Red Cross (EP)

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"By September [1979], Red Cross had saved up enough money to record a demo, booking some time at Media Arts for their first recording session. "I came home one night, real tired, and all I wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep," ... "They said, 'We're going to the studio tonight, and we don't know what to do.' So I ended up producing the session, after drinking three cups of coffee. We had fun, and they sounded good, and I sorta liked the recordings. Their label, Posh Boy, hated them though, and made them record everything again."

— Joe Nolte as quoted in the book Spray Paint the Walls: The Story of Black Flag [10]

In 1980, six tracks from the Posh Boy recording session were included on The Siren, [nb 4] [13] [14] [15] a sampler LP shared with San Francisco power pop band 391, and Salt Lake City punk rock act Spittin' Teeth. [14] [16] [17] Their participation in this album would be the recorded debut for Red Cross; [7] so, their following release, the Red Cross EP, would be but a stand-alone reissue of those same songs. [1] [7]

Production

All songs on Red Cross were originally recorded with producer and engineer Roger Harris at the Shelter Studios in Hollywood, California on October 1, 1979. [8] The mixing was done at Paradise Studios in Burbank, California.

Release

Red Cross was first released in 1980 on Posh Boy Records, [2] [3] [13] in 12-inch vinyl disc format. [nb 5] The first pressing, without any cover art, came with pinkish-red labels and packaged in a generic, multicolored die-cut record sleeve. [18]

Reissues

In 1981, Red Cross was included, in its entirety, on the rare cassette tape version of the Beach Blvd compilation [nb 6] [16] [19] issued by Posh Boy Records.

By 1985, Red Cross was re-released featuring its own cover art, [20] [21] and disc labels printed in black and red on a silver background. [22] This same edition would be repressed the year after.

A new repressing was released in 1987, featuring disc labels printed in black on a silver background and packaged in a generic record company sleeve as the original release. [23]

In 1987, Posh Boy repackaged The Future Looks Bright, [nb 7] [24] a sampler album originally produced by the label, jointly with SST Records, in 1981. [nb 8] Retitled as The Future Looks Brighter, [27] this edition featured only artists from the Posh Boy roster. The complete Red Cross EP was added to the CD version. [nb 9] [24] [28]

In late 1987, the EP was reissued under the title Annette's Got the Hits, [1] [29] featuring alternate cover art [30] but keeping the same catalog number [nb 5] and the old disc labels from the 1985 re-release.

In 1990, Posh Boy issued the single "Cover Band", [nb 10] [nb 11] [32] [33] bundled with "Burn Out" on its flip side.

In 1991, Annette's Got the Hits was included in the numbered 3-EP box set The Posh E.P.'s Vol. 1, [nb 12] [34] in conjunction with Stepmothers' [35] 1981 EP All Systems Go [nb 13] [36] [37] and an untitled six-track EP featuring Social Distortion's early songs recorded in 1981. [nb 14] [40]

In 2020 a 40th Anniversary edition was reissued by Merge Records with the original rejected Joe Nolte (leader of Los Angeles rock band The Last) session tracks from September 1979 added and one live track recorded in July 1979 by 'The Tourists', the original band name before they changed it to Red Cross in August 1979.

Cover art

The original cover art for Red Cross, informally referred to as "the red cover", shows the band's name on a red background, written, with its original spelling, in uppercase white letters resembling strips of medical tape. [20]

On the cover art for Annette's Got the Hits, a photomontage in sepia, portraying the four band members performing live, is displayed on a dark grey background. [30] The original spelling of the group's name is changed to "Redd Kross". [2] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Re-recordings

After Greg Hetson left Red Cross to join the Circle Jerks in December 1979, [2] [5] [7] [8] a controversial alternate version of his song "Cover Band", [nb 15] reworked with new lyrics by Keith Morris, [43] was featured as "Live Fast Die Young" on his new band's first studio album, Group Sex , [nb 16] released in October 1980 on Frontier Records. [1] [3] [16] [44] [45]

Track listing

Red Cross
RedCross RedCrossEP cover.jpeg
EP by
Redd Kross
Released1980, 1981
RecordedOctober 1, 1979
StudioThe Shelter
Genre Punk rock
Length6:22
LanguageEnglish
Label Posh Boy
Producer Roger Harris
Redd Kross chronology
Red Cross
(1980)		 Born Innocent
(1982)
Alternate cover art
RedCross RedCrossEP sleeve.jpeg
First pressing in a generic sleeve.
Side A
No.TitleLyrics/MusicLength
1."Cover Band" Greg Hetson 1:25
2."Annette's Got the Hits" Steve McDonald/Jeff McDonald 1:08
3."I Hate My School"J. McDonald0:57
Side B
No.TitleLyrics/MusicLength
1."Clorox Girls"S. McDonald/J. McDonald0:58
2."S & M Party"Hetson/J. McDonald0:56
3."Standing in Front of Poseur"J. McDonald0:58
Total length:6:22

Personnel

Red Cross [13]

Production

Notes

  1. ↑ "Following the album's release [Born Innocent, 1982], the band was threatened with a lawsuit from the real International Red Cross; as a result, [as of late 1982] the group became Redd Kross..." [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
  2. ↑ The American-born Englishman who was the founder of Posh Boy Records.
  3. ↑ New Underground Records #NU-11
  4. ↑ Posh Boy #PBS 103
  5. 1 2 Posh Boy #PBS 1010
  6. ↑ Posh Boy #PBC 102
  7. ↑ Posh Boy #PBC 120
  8. ↑ "[The Future Looks Bright was] Originally a ... cassette only release [25] with 500 white label vinyl versions [Posh Boy #PBS 120] pressed without cover art [26] for radio promotion. Posh Boy supplied the bands for Side A, [and] SST Records the bands for Side B..." [24]
  9. ↑ Posh Boy #PBCD 120
  10. ↑ Posh Boy #PBS 22
  11. ↑ Credited to the McDonald brothers instead to Greg Hetson. [31]
  12. ↑ Posh Boy #PBS 88111-1
  13. ↑ Posh Boy #PBS 1009
  14. ↑ Posh Boy #PBS 1011. Originally a four-track test pressing, with the working title Posh Boy's Little Monsters, the record was a project intended as Social Distortion's first release, which never materialized. Instead, the band's first recordings were featured on several compilations and one single. In the liner notes for the 1987 compilation The Future Looks Brighter, [38] Robbie Fields commented:
    "... When Social Distortion recorded for Posh Boy in [April] 1981, [39] it was contemplated that [the label] would release a 12" e.p. ... Somehow PBS 1011 ... never got released and instead there were singles ... and cuts on various compilations..."
  15. ↑ According to Ken Salter, who played in a high school punk rock band called the Mongrels (1978-79) with Falling James Moreland of the Leaving Trains, Greg Hetson, who was in the group for only two weeks, stole the music of his song "Civilization" from 1978, which would be later used, first in Red Cross' song "Cover Band", recorded in October 1979, and subsequently in Circle Jerks' song "Live Fast Die Young", recorded in July 1980. According to George Hurchalla, author of Going Underground: American Punk 1979-1989, there's a demo recording that proves this. [41] [42]
  16. ↑ Frontier #FLP 1002

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References

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  11. ↑ Blush, Steven (2001). American Hardcore: A Tribal History . Second ed., 2010. Feral House. ISBN   9781932595895. p. 82.
  12. ↑ Various artists, Life Is Ugly So Why Not Kill Yourself, cover art. Record Collectors of the World Unite. Retrieved August 24, 2015.
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  14. 1 2 Various artists, The Siren. Posh Boy Records . Retrieved June 10, 2015.
  15. ↑ Various artists, The Siren, cover art. Record Collectors of the World Unite. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
  16. 1 2 3 Tonooka, Tim (Fall 1981). Red Cross (EP), review. Ripper (5).
  17. ↑ Blush, Steven (2001). American Hardcore: A Tribal History . Second ed., 2010. Feral House. ISBN   9781932595895. pp. 314-315.
  18. ↑ Red Cross (EP), 1980 release sleeve. Record Collectors of the World Unite. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  19. ↑ Various artists, Beach Blvd, 1981 MC edition cover art Archived May 29, 2015, at the Wayback Machine . Record Collectors of the World Unite. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  20. 1 2 Red Cross (EP), 1985 reissue front cover. Record Collectors of the World Unite. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  21. ↑ Red Cross (EP), 1985 reissue back cover. Record Collectors of the World Unite. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  22. ↑ Yohannan, Tim (November 1985). Red Cross (EP), 1985 reissue review. Maximumrocknroll (30).
  23. ↑ Red Cross (EP), 1987 repressing sleeve. Record Collectors of the World Unite. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  24. 1 2 3 Various artists, The Future Looks Bright/Brighter. Posh Boy Records . Retrieved August 24, 2015.
  25. ↑ Various artists, The Future Looks Bright Ahead, cover art. Record Collectors of the World Unite. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  26. ↑ Various artists, The Future Looks Bright, promo version sleeve. Record Collectors of the World Unite. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  27. ↑ Various artists, The Future Looks Brighter, LP version cover art. Record Collectors of the World Unite. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  28. ↑ Various artists, The Future Looks Brighter, CD version cover art. Record Collectors of the World Unite. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
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  39. ↑ Social Distortion, "Mainliner"/"Playpen", cover art. Record Collectors of the World Unite. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  40. ↑ Social Distortion, untitled, 12" EP release in a black sleeve from the 1991 box set The Posh E.P.'s Vol. 1. Record Collectors of the World Unite. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  41. ↑ Hurchalla, George (Zuo Press, 2005). Going Underground: American Punk 1979–1989. Second ed., 2016. PM Press. ISBN   9781629631134. p. 44.
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  44. ↑ Chick, Stevie (Omnibus Press, 2009). Spray Paint the Walls: The Story of Black Flag. Third ed., 2011. PM Press. ISBN   9781604864182. pp. 129–130.
  45. ↑ Blush, Steven (2001). American Hardcore: A Tribal History . Second ed., 2010. Feral House. ISBN   9781932595895. pp. 83–84.

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