Redd Kross’s first album, Born Innocent, was the perfect hardcore album simply because it refused the genre’s limitations and brought chutzpah, pizzazz and audacity to the table – they might have emerged, as blinking young teens, from the LA hardcore scene, but that album had them covering songs from Russ Meyer films and Charles Manson bootlegs. Teen Babes From Monsanto was the real statement, though; six covers and an extended blow-out of Born Innocent’s peak moment, “Linda Blair.” They were obviously trash pop mavens, but their knowledge was deep and smart; okay, they covered Kiss’s “Deuce” (and who wouldn’t), but the Rolling Stones’ “Citadel,” from their supposed psychedelic misstep (actually one of their best albums), Their Satanic Majesties Request? Smart move at the time, smart move now. Bowie’s “Saviour Machine” gets a heavy revisit, but the moment that’s most telling is their take on the Stooges’ “Ann,” the song people say they skip on that group’s first album. Idiots. That Redd Kross recognised that “Ann” was the beating heart of The Stooges was good enough; that they launched Teen Babes into as toxic a pop world as the mid-eighties was proof of genius – or at very least, superior wit.