HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Mommy’s Little Monster – Social Distortion

It’s apt that the story of California punk is quite so frantic. If the UK-inspired glam rock era of Hollywood had begun to succumb to entropy by the mid-to-late 1970s, the explosion of the punk scene that followed was a wild supernova, firing off particles in every conceivable direction to collide with each other and form new elements. The result was certainly multi-dimensional. Proto-punk was a sprawling tree of life with a single root and a thousand branches, where early forms of art and electro-punk stood shoulder to leather-clad shoulder with the traditional style.

By the time 1979 spilled into the 80s, a clearer picture had developed through the settling dust. Gone or evolved (mostly) were the old guard and the experimenters, replaced by an angrier little brother with a bone to pick. Hardcore punk was now the order of the day, raging against whatever it could reach in charged bursts of snarling fury. Listeners fed on the dressed-down aggression of bands like BLACK FLAG and THE GERMS and responded in kind, expressing that fight through fledgling slam dancing (more commonly referred to as moshing) and occasionally the LAPD (who may or may not have started more than a few of those fights themselves).

The history lesson here is only a little indulgent. The shifting landscape of the scene and the impact that had on its tenants and tenets, from the suburbs to surf parties, are unignorable and SOCIAL DISTORTION were no less imprinted by it. By 1982, when the pendulum was peaking in the hardcore section of its swing, half the band had quit when founder Mike Ness brought in Dennis Danell, a guitarist who couldn’t play any instruments, and Ness himself was having problems of his own; a worsening heroin addiction and a reputation for brawling that led to part of his ear being bitten off in a Los Angeles bar. The stage, then, was surely set for some magic to happen.

Recorded at the punk-haven Casbah Recording Studio on Christmas Eve, 1982 and released in 1983 (not 1982 like the liner notes of the reissued version of the album states) on the band’s own 13th Floor Records label, Mommy’s Little Monster was that magic. Presented in fully choppy, recorded in a single session glory, the album struck a chord with those in and around the scene like it was telling their own stories. For those who came after, or were outside that sphere, it was a snapshot of a rough and ready era captured in crisp high definition, a reflection of all the ingredients that went into the pot and a unique dish on the other side; the perfect blend of past-inclusive and future proof.

Named for Ness’ hot-headed childhood, Mommy’s Little Monster was a troubled child in its own right – born of shift and change and laced with personal angst throughout. As albums of the time go, though, it wasn’t quite like all the other kids in the hardcore playground. Though that isn’t to say that was due to any lack of key components. Was it furious? Plenty. To this day, the title track whips any crowd in front of it into a piranha pool frenzy after the first three notes ring out, a muscle memory from the days of dank Los Angeles nightclubs in danger of being raided any minute. Was it rebellious? Of course. The melodic sleeper hit Telling Them recounts Ness’ tales of a wild youth that lived to piss off Mom and Dad and inspired the name – and echoes plenty of his tales of a wild 20-something in 1980s California. Anti-establishment? You bet. All The Answers holds a mirror up to the world around them at the time and boldly claims that the future is the one standing behind it in that youthful, know-it-all way that captures the spirit of the culture perfectly.

But under the surface of the characteristic guitar tone and that raw, angry energy lurks something strangely… sophisticated. The melodic elements of the band were nothing new – a trait shared with California punk grandfathers BAD RELIGION, among others – even though they were expertly done. Anti-Fashion utilises a slightly lower tempo with a focus on distinct vocals and a thumping bassline to achieve a head-bobber of a track that still retained its rebellious message, while the aforementioned Telling Them utilises harmonic “ahh, ahh”s to great effect. Perhaps it was a combination of these pieces and the traditionally strong, if yet to fully blossom, songwriting ability of Ness in tandem widening the appeal of the album outside the typical hardcore audience range that allowed Mommy’s Little Monster to feel more “thought out” than many releases in the genre at the time.

But there’s a claim to be made that the album was just a little ahead of itself. To listen to the popular 90s and onward hits of SOCIAL DISTORTION, you’d be forgiven for immediately thinking there’s more than a far cry between four kids who could barely play guitar between them and the bluesy, cowpunk stylings of what made their name more mainstream. But even without the change that multiple line-ups and Ness’ personal demons wrought, the signs were there, if subtle. SOCIAL DISTORTION are a band who were born straddling two key eras of punk history, children of chaos and anger that were never going to stay in one place for too long or be left behind by the changing tides.

Mommy’s Little Monster was a part of that genre-spanning tipping point that handled the approaching curve with aplomb, a harsh teenage tearaway who was already showing signs of what they might turn into after the adrenaline wears off a little. It might not be the album that defines hardcore punk, but it is certainly the album that defines exactly what it was to be hardcore punk at the time – and just how varied a path the supernova could set them on.

Mommy’s Little Monster was originally released on February 11th, 1983 via 13th Floor Records.

Like SOCIAL DISTORTION on Facebook.