So
a readers email about the good old 1980’s garage punk days got me
thinking… mostly of how damn old I feel since I was there at the time
as well.
I guess by many musical standards of 80’s punk, I was lucky to grow
up in LA and remember hanging out in back yards and garages with many
of the now famous 80’s bands. Being in that Los Angeles punk scene
during High School really was alot of fun. We got away with a hell of a
lot more than any kid can today and we saw bands like the Red Hot Chili
Peppers playing in our back yards when our parents went to Vegas and
left us the house to look after...
Those were the days of High School and weekends watching garage punk bands play - get all crazy and wreck the family home
Now, we had to rotate houses because the folks came back and were
mad, mad, mad. Yep, after one or two times of coming home to broken
windows, broken furniture, and some very angry neighbors. the folks
took away the house key and made us stay at a friends for the next
trip. Well, at least ’till we got back into their good graces and were
able to do it all again. Luckily, 20 years later, I think I am
forgiven… however, they still do not trust me with the key to the house.
So in my state of high school reminiscence (no idea if I spelled
that correctly) I started looking through sites for articles about the
1980’s punk rock scene and I found a list of top 5 80’s punk bands (as
voted by a bunch of people in some forum). The list goes as so.+
1 Circle Jerks
2 Black Flag
3 Subhumans
4 Dead Kennedys
5 Bad Brains
I also found a list of the top ’80’s punk rock anthems, here are a few below… remember these?
What surprises me is that one of my favorite bands was
not listed anywhere on these lists - Social Distortion. Now how do you
have a top 50 punk rock list without Social D in in it? Even more so
because their old-school music is still played regularly on radio
stations nation wide.
I never have looked at the Social Distortion site,
’till now that is, but they still tour, have shows coming up and have
some great content on their site including music and videos
This is the history of the band from their site socialdistortion.com
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOCIAL DISTORTION
In the late 1970s the first raw, sloppy, speeding guitar chords began to blare from the
garages and backrooms of a Southern California suburb called Orange
County. They echoed a sound forged in the preceding years in the
seminal punk undergrounds of New York City and London.
By 1979, a 17 year old kid named Mike Ness had formed Social Distortion
with drummer Casey Royer and brothers Rikk and Frank Agnew. The band’s
world centered around Mike’s one-bedroom pad, dubbed “the black hole,”
in a nondescript Fullerton, CA apartment complex. After meeting Dennis
Danell, a punk loving classmate, Ness insisted Danell, who at the time
didn’t play an instrument, join the band on bass. Royer and the Agnew’s
soon split from the band and eventually form The Adolescents.
Local Los Angeles KROQ-FM deejay Rodney Bingenheimer embraced Orange
County music, playing highlights from its major local bands, including
Social Distortion, on his Sunday night radio show. In 1981, Social
Distortion released their first single, “Mainliner/Playpen,” on the
Posh Boy label. Around the same time, Mike Ness developed a reputation
as a brawler resulting in a chunk of his left ear being bitten off
during a confrontation at the Cuckoo’s Nest bar.
In 1982, Social Distortion, along with LA’s Youth Brigade and DC’s
Minor Threat, are the subjects of the documentary “Another State of
Mind,” which captures the band’s first stormy cross-continental tour in
a beat up school bus. By late 1983, Social Distortion’s line up
consisted of Mike Ness, Danell (now on rhythm guitar), bassist Brent
Liles, and drummer Derek O’Brien. Released on the 13th Floor label,
their debut album, Mommy’s Little Monster, gained the band a national
name in punk circles. Returning home, the line up now included a nasty
heroin habit for Ness. The madness that followed resulted in Brent
Liles and Derek O’Brien bailing out of the band in the middle of a New
Year’s Eve 1983 show.
Ness and Danell soon recruited John Maurer, another old school buddy
from Fullerton to play bass and Christopher Reece, of the San Francisco
band The Lewd, came in on drums. This lineup weathered Social
Distortion’s toughest years, as Ness struggled with heroin addiction
and the resulting series of jailings and detoxes, which finally ended
in 1985. Ness is able to continue writing and hold the band together to
being work on a new album. In 1988, Social Distortion emerge with the
release of Prison Bound, an album whose moving title cut about a wasted
life is one of the greatest songs ever to come out of Orange County.
Ness turned Social Distortion’s albums into an ongoing dialogue about
impulsiveness, its consequences and the hard struggle to overcome.
In addition to the early punk of The Ramones and The Clash, the
band’s sound was culled equally from Ness’ love of roots music,
specifically early country music greats like Hank Williams and the
early blues recordings of the South. As Ness would later declare to
Social Distortion audiences, “Without good black music, there would be
no good white music.”
The self titled Social Distortion album followed in 1990. It is SD’s
first release on a major label. The success of singles “Story Of My
Life” and “Ball And Chain,” along with their remarkable cover of Johnny
Cash’s “Ring Of Fire,” make the album Social Distortion’s first Gold
record. The band are asked to join Neil Young on tour, beginning the
process of bending punk expectation. They soon return with 1992’s
Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell lead by the blistering single “Bad
Luck,” the album also goes Gold. A co-headlining tour with The Ramones
follows.
The band took an extended hiatus following the release of Somewhere
Between Heaven and Hell, and did not return to the studio until the
fall of 1995. Earlier that year, Time Bomb Recordings re-issued Mommy’s
Little Monster, Prison Bound, and released the single compilation
Mainliner, Wreckage from the Past. Social D return in 1996 with a new
album, White Light White Heat White Trash, and a new drummer, Chuck
Biscuits of Black Flag and D.O.A. fame. The album is a success atop
radio favorites “I Was Wrong” and “When The Angels Sing.” The band sign
up as one of the main draws of the 1997 Warped Tour and then record and
release the live album Live At The Roxy in 1998.
A solo record, Cheating At Solitaire, was released by Mike Ness in
1999. The album is an homage to the classic country, blues, rockabilly,
and folk that shaped him as a songwriter. Later that same year Ness
released Under The Influences, a collection of cover tunes further
showcasing his love of American roots music with songs written by
legends Hank Williams, Marty Robbins, and Carl Perkins among others.
On February 29, 2000, then 38-year old guitarist Dennis Danell dies
suddenly of heart failure. At the time Mike is quoted: “I am saddened
beyond any possible form of
expression. Dennis and I have been friends since boyhood, starting
Social Distortion while we where in high school. My deepest regrets to
his family.” In the Fall of 2000, Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham (guitar)
and Charlie Quintana (drums) officially join Social Distortion. 3 years
later Social Distortion head into the studio to record a new record -
their first full-length studio record in 7 years and the first record
without Dennis Danell. A live DVD, Live in The Orange County, is
released in 2004. On August 5, 2004, after 20 years of serving as
Social Distortion’s bass player John Maurer decides to leave the band
for personal reasons after having completed the recording of Sex, Love
and Rock’n’ Roll, the new Social Distortion album.
The album is well received nationwide, bolstered by the success of
the single “Reach For The Sky.” Brent Harding of Ness’ solo touring
band joins Social Distortion as their full time bassist. In 2005, the
band go on to sell out a record 6 nights at The Wiltern theater in Los
Angeles, that’s in addition to the record 37 shows sold out as part of
their regular year end multi-night stands at House Of Blues clubs
across the Southwest - an almost annual tradition since 2001
Here are some more Social D pics
Another really cool thing I found on the Social D site were some of
the old flyers - serious old school punk rock flyers, like hand written
and xerox copied. Its surprising any still exist! I used to have tons
of those in a drawer, wow, makes me sad now because I could have sold
that shit on Ebay, haha, just kidding
Usable Piercings - Some BodMod and piercing enthusiasts are trying to turn eyeglasses from geeky to trendy with their line of extreme pierced eyeglasses. No frames sitting on your nose here, nope, they are attached and pierced through the nose... Inventive for sure
yep, If this ain't redneck, don't know what is... the title is true, now this happened a few years back, but this is the first I heard of it and the story is crazy. Some woman actually got a tattoo from a man that came to her door selling tattoos... and, she got really sick from the nutty and stupid ordeal.
Ill_Articles 
Apatani Tribal body modification. These people are known for the huge nose plugs worn by woman and the stripes along the forehead and chin.
yep, If this ain't redneck, don't know what is... the title is true, now this happened a few years back, but this is the first I heard of it and the story is crazy. Some woman actually got a tattoo from a man that came to her door selling tattoos... and, she got really sick from the nutty and stupid ordeal.