UNDERNEATHICA: Whatever Happened to Red Five?

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Whatever Happened to Red Five?

The mp3 blog South of Mainstream (which appears to be dormant) posted on the band Red Five a few months back. This Southern California band, led by Jenni McElrath and Betty Carmellini, made one album for Interscope in 1997 called Flash, and then disappeared. It's hard to find much information about Red Five, since their name (which is a Star Wars reference) has been used by several other organizations and individuals.

I first heard the band on a promotional cd that came with a pair of Converse high tops. The song ("Around the Wicked") was credited as "from the album Wink", which was apparently supposed to come out in 1999, but didn't. A customer on Amazon who reviewed Flash said that she had a rare Red Five EP with a few demos and a studio song called "I'm Bound". The 1997 film Slaves to the Underground had a few Red Five songs on the soundtrack that weren't on Flash. Carmellini now works for Filter magazine and has a solo album coming out this year called Here's to Skating on Thin Ice. I found Jenni McElrath on Myspace, with a band called Mostly Sunny.

I'm not crazy about Flash, but the song I've posted here today is SO good that it makes me wonder what else Red Five had in the can when they broke up. "Around the Wicked" is miles beyond anything from the first Red Five album, a delicious slice of punk-pop with soaring harmonies and rich layers of guitar. Bon appetit.

Red Five: Around the Wicked

5 Comments:

At 2/09/2006 4:37 PM , Anonymous said...: Your blog is functioning as my memory prod to the 90s...I remember Red Five--I saw them at Brownies, but remember nothing about them. That song is excellent.
At 2/09/2006 7:55 PM , Anonymous said...: Jon
I am really loving your song choices. No more need to send me those once a year CDs. Jon Manjars has jumped into the world of blogging with a vengance. Wait to go Bloggy.
At 10/19/2006 5:43 AM , Andrew Kane said...: Red Five: Around the Wicked

is not working. I hope you make it work. I would like to hear it...
At 8/07/2010 11:00 PM , Anonymous said...: I just saw that there is a 41 song anthology of Red Five up on itunes.
At 8/09/2010 12:27 PM , jonder said...: Yes! It's also available on CDBaby. I was happy to finally hear the rest of the band's recordings. Great stuff.