Redd Kross Teen Babes From Monsanto LP reissue
What timing: I just returned from seeing RED CRO$S do Born Innocent live, and am still trying to collect myself. What a band—rabid obsessives that dreamed themselves into becoming one of Los Angeles’ all-time finest. That life-altering love of rock’n’roll is the very blood pumping through Teen Babes From Monsanto, their all-covers sophomore album from 1984, reissued now with revamped pin-up teen-dream cover art to boot. As the McDonald brothers cruise through STOOGES, KISS, and ROLLING STONES tunes (to name a handful), they reimagine the material via punk fandom and pure love, eschewing the nihilism & violence so often associated with the time and place for a tongue-in-cheek, glitter-rained rock-star dreamworld. It’s easy to get caught up, and that’s the goddamn point. One to reach for when all the shit’s got you down.