LISTEN/MUSIC: More Previews From Social Distortion's New Album

With the release of Social Distortion's new record Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes just around the corner on January 18th, here's two more tracks from the album to preview. Most will recognize "Diamond In The Rough" from Social D's live shows of the last couple years, while "Still Alive" is a deeper album cut.

Social Distortion - Diamond In The Rough

Social Distortion - Still Alive

The album marks a noticeable progression in Social Distortion's sound, incorporating even more elements of country, blues, and roots music. The instrumental "Road Zombie" and it's placement as an opener almost pays homage to the Social Distortion of the past suggesting "that is where we come from, but this is where we are going." Mike Ness has been lucky enough to find a true musical compatriot not once but twice in his career, first with Dennis Dannell and now with Johnny Wickersham. Their crafted, yet effortless feeling interplay shines throughout the album. Meanwhile, bassist Brent Harding and drummer David Hidalgo, Jr. weave in subtle fills at just the right moments. It may be one of the most "band" sounding albums Social Distortion has ever released.

If Social Distortion's early records focused on the pain of Ness' childhood, the most recent albums reveal Ness as an older, wiser, and more expansive songwriter enjoying the rewards of a loving and stable family life. The walls and protective barriers a younger Ness built around himself, have started to come down. There's breathing room now. Those wishing for a sequel to 1996's White Light White Heat White Trash will probably be left disappointed. But if taken as the next chapter in the narrative of Mike Ness as an artist and a person, the Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes album is much more interesting.

Social Disortion has become like the old friend you used to run with as a teenager. You might only see them once every couple of years. They might be a little different than you last remember, they might even surprise you a little. But there is still that special something that binds you together. And either way, it's always good catch up with them when they come around.

LISTEN/MUSIC: Social Distortion's Lost Album

When Social Distortion's fifth studio album White Light, White Heat, White Trash was released in September of 1996, critics and fans alike hailed it as a return to the SoCal band's punk rock roots.

The band's previous two albums, 1992's Somewhere Between Heaven & Hell and 1990's self titled release, explored the band's interests in country, roots, and 50's rock & roll. White Light was a record influenced more by The Dead Boys than Johnny Cash. 

Two years prior in 1994, Mike Ness entered a New York City recording studio and laid demos for what would eventually become White Light. These demos however were far different from the final release version of the album. Some songs would end up on White Light, some would see release on Mike Ness' 1999 solo record Cheating At Solitaire, while many of the songs recorded during those NYC sessions would remain officially unreleased. When eleven of the tracks were leaked nearly ten years after their original recording, fans caught a rare glimpse into Mike Ness life circa 1994 and his writing process for Social Distortion.

"Love Me Tonight" features Ness as a closed off world worn outsider pleading for love but warning to any who may answer of the darkness he carries inside. With themes similar to White Light's lyrically stronger "Through These Eyes," it was left off the final album.

"Crown Of Thorns" would find it's way onto the final release in a slightly more fleshed out version but the lyrically weak "Like You Never Done Before" would not. "Lost and Found" a fantastic acoustic charged dark country slow burner could be interpreted as the seedling for "Winners and Losers" from 2004's Sex, Love, and Rock & Roll. Next, apparently taking a page from Dee Dee Ramone's book, "Got Nothin Comin" features Ness punk-rapping over a hip hop beat and female soul backup vocals. It's most likely intent nothing more than a studio experiment. "Do It Again" could have easily served as a b-side, it's not great but it's certainly not a bad song.

A highlight of Ness' first solo record, "Dope Fiend Blues" addressed Ness' years of drug addiction more directly than ever before. This starkly haunting acoustic demo, stripped of the final version's tough guy machismo, showcases the gutwrenchingly honest lyrics - it's all pain and shame here.

Social Distortion - Dope Fiend Blues.

"I'm In Love With My Car" would also find release on the first solo album with different lyrics, a slightly altered arrangement and increased production, while "Don't Drag Me Down" would become both an album and live performance favorite.

Which leaves two songs from the session, both of which remain unreleased.  "Can't Hide" contains some of the most personally revealing lyrics about Ness' childhood years and family situation fans have ever seen from the writer:

... Jesus, god, are you there?
I get the feeling, you don`t care.
There`s a pain deep inside, I can run, but you know I can`t hide

... You need a license to drive, but nothing to raise a child
And your alcoholism and fear run deep in my blood
And the welfare lines are always longer at the first of the month

The "album's" closer returns to a lyrical theme found throughout many of the 1994 demos, a plea for love. "Don't Keep Me Hangin On" is a direct indicator of the songwriting style Ness would adopt for the next Social Distortion album, released nearly 8 years later. 2004's Sex, Love, and Rock & Roll would reveal a much happier Ness in the newly found comforts of a loving and stable family. In 1994, all that was far on the horizon for Mike Ness. But in "Don't Keep Me Hanging On," he was already dreaming of it.

Social Distortion - Don't Keep Me Hangin On

 

FULL DOWNLOAD: Social Distortion - Lost Tracks: The 1994 NYC Demos

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NEWS: Irving Plaza Is Now Irving Plaza

In probably the smartest move Live Nation has ever made, as of June 23rd the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza will go back to it's beloved name, Irving Plaza. Guess that mouth garbler didn't catch on.

It may seem like a small thing, a name change, but to alot of us it was a big thing. Irving Plaza had been Irving Plaza since the early nineties, certainly since I had been going there.

Every show that has ever mattered in my life was at Irving Plaza, both ones I saw and ones I missed. Defining moments for me occurred on the wooden floors of its hall. Every band that has every made it anywhere has come through Irving at some point, it's a watermark.

Some standouts in my times there:

• From the drunken years, the time I helped my friend Mike down the stairs to the bathroom after our older friends got us totally plastered next door at the premiere dive bar 119. I got Mike into the stall and figured I could go for pee so I headed over to the urinal forgetting to unzip my fly before letting go. I had to cover that disaster with a t-shirt from the merch table upstairs.

• More drunken years, the time I blacked completely the fuck out mid conversation on a girl I had a huge crush on and ran into at the show. Saw her a couple times later but she never talked to me again.

• Greg from the Bouncing Souls covering Folsom Prison Blues the night after Johnny Cash left us.

• Mike Ness convincing some kid to come on stage, call his boss, and tell him he wasn't coming in to work the next day because he spent all night with Social D. 

• The Face To Face Farewell show I missed because I was out of the country, every Face To Face show I didn't miss.

Irving has long been my favorite venue in the city. It has the best sound, the best shows, the best vibe. Once Live Nation took over, they started booking different types of music. I didn't go as much. But every once in a while one of my favorite bands come back to Irving Plaza, maybe for the same reasons I used and we'd all relive the old days.

A couple of years ago, my girlfriend took a job in an office across the street from Irving. As I waited for her to get out of work, I'd stare at the kids in line and remember all the times I stood in the same spot. A spot I'll probably be standing in again some time. It's good to have the old place back, even if it's just in name.