on them.
Steve McDonald: For the touring musician, I’d have to call streaming Netflix essential. Everyone has their own taste in programming. I tend to gravitate toward boring documentaries, especially ones about physics, astronomy or Woody Allen. Well, actually, that last one there, from 2011, is not boring at all, and I would recommend it to just about anyone, especially anyone that is involved in creative work, which is just about everyone I know. I suppose if I were a more avid reader this would be equivalent to me saying a Kindle is essential, but I’m not so much and now that Netflix has an app for iPhones and iPads, I’m really in business. I just watched my favorite movie, Love And Death, in the palm of my hand during a drive from Detroit to Chicago, and I still had some time left for an episode of Upstairs Downstairs, which I’m becoming obsessed with. Richard and Lady Marjorie Bellamy are definitely my all-time favorite TV aristocrats, and I didn’t even know I was into turn-of-the-century British aristocracy prior to Downton Abbey. “You better stay away from Downton” …. (Listen to the new Redd Kross record, and you might find yourself singing that, too.) But since experiencing the joys of streaming media on my laptop and handheld I’ve become quite the history buff. And what does a history buff do when he wants some mindless entertainment? Watch historically correct TV dramas, which brings me back to streaming Netflix. Of course there is the one little problem of it gobbling up massive amounts of data on your data plan. Hopefully you have an unlimited data plan with no restrictions, otherwise you are relegated to Wi-Fi viewing only, but even that is pretty damn good.
Video after the jump.
