The special 40th anniversary edition of the Red Cross EP, which includes the band's six-song eponymous debut and adds five contemporaneous extra tracks, is the most comprehensive document to date of the extraordinary birth of Redd Kross. The demo session was recorded at Media Art in Hermosa Beach, the same studio where Black Flag made their Nervous Breakdown EP. Engineered by Spot and produced by power pop godfather Joe Nolte of the Last, these four tracks mark the first time the band had ever stepped foot in a recording studio. Notably, the demo session was paid for with 12-year-old bassist Steven's paper route money. A couple of months later, in October 1979, the band recorded the "Posh Boy" sessions at the Shelter, a studio in Hollywood owned by Shelter Records. This session produced the proto power pop punk classics "Annette's Got the Hits" and "I Hate My School," both of which would appear on their 1980 self-titled debut EP on Posh Boy Records. The entire birth story of Redd Kross is being celebrated on this 40th anniversary edition of Red Cross (known to many as "the Posh Boy EP"), and these tracks sound as fresh and vital to our ears now as they did when they were originally released four decades ago.
