Overview: Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story is not your regular rock doc! After all, brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald were never a regular rock band. They were the group with the eleven-year-old bass player threading their way through the hardcore punk scene only to reappear, just a few years later, as masters of power pop hooks and bubblegum fun. They were Partridge Family fanatics who influenced the entire grunge crowd. They were long-haired punks with stage costumes that would have put even the boldest glam rockers to shame.

These sound like contradictions, but Redd Kross is the unfettered expression of two brothers and their rock’n’roll dream so exclusively informed by a visceral love of music and pop culture that it couldn’t help but defy genres and conventions, evolve without pause and survive both the music industry and a kidnapping!

Blu-ray Verdict: A line-up of talking heads straight outta Lollapalooza tells stories you would swear were made up. But Jeff and Steve McDonald were already larger than life when they were in their teens, and the adventures that followed reflect just that.

For me personally and fully admitting that I am not so much a fan of their later albums, although I’m sure they will probably grow on me as the years pass, in my humble opinion Phaseshifter would’ve been a huge hit if they never hooked Nirvana up with their manager. Kurt and Courtney forbade him from calling back Redd Kross ever again. So, the idea that Kurt didn’t want to be mega-huge is a lie. Many people close to Kurt have said that over the years, so it is not just my own thoughts at play here.

Redd Kross was hugely influential to the upcoming grunge scene when they rolled through Seattle and really big worldwide among alternative music fans. Sonic Youth loved them, Shonen Knife loved them so much they wrote a song about them literally called “Redd Kross.” Redd Kross returned the favor by writing a song called “Shonen Knife.” Kurt Cobain was a huge fan of Sonic Youth and Shonen Knife. He toured with both bands. For him to namedrop every single underground band EXCEPT Redd Kross after he stole their manager tells you how big of a threat he thought Redd Kross was to Nirvana’s burgeoning fame.

Early Redd Kross is some of the most awesome sounding noisy garage punk stuff you will ever hear. They quickly changed direction and kept changing direction on subsequent albums. They really did their own thing and didn’t really follow anyone else’s lead. I don’t even know which album to recommend because they’re all pretty different and it depends on what kind of music you’re really into at the time.

This new documentary contains a sense of all of that, showcasing the fact that, and regardless to the whole Nirvana issues, and through more than four decades Redd Kross have been nothing but happily, outrageously and courageously themselves.

Director Andrew Reich (Emmy Award-winning writer on the hit TV Show Friends) conducted dozens of new interviews and had unfettered access to home movies and archival footage featuring THE RUNAWAYS, X, NIRVANA and GUNS N ROSES and members of the SOUNDGARDEN, PEARL JAM, THE MUFFS, MELVINS, GO-GOs and BLACK FLAG.

BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
Commentary Track with Jeff McDonald, Steven McDonald and Andrew Reich
Desperate Teenage Lovedolls and Lovedolls Superstar Featurette [15:07]
Polliwog Park Concert Featurette [5:09]
Santa Monica Pier Concert Featurette [4:29]
Beginnings – Expanded [8:04]
The Posh Boy Era – Expanded [10:34]
Ron Reyes and Dez Cadena [4:49]
Name Change from Red Cross to Redd Kross [9:12]
Teen Babes From Monsanto – Expanded [12:32]
Neurotica – Expanded [8:38]
The Naz Pad [2:04]
Third Eye Gets A Good Rap [1:47]
Spirit of ’76 – Expanded [5:46]
Naz Pad Rehearsal Jan 1989 [52:41]
Media Blitz Appearance [12:29]
Digging in Jeff’s Record Closet [18:31]
Steve Breaks Down Every Redd Kross Record [27:50]
Kim Shattuck Full Interview [30:52]
The Tourists Reunion Rehearsal 11/21/15 [12:37]
The Tourists Reunion Show 11/22/15 [13:18]
The McDonald Brothers Unplugged [41:21]
Santa Monica Screening Q&A with McDonald Brothers and Andrew Reich 11/11/24 [30:09]
First Pressing of 2000 Limited Editions comes packaged in an o-ring with a booklet and 2 of 4 randomly inserted postcards

OFFICIAL TRAILER | BORN INNOCENT: THE REDD KROSS STORY

Official Purchase Link