Redd Kross

Redd Kross exist at the sweet spot where punk, metal, and bubblegum meet, and the band's driving forces, Jeff and Steven McDonald, have stayed true to that equation since they started out in the late '70s. They made their first album, 1981's punk-leaning Born Innocent, when they were in high school. Their love of '70s pop culture and sugar-smacked hooks, however, led them to aim for a more accessible sound. They made detours into pop-metal on 1987's Neurotica, power pop on 1990's Third Eye, tuneful post-grunge on 1997's Show World, and after years spent working on other projects and the occasional reunion, they returned for a second act filled with albums -- 2012's Researching the Blues, 2019's Beyond the Door, 2024's Redd Kross -- that energetically captured the spirit of the band's early work and combined it with a more mature lyrical approach.