JCE and Jeremy Porter look back on Social Distortion’s debut and landmark album Mommy’s Little Monster album 40 years after its release.
Read MoreUnder The Covers: 10 Classic Covers of 10 Classic Songs
JCE covers the Covers scene.
Read MoreAre There Any 1990's Bands That Are Still Around? - by JCE
JCE surveys the teenage wasteland that was the 1990’s.
Read MoreFive Life-Changing Concerts - by Jeremy Porter
Spotify Playlist for this article! Listen while you read!
Alice Cooper - Thunder Bay Drive-In, Alpena, MI, July 5, 1981 - My first concert, held at the same drive-in where I saw Star Wars a few years earlier and I got busted for being smuggled through the gate in a car trunk a year or two later. These were the dark, cocaine years for Alice. We were way into the 1980 Flush the Fashion record, but not as much into Special Forces, which he was supporting that summer. I remember the snake, the guillotine, the volume, and the smell of weed. I also remember The Rockets - a popular Detroit band at the time that opened. It was a cool “first” and belongs on this list for that reason alone, plus it’s Alice, but other than that it wasn’t particularly noteworthy.
Dead Kennedys - Riverside Ballroom, Green Bay, WI, Nov 2, 1985 - This was my first punk show. I was pretty green, hanging with guys mostly 3-5 years older than me, who somehow agreed to meet my parents and then let me tag along for the four hour drive from Marquette, Michigan to Green Bay, Wisconsin. I got caught up in the moment and dove into the massive sea of slam dancing during the opening set by The Crusties. Some giant dude with a spiked mohawk head-butted me and I went down hard, got picked up, and found my way back to my friends. I shook it off and started to rebound, but then the walls started to close in, I started seeing spots, and thought I might puke. I made it to the bathroom where a couple dudes commented about how fucked up I was (I wasn’t) as I realized I didn’t actually have to puke. I walked out of the bathroom, made eye-contact with a couple of my friends across the floor, and hit the ground. They ran over, picked me up and sat me down, also assuming I was wasted, and the night went on. Eventually I was able to collect myself. I had a splitting headache, like migraine-level, but I managed to enjoy direct support The Magnolias (a great band to this day from Minneapolis), and the DK’s. They were great - and played pretty much everything we wanted to hear. I’d never seen so many wonderful freaks in one place, and I felt like I got away with something being there, but I learned a valuable lesson in the pit at that show that I never forgot.
After the show, my pal Tommy was walking around with only one shoe, the other lost to the same pit that did me in, and Carl couldn’t find his keys. To make matters worse, the dome light of his red `82 Olds Omega was left on, shining down like a beacon from Heaven through the smoky haze above a precarious, still-smoldering, translucent-blue plastic water bong sitting nicely on the console between the two front seats. Somehow we avoided getting arrested and got back on the road. Soon after that, the bong would tip over and spill really, really nasty bong-water on the floor behind the driver’s seat, creating a stench that not only made the already miserable drive back to Marquette the next morning unbearable, but stayed with that car for the remainder of its life.
13 years later I was back in Green Bay, on tour with my own band, and we took in a Face To Face show on a night off. I started talking to a guy working the show and told him the head-butt story. Turns out he was one of the dudes in the bathroom. He even remembered what I was wearing. Crazy.
Ramones - Harpo’s - Detroit, MI, September 24, 1988 - Harpo’s is a big theater in a bad neighborhood in Detroit that caters primarily to metal. The Ramones were touring in support of their Ramonesmania collection and it would be their last tour with Dee Dee. The Dickies opened, who I knew from their Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath covers, and they were great. Their singer Leonard Graves Phillips had an arm’s length penis puppet that was hilarious. The Ramones came out and basically destroyed the room. It was one after another after another great song, played with precision and purpose, with no breaks, no breaths. It was a 90-minute onslaught of rock and roll perfection. They were all business and masters of their craft. We got to meet Joey and Johnny afterward. It was the best concert and they were the best live band I’ve ever seen.
Social Distortion - Blondie’s, Detroit MI, October 2, 1988 - (One week after the Ramones show.) SD wasn’t really on my radar, it was a Sunday night, and I had to work early on Monday. It was unseasonably cold too - with that dry, southeastern Michigan wind that just cuts right through you. And Blondie’s wasn’t exactly an easy hang. It was a dump in a nasty neighborhood. You were just as likely to get your head kicked in or mugged in the parking lot as you were seeing a good show. I had a list of excuses a mile long, but my roommate and one of our friends talked me into it and I’m glad they did. Social Distortion came on and I was sold. Great songs with hooks, some even about girls, but also a dark side, an angst that was distinctly punk. And they had guitar solos. Not the kind of beautiful, noisy chaos that Bob Mould or Greg Ghin created, but more thought out, arranged solos that stuck with you. There was a dude with a tattooed necklace of skulls that grabbed the microphone from Mike Ness at least a couple times during their set to angrily berate the 25 or so people there that they weren’t even punk enough to be there, and as one of the least-punk people there, I was scared for my life. And then Mike Ness did one of the most punk things he could have - he announced they were about to play a Johnny Cash song, and if that wasn’t punk enough, you can just get the fuck out. In 1988, Johnny Cash was not cool. For me, at least, that changed at that moment. I’d go on to see SD another dozen or so times, some crazier than others, and they are the reason I now listen to everything that branched out from hearing “Walk the Line” that night - Waylon, Patsy, Hag, Gram, Willie, Dwight, on and on. After the show we partied with the band for a while. It was a life-changing night.
The Replacements - Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI, April 6, 1986 - It was still winter and freezing in Marquette as we piled into Jim’s blue 1973 Camaro for the eight-hour drive to Ann Arbor. The frame was rusted out and broken so they put me in the back, driver’s side, to minimize the weight resting on the fracture. Every bump in the road was a hard jolt to my rib cage. We left early - like 4am early - and arrived in Ann Arbor, where spring had sprung, and started partying. At one point we were in the basement of the Nectarine Ballroom, formerly known as the Second Chance, where everyone from Cheap Trick to the Ramones (and The Replacements a year earlier) cut their teeth, drinking Chambord from the bottle and partying with someone who worked there. At another point we were “bugging” Bob Stinson for an autograph in Schoolkids Records, next to the venue, which is the perfect place to hang if you don’t want to be bothered by fans. When the band came on without Bob I was crushed. All that effort and that painful drive and we weren’t even going to get the full band, but after a couple covers with stand-in guitarists, Bob came out and they were amazing. It was so loud, and they were at their peak - still wasted, but not to the point of a debacle. If you know about The Replacements, this was one of the “good” shows. I remember feeling like I was so lucky to be there. It was everything rock and roll was supposed to be. It was not lost on me that it was an important night. This is top-two, with The Ramones show. It was later chronicled in Creem Magazine.
Three Honorable Mentions:
Mudhoney - The Beat, Ann Arbor, MI, October 27, 1988 - Later known as Club Heidelberg and currently known as The Club Above. My buddy had heard good things about Mudhoney and said we had to go. I didn’t know them going in, but I sure did after. A local. mediocre, metal band opened. At one point during their set, Mudhoney said they weren’t going to play anymore until they got paid, and that the guy with the mustache was ripping them off (promoter Martin?, RIP I think). I was one of about 15 people there, and I started the chant “Kill the guy with the mustache! Kill the guy with the mustache!” The band soon joined in too, but it was all in good, drunken fun. They played an incredible, loud, aggresive set, and it was pretty clear at that moment that something new and special was coming from Seattle on the musical horizon.
Bleached - Polish National Alliance Hall (Lounge), Hamtramck, MI, April 26, 2103 To set the scene, my wife, much cooler than I, was in main hall watching Easy Action. Front-man John Brannon (ex-Laughing Hyenas and Negative Approach) is as angry a dude (on stage, not in person) as you’ll find, screaming like a banshee and spitting like a viper, looking like the last thing you’d want to see in a dark alley. They are fast and loud, bombastic and aggressive. I get it, it’s beautiful in it’s own way, but I usually like my rock and roll with a little sweet sauce, some nice hooks and melodies, so after a couple songs I meandered into the adjacent lounge where a band from Los Angeles was playing on the floor to an engaged audience of about 30. Now THIS was my thing - great hooks, poppy-surfy guitars, and three girls and a dude who were swinging their hair, smiling, and having a fun time. It was a lucky accident that I saw them and I’m a fan for life. I’m still scared of John Brannon.
Tom Waits - Orpheum Theater, Memphis, TN, August 4, 2006 I’ve had the good fortune of seeing Tom Waits seven times, including a special night at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and a secret, last-minute show at the House of Blues in Cleveland that started at 2:30 am and ended at nearly 5am. He’s something else, for sure. The Memphis show sticks out because it was the first time I saw him, we had great seats, and I was just astounded at how goddamn good he was. What a master musician, and the music he makes is the the most pure, primitive, and real that there is. Not sure there will be another chance, but everyone should go if they can.
Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit and fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos - www.thetucos.com
Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit -
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Twitter: @jeremyportermi | Instagram: @onetogive & @jeremyportermusic | www.rockandrollrestrooms.com
Ten Albums That Changed My Life - by JCE
Not my ten favorite albums, not my “desert island discs,” but the ten albums that CHANGED MY LIFE. Don’t get me wrong, none of these records got me off of a ledge or anything. It’s just that rock and roll music, after family, means more to me than anything. So, certain records that impact how I feel and what I listen to, really do change my day-to-day life on occasion. Here we go:
1. Paul Revere and the Raiders / Greatest Hits – My first LP record. I had purchased quite a few 45 rpm’s, but this was my first full length album. I bought it for their cover of “Louie, Louie” which I could not find on a 45 but I had to have it. My Mom took me to Korvettes department store and I paid for it with nickels and dimes. When I got it home, I discovered that most every song on it was great, especially “Kicks.” And so began my full-on rock n roll addiction. This was released in 1967, but I know I must’ve been more than four years old when I got it, but I’m not sure how old. It’s very fitting that “many now see it as a bold 1960’s rock n roll record with a defiant punk edge” according to one review I just read.
2. The Beach Boys / Endless Summer – I played this double-LP in my room and day-dreamed about girls for hours and hours on end. I had a little all-in-one stereo that I absolutely loved, and I think my true love for vinyl records began with this one. It had a gatefold cover and great artwork. It was released in 1974. I loved the song “Wendy.” I would have been eleven or twelve years old when I got it. Yep, that sounds about right.
3. The Cars – My sister Molly went to Boston University (we lived in Virginia). She discovered a local band there called The Cars, right before they broke it big. When their debut came out in 1978, I got a copy on her advice and I loved every song on it from the first day. I had been listening non-stop to the first Van Halen record, which I also loved, and which had been released a few months before The Cars record. The Cars were the band that somehow sent me down the path to punk rock. R.I.P. Molly, I miss you.
4. The Clash – I probably got this record having never heard any songs on it. It was already older (1977) than the Cars record, but I didn’t learn about The Clash and the Sex Pistols and punk rock until after. I will always love everything about this record. It led me on a direct path to The Damned, The Stranglers, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Buzzcocks, 999, Stiff Little Fingers, Generation X and on and on…. HUGE impact on my life.
5. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers / Damn the Torpedoes – This record just couldn’t be any better. In high school, being a punk and a skater made me somewhat of an outcast. Damn the Torpedoes was one record I could play that I was pretty sure everyone could agree was pure genius. “Here Comes My Girl” was a song that ran a shiver up my back every time I heard it, still does. The record was released late in 1979. I would have been a junior. The record got me through some of those times when I felt a little alone, maybe a little too much like a loner. I don’t know why, it just spoke to me. It still does.
6. X / Los Angeles – After about a year listening to punk mostly from across the big pond, this record came out and re-energized me. I found it to be scary and dangerous and urgent. It is truly one of my favorite records and one I feel is very important. I consider the Dead Kennedy’s “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables” almost equal to this X record, but I got the X record first, so it gets on my list. Both records came out in 1980.
7. Government Issue / Joy Ride – With my musical tastes firmly entrenched in punk rock, I found myself immersed in the punk scene which was percolating in the city in which I was born, Washington, D.C. The HarD.C.ore scene was very exciting to me, but being honest, I felt that quite a bit of the music itself was not up to par with other stuff I was listening to. Initially, I found it hard to truly enjoy the super-speed, play-as-fast-as-you-can style coming from the D.C. hardcore punk scene. Then I discovered Government Issue. John Stabb (R.I.P.) was spectacular live. This 1984 release had a song on it called “Understand” that really got a hold of me, although every song on the record is great. From this record, I embraced HarD.C.ore and I still listen to a steady diet of it today. I have many fond memories of the scene in its heyday.
8. The Neighborhoods / The High Hard One – There was a guy in the music scene in Charlottesville, VA, where I went to college, by the name of Maynard. Maynard played in some great bands and he promoted some shows. He started putting up fliers all over town one day that said “Fire Is Coming.” I didn’t know what it meant at first, until I found out it was the name of an EP by a band from Boston called The Neighborhoods. I got very close to a bunch of amazing people in Charlottesville, including, eventually, my wife. We all saw tons of great shows, went to every gig played by our friends in a band called 98 Colours (some of those opening for the ‘Hoods)—it was a great time in my life. Everyone I knew absolutely loved The Neighborhoods upon the release of “The High Hard One.” I must’ve played “WUSA” ten thousand times. This record, for me, was the soundtrack for one of the happiest times of my life. I actually like the “Reptile Men” record even better, but this was the record (1986) that I associate with discovering so many new things and new people and so much new music.
9. Enuff Z’Nuff – From the hair metal, Sunset Strip, glam and sleaze era, a few bands emerged that were so much more and so far above many bands from that genre. Every song on it is excellent and because of this record, I began listening to some different bands that I may have previously blown off as “not punk enough.” On the more metal side, I discovered The Hangmen. On the pop side, I went back and rediscovered my love of Cheap Trick. I started dating the beautiful woman that has now been my wife for 27 years in 1990. This Enuff Z’Nuff record, released in 1989, was played damn near every single day for the first few months of our relationship. We saw the band at The Bayou in Georgetown as they toured in support of this record. We have a handful of “our songs” but this is definitely “our record.”
10. Social Distortion – This self-titled release came out in 1990. The album “Mommy’s Little Monster” was released in 1983 and I have been a Social Distortion fan since that time. There are a number of reasons why this record is on my list. This record came out the year I started dating my wife, and like the Enuff Z’Nuff record, it was a record we loved together. The song “Ball and Chain” is one of my all-time favorites, and my wife adores the Johnny Cash cover, “Ring of Fire.” The record also includes “Sick Boy” and “Story of My Life,” which are both classics. My wife and I gave up alcohol for about twelve years, during the time that we conceived our daughter and during the formative years after she was born. We also saw very little live music during that period of time. Upon taking up beer and wine drinking after a long hiatus, the first show we went to see was Social Distortion at the 9:30 Club in D.C. in October 2010. It was so frigging awesome that we have been to see an average of more than a show per month from that day to the present. I recently got my first tattoo, to honor my sister who I lost, and during the process, at my request, the artist played the Social Distortion Pandora radio station. I can’t express how truly integral music is to my daily life, and this very personal experience was definitely enhanced by the soundtrack that accompanied it. This band has meant a great deal to me since 1983. This particular record is the most representative of the impact they have had
This list is in chronological order. I cannot guarantee that the list wouldn’t change if I thought about it longer, but I think I’m pretty happy with it. You might notice there is nothing on the list newer than 1990. That may be a mistake, as I love and continue to collect music now just as much or even more than ever. I love music more than ever, but there probably just aren’t that many instances where it can change my life at this point. My list is heavy on the 1977-1980 releases, but I think that’s natural because when you’re 15 years old, your life is just starting to take shape. This is a list of records that truly left their mark. - JCE
(editor’s note: JCE thinks it might be cool if some/all of the other Pencilstorm writers - Colin, Ricki C, Anne Marie, Scott Carr, etc. write up THEIR life-changing disc picks. For that matter, it might be nice if we could figure a way for READERS of Pencilstorm to chip in and send their two cents worth on the matter, participatory journalism at its best.)