Boy, that Marilyn Manson sure is scary, naming himself after a serial killer and all. And how about that Trent Reznor? He recorded The Downward Spiral in Sharon Tate's old house! That's so cool! Don't you think that's cool?

Redd Kross sure don't. As the band that made it safe for indie rockers to engage in pop-culture hero-worship during the 1980s, the Kross got their Manson fascination out of the way ages ago, when they covered Chuckie's "Cease To Exist" on their debut Born Innocent. As Redd Kross will tell you, Manson is sooooo, '82.

"We were fascinated with him on more of a rock culture level," explained Kross bassist and co-founder Steve McDonald over lattes with drummer Brian Reitzell at the Bathurst and Bloor Second-Cup. "It was like his whole story, about being friends with [Beach Boy] Dennis Wilson and all these hippie chicks. It was about swinging L.A. in the 1960s-that was what we found really fascinating and it wasn't just that someone killed people. And I think that that is a fascination that intelligent 14 year olds should go through. You know, Trent Reznor, if he's obsessed with that right now, then that's a little passe.

What's cool about Marilyn Manson is that they sampled me! A friend of mine did a [net] search for Desperate Teenage Love Dolls, which was a movie I was in, and it came up with Marilyn Manson. All of these quotes from that movie, were sampled in one of their songs, but it was some obscure demo. A friend of mine saw, them and went backstage, said the quotes and said 'You sampled me!' And Marilyn said 'I didn't sample you, I didn't sample that.' And [my friend] said 'Yeah you did! On track number...' And he was like 'Oh, that's Just a demo.' He knew what to say. They're advised by their lawyers to deny everything."

Although McDonald can't sue Marilyn for royalties, he and the rest of Redd Kross- lead singing brother Jeff, Reitzell and guitarist Eddie Kurziel- can take pride in the fact they've left a permanent mark on today's alterna-indie contingent. The Kross' irony-free praise of '70s icons like the Carpenters and Linda Blair predated Sonic Youth's own fixation with celebrity, while one-time tour mates the Stone Temple Pilots' "Big Bang Baby" is a great imitation of Jeff McDonald imitating John Lennon. And, as the photos decorating the band's 1993 release Phaseshifter attest, Redd Kross are the only band in the world who could get Gene Simmons, Kim Gordon and Mike Watt in the same room to pose for a picture. However, all this hobnobbing comes at a price, as Redd Kross' reputation as '70s pop-culture memory banks and celebrity kitsch-meisters- not
helped by Steve and Jeff s experiences interviewing Cher and Richard Carpenter for RayGun magazine-- often precedes the band's actual recorded output.

"That's fine," said Steve, "come to our show, live out your fantasy. But we're heavily into the '90s. There's just as much pop culture, there's as much to pick out and worship in this era as there was 20 years ago. We would never pigeonhole ourselves into one era. For instance, Jeff is obsessed with the Full House twins."

Not to mention the Spice Girls, whose song "Wannabe" Jeff quoted during last Saturday's performance of "Jimmy's Fantasy" at Lee's Palace. Redd Kross has always been a band of the times, as the teenaged punk brats who busted out of L.A. in 1980 have evolved into accomplisbed power popsters, making to day's post-Offspring nostalgia for early '80s testosterone-heavy Cal-punk all the more amusing to the brothers McDonald.

"We weren't really a part of the Orange County hardcore scene that is talked about a lot nowadays," explained Steve. "We didn't really like that. Black Flag kind of started that and they were very good, but everything that they influenced was pretty much horrible."

"Everything they influenced?" interjected drummer Brian. "They influenced you to a degree."

"No," continued Steve, "everything they influenced from the period, like 1980 to 1983, which was supposedly some sort of great period for California teen angst music. It was really bad. I hated it."

But wasn't the level of testosterone on the Stone Temple Pilots tour equally as high?

"No,"replied Steve, "with Stone Temple Pilots, there's a lot of girls in the audience. The feminine element of a crowd makes it much more intelligent. If you get just testosterone-driven bald men in the front that just want to mosh against each other's sweaty bodies, then-aside from being extremely turned on- it gets really annoying. And that is when it's really embarrassing. We could be fucking mopping the floor-it doesn't matter what we're doing, people are just there for their ritual."

The Kross' latest record, Show World should kill that problem. A collection of timeless jangle pop, Show World updates "Ticket To Ride"-era Beatles without resorting to the grungola tactics that often bogged down the preceding Phaseshifter. But considering that the album offers up a simple 40 minute assortment of three minute pop songs (i.e., no operatic rock orchestration-partly due to the amicable departure of classically trained keyboardist Gere Fennelly ), you have to wonder what the heck took so long.

"We were touring our asses off," explained Steve. "Actually, the record was supposed to come out in September '96, but Jeff came down with mono and then when he was getting better, Brian broke his ankle."

Shit, the body count is almost as high as R.E.M.'s!

"Well," said Steve, "at least his head didn't explode."

"Oh god!" exclaimed Brian. "Don't even say that!"

Fortunately, Redd Kross are currently on tour with all bodily functions intact and considering CFNY's regular rotation of Show World's first single "Stoned," perhaps they'll achieve the 17-year overnight success that has alluded them. Not that Redd Kross would care if they didn't.

"No one would ever turn down selling 10 million records," said Steve, matter-of-factly. "But the notion that that should be an expectation is confusing to me, because it's such a small percentage of people who ever have that kind of success. I've been noticing, this is a theme in our interviews lately and I don't quite understand why, because I don't know why people expect that from musicians. It's like there's no in-between. There's either garage bands or Bush X"

Suddenly, Steve was reminded of what's great about the true north, strong and free.

"People always ask me, 'Why do you like Canada in comparison to other countries and I say 'Because you guys made Bush change their name!' I don't really like Bush the band, but I love Bush X"

Show World is available on Mercury/Polygram. For a complete transcription of our Redd Kross interview, as well as shots from last Saturday's show, check out the Varsity On-line at  www.varsity.utoronto.ca

REDD KROSS SPEAKS!
On their all-time worst experience
Brian: "My worst experience- and granted, I've only been in group for six years, which is twice as long as most British bands last- was playing a show in Las Vegas for SPIN magazine and fashion clothes people. The opening act was a five year old Elvis impersonator."

On who will play Darby Crash on the prospective film based on the life of the late Germs singer.
Steve: "This is so Hollywood! Well [assumes movie executive tones] our first choice is Leonard Dicaprio. But..."
Brian: "I think Macauley Culkin will do. Actually, I think he's going to play Kurt Cobain in The Kurt Cobain Story, with Tina Yothers as Courtney."

On interviewing Cher.
Steve: "When we asked her about infomercials, Jeff had this whole angle how he thought it was, like, really arty that she did them. And she was, like, all freaked out because she was doing damage control and thought that they had fucked up her career. She was really into the interview, because most people only want to know about Greg Allman."

On who killed Tupan and B.I.G.
Brian: "It almost looks like Tupac was killed by the Bloods. Because Suge [Knight] didn't get shot. He was in the car right next to him and only one little bullet grazed his temple. And they knew where he was. His bodyguards weren't armed and they were almost always armed. It seems like and inside job."
Steve: "Do you think if Blur and Oasis were American they would be shooting each other? That would be awesome!"

By: Stuart Berman