Search - Redd Kross :: Born Innocent

Fun and trashy

Ryan | california | 02/04/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Redd Kross, Red Cross, whatever you wanna call 'em... I dig it. How can I NOT like a punk band who started with a 12 year old bass player? On this record, the bass player is the ripe old age of 14. Killer. And he's actually pretty good.
It seems like early on Red Cross changed style on every damn record they put out. My personal favorite by them, their self-titled debut 12" (aka "Annette's Got the Hits") is snotty, brief teen punk with topics like school and girls. Honestly one of the best punk records ever for its amatuerish charm and impressively catchy tunes for being written by a bunch of kids barely past puberty.
"Born Innocent" saw Red Cross dropping half of their original members (Chavo from Black Flag and Greg from Circle Jerks/Bad Religion!) and recruiting a couple of cute girls, morphing their sound to more structured, trashy, garagy punk. Lots of wild, meandering, atonal guitar leads and sub-NY Dolls slop ... but a lot of fun. Its the kinda record you put on to lift your spirits and deliver a jolt of juvenile energy right to your heart.
Pretty much all the songs are great in their own way, whether the anthemic "Notes and Chords Mean Nothing To Me" (which sums up my philosophy of playing music pretty well) or the not-very-PC "Kill Someone That You Hate" ('smashing windows with a baseball bat/ for a feeling that is great/ go and kill someone you hate').
Pop culture references abound; songs about Linda Blair and Patty Hurst are thrown about liberally, and they even cover a Charles Manson tune. You gotta wonder what the kids' parents thought.
All in all, another overlooked gem in the LA punk crown that more people oughtta check out. Rock!"

One of my favorites ever....

Carlos Arauz-pacheco | 01/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"ok i need to apologize to myself for not listening to this album the past few months(because before that i was sooooo hooked on it!) but SOMEONE(whether you are reading this sooner or later, probably later) has not been making it any fun because he makes it seem too obnoxious, anyways whatever, this album is great!! when they made this album they were just some kid punk band in a historical time, something sucked back then to make this music just great! unlike most other bands in america by the time this was made, a lot of people were playing very fast(not like that is bad but...) but red cross played music inspired by what THEY thought was good, who cares what everyone else thinks?



orignally this album was on smoke seven records, a label which had other great records from bands not_____(something) enough to be on other labels. such great records like this one of course, the genocide/mia split, the public service comp with circle one (a bizarre christian PUNX gang band), and now super-legendary bad religion(whom one of the original red cross members is in now, i find that a little ironic)...i'm glad this album was rereleased. it, along with all the big boys material(specially wheres my towel lp), taught me a very valuable lesson that some people will never learn their entire lives: music is not about looking cool, hardass, professional, its supposed to entertain, just have FUN, that is it, no matter what, just have fun...."