Bring on the friggin’ awesomeness
Redd Kross — Citadel
(from the EP Teen Babes From Monsanto, Gasatanka Records 1984)
There’s little to say about this one except that it’s friggin’ awesome, and couldn’t we all use a bit more friggin’ awesomeness in our lives? I’m sure I’ve probably gone on about my views on the Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request here before, but any album that has both this and “She’s A Rainbow” on it doesn’t deserve its poor reputation. I’m just sayin’.
Teen Babes From Monsanto is next to impossible to locate these days. My own first copy was a cassette missing its cover that I bought out of the $1 box at Ralph’s Records shortly after becoming obsessed with this EP’s follow-up Neurotica. My vinyl copy came via eBay many years later. I’ve heard there’s some kind of tour CD from the ’90s that has these songs on it, but that’s likely even harder to find. But if you can locate a copy, pick it up: it’s probably the purest expression of the McDonald brothers’ own peculiar trash aesthetic.
–Stewart Mason
