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Redd Kross have always been too good, too perfect, too true, to believe. Mythic. Could this tuneful hardcore punk EP really be the work of a brother band with the 15-year-old on vocals and guitar and the 11-year-old on bass? Did Redd Kross really open for Black Flag? Could Jeff and Steve really have been born and raised in the Beach Boys’ hometown of Hawthorne, California, and did Jeff really see the Beatles live in 1966? Did one of them, dressed in Gene Simmons makeup, really kill a Bruce Springsteen impersonator onstage? Is that really their hair? Could Researching the Blues, their first studio album in 15 years, be not just the hottest thing since Cher went solo but the best start-to-finish Redd Kross record ever?

Somehow, the answer to all the above is improbably, wonderfully, beautifully YES. Long have Redd Kross rocked, and long have critics, devoted fans, Rodney Bingenheimer and fellow musicians from Seattle (Nirvana) to New York (Sonic Youth) to Driftwood, Texas (Butthole Surfers) to Hollywood (everybody) bowed before the Kross and their self-aware pre-spandex Glam bubblegum garage psychedelic Cheap Trick/Kiss/Revolver post-Kim Fowley rock and roll. Degenerate, sweet: tongues in cheek, song-long winks.

Commercial success may never have been theirs (if time and space had been aligned correctly, they’d have been blitzing ballrooms in the early ’70s instead of opening for Stone Temple Pilots in the early ’90s), but Redd Kross have endured and endeared because they’ve always had the best possible attitude: smarts, smiles, and total commitment to live hair-spinning showmanship.

Like fellow legendary Great American John Waters, they’ve devoted their career to making subversive entertainment in a high pop celebrity style, reintroducing in their especially golden late ’80s/early-’90s period such forbidden classic-rock tropes as melodies, harmonies, ripping musicianship, and primary colors-stuff that had (largely) been ditched in the underground rock’s post-punk, No Wave, hardcore, and sensitive-egghead scenes. Redd Kross then spent the ’90s making one great misunderstood record after another until enough shit had caked the fan that in 1997 they pretty much called it quits.

But you never quit being brothers. And so here’s the next Redd Kross album-produced and mixed by younger brother Steve earlier this year after it was mostly written by older brother Jeff in 2007-08, and recorded in that same period with the band’s current lineup, who’ve re-engaged in live performance since being lured back into action by an excitable Spanish promoter.

They’re too nice to say so themselves, but attention must be paid to this band, to this great album, Researching the Blues, which, like a pair of great pants, is tight and the perfect length. By the time you’re two minutes and 51 seconds into the second song, “Stay Away From Downtown,” and the band is breaking into the sha-la-las, you will be running around the room with your hands in the air. As the fourth song, the Brian Wilsonian “Dracula’s Daughters,” ends and the dynamic mid-’60s Beatles jingle “Meet Frankenstein” launches into its first chorus, you will be mass-texting all of your friends with the good news. By the final four songs-”The Nu Temptations” (Stooges-worthy riffs! Cowsills counter-harmonies! And more!), the “Surrender”/Noel ‘n’ Liam rockers “Choose to Play” and “Winter Blues,” and the stunning summer psychedelic power pop that is the closing “Hazel Eyes”-you will know the truth. You tried the rest-but now you’ve had the best. The McDonalds were educated at Rock ‘n’ Roll High, and they’ve stayed true to their school. Here’s to their beautiful reunion! Redd Kross Forever!

My Official Soundcloud page. Thanks for listening! For all enquiries please contact jocelynbrownmusic@gmail.com

Number 1 Billboard Charting Multi Platinum Record Producer, Classical Pianist, Composer & Writer @ Sony Music & Universal Music Group. 

Production Work Inquiries / Remixes etc. - www.alpinemastering.com
Owner / Founder of Fall From Grace Records - www.fallfromgracerecords.com
Owner / Founder of Dying Light Records - www.dyinglightrecords.com
Licensing / Sync / TV - Mishelle Pack - Sony Music - mishelle.pack@sonymusicpub.com 
Bookings - www.reflektagency.com

Multi-platinum record selling musician and record producer, Glenn Morrison is the archetype of the modern DJ/producer star. The 37-year-old Toronto native is as happy rocking an underground house party as he is performing at an exclusive oceanic rooftop venue; as adept at composing an international club anthem like ‘Contact’ as he is at concocting a pop dance record that strikes to the Billboard Charts in America.  His single ‘Goodbye’ has been Certified Double Platinum and went Number 1 for 11 weeks in a row on the Canadian Billboard Chart, as well as going Number 1 in Russia’s Billboard Chart.  It wound up taking over Eastern Europe and became Number 1 in 7 Countries to date.

He is signed to Sony Records, Universal Music Group and Sony Music ATV as a writer, producer, & recording artist. He has been nominated for several Juno Awards in 2015, as well as Fans Choice Award / Dance Artist of the Year / Dance Record of the Year for Sirius XM Radio Music Awards, and won the SOCAN Dance Record of the Year 2015. 

Glenn has enjoyed the support of DJs as varied as John Digweed and Pete Tong to Dixon and Solomun. For three years he was resident at Ibiza’s Amnesia Club, and was a resident at Space in Ibiza for 1 year, as well as Space in Miami for 2 years.  Last year, Glenn added the latest addition to his residency repertoire in his monthly night being held in Las Vegas at the acclaimed Moon Nightclub at the Palms Casino.  And he is perfecting a sinuous, hooky sound that combines the eerie beauty of pure techno with light rains of melody and flashes of emotion.

In short, Glenn Morrison is one of the most dynamic and accomplished talents in electronic music today. Period.

Morrison is a difficult DJ to pigeonhole and that’s what makes him such a fascinating talent. One minute his sound is ruthlessly minimal and funky; the next it’s washed in color and vocals and emotion.

Glenn has had an unusual career path. He started off as a classical pianist, a preteen prodigy, performing  – and winning – competitions. Then came a life-changing encounter with electronic music.

Production continues apace in the new mastering studio Morrison has built in Toronto, entitled Alpine Mastering (www.alpinemastering.com). Be it sound design for video game companies like Nintendo, EA Sports, Activision or Rockstar, or his own productions, he simply doesn’t stop making and playing music.  His latest partnership with IMAX has been a thrilling experience, pushing the boundaries of electronic music to that of sound-scoring live theatre visuals.  Glenn & IMAX unveiled this concept with a 3 part show series at the 2012 ComicCon event held at the Ruben H Fleet Science Centre in San Diego, and it was a huge success. “It’s been a liberating transition for me to make music for all different stylistic purposes, and I’m very grateful for having the ability to do what I love for a living” says Glenn.

Watch this brilliant artist over the course of 2021 as he will be reshaping and redefining how we perceive electronic music through an ample amount of live shows, performances, and recordings.

Dom Phillips, author of ‘Superstar DJs Here We Go!’ - https://www.amazon.ca/Superstar-Djs-Here-We-Go/dp/0091926939

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