Fullerton, CA · punk rock · cowpunk · punk · roots-punk

Social Distortion

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Mike Ness's Orange County punk band, forty years deep in rockabilly-tinged songs about bad decisions — tattooed survival as an art form.

Social Distortion formed in Fullerton, Orange County, in 1978, when Mike Ness, inspired by the Sex Pistols and the Rolling Stones, began playing with drummer Casey Royer, bassist Mark Garrett and singer Tom Corvin. The band's name came from Royer's distortion pedal, which he handed to Ness to practice on. Guitarist Dennis Danell was recruited by Ness in 1979 despite never having played an instrument. The band grew out of the same Orange County hardcore scene as Agent Orange and the Adolescents.

The band went on hiatus in the mid-1980s after Ness's drug addiction and legal troubles led to two years in rehabilitation. Reforming afterward, Social Distortion folded country, blues and early rock and roll into its punk framework, with Ness's narrative songs about addiction, prison, work and regret sung in a weathered baritone over mid-tempo, riff-driven arrangements, work that helped establish what became known as cowpunk.

Mommy's Little Monster appeared in 1983 and Prison Bound in 1988, before a deal with Epic Records led to the self-titled 1990 album that broke the band into the mainstream, with the singles "Ball and Chain," "Story of My Life" and a cover of "Ring of Fire," and a gold certification. Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell followed in 1992, also gold, and White Light, White Heat, White Trash arrived in 1996.

Later albums included Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll in 2004 and Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes in 2011. Ness has remained the only constant through a lineup that has included guitarist Dennis Danell, bassist John Maurer and drummers Christopher Reece and Charlie Quintana over the years; the current lineup of Jonny Wickersham, Brent Harding and David Hidalgo Jr. has held since 2010, the band's longest-serving.

Writer Steven Blush called Social Distortion "the Rolling Stones of hardcore," and the band has sold more than three million albums worldwide, placing it among the best-selling and most influential punk rock acts to come out of that scene.

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punk rockcowpunkpunkroots-punk