Red Cross (EP)

On August 29, 1979, the day after Ron Reyes joined them on drums, replacing John Stielow, McDonald brothers' middle school punk rock band, the Tourists, would change their name to "Red Cross". Soon after, on September 6, they would go into a recording studio for the first time, In 1980, six tracks from the Posh Boy recording session were included on The Siren, a sampler LP shared with San Francisco power pop band 391, and Salt Lake City punk rock act Spittin' Teeth. Their participation in this album would be the recorded debut for Red Cross; so, their following release, the Red Cross EP, would be but a stand-alone reissue of those same songs. ==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. The mixing was done at Paradise Studios in Burbank, California. ==Release==

Red Cross was first released in 1980 on Posh Boy Records, The first pressing, without any cover art, came with pinkish-red labels and packaged in a generic, multicolored die-cut record sleeve. ==Reissues==

In 1981, Red Cross was included, in its entirety, on the rare cassette tape version of the Beach Blvd compilation issued by Posh Boy Records. By 1985, Red Cross was re-released featuring its own cover art, and disc labels printed in black and red on a silver background. 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. In 1987, Posh Boy repackaged The Future Looks Bright, a sampler album originally produced by the label, jointly with SST Records, in 1981. Retitled as The Future Looks Brighter, this edition featured only artists from the Posh Boy roster. The complete Red Cross EP was added to the CD version. In late 1987, the EP was reissued under the title '''''Annette's Got the Hits''''', featuring alternate cover art but keeping the same catalog number 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'', in conjunction with Stepmothers' 1981 EP All Systems Go and an untitled six-track EP featuring Social Distortion's early songs recorded in 1981. 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. 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. The original spelling of the group's name is changed to "Redd Kross". ==Re-recordings==

After Greg Hetson left Red Cross to join the Circle Jerks in December 1979, was featured as "Live Fast Die Young" on his new band's first studio album, Group Sex, released in October 1980 on Frontier Records. ==Track listing==

Red Cross • Jeff McDonald – vocals • Greg Hetson – guitar • Steve McDonald – bass, vocals • Ron Reyes – drums Production • Robbie Fields – executive in charge of production • Roger Harris – production, engineering ==Notes==