NOTES AND CHORDS MEAN EVERYTHING

Possibly one of the best markers to explain the DNA of Redd Kross unfurls in Amoeba Records’ What’s in My Bag? YouTube series, where Jeff McDonald and younger brother Steven get the prerequisite shopping spree in the store and eagerly explain their baskets of CDs and DVDs that sport James Taylor, Ty Segall, and John and Yoko’s Dick Cavett Show takeover, among other finds. When it comes to showing Steve’s copy of REO Speedwagon’s 1979 opus Nine Lives, there’s bemused squabbling on whether Cronin & Co. were attempting pre-hair metal or post-glam easy listening, finally deciding it was MOR new wave. It’s this attention to the finer details of rock excess, coupled with their being quite aware of what makes its elements succeed (or fail), that somewhat guides RK’s 40-plus-year span. Maybe they haven’t scored their own “Can’t Fight This Feeling’’ (however, they once grazed the U.K. Top 50 with a Carpenters cover in 1994), but they’ve got zero failures and are arguably at their peak these days.