Social Distortion - Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll
(Time Bomb)
“Reach for the Sky,” the opening track to Social D’s comeback album (their first in eight years and only the sixth in their 25 year career) is a “lightbulb” moment for all you aging punk rockers out there, as it encapsulates the entire kiddie punk movement from Green Day, Sum 41, and Good Charlotte to the entire Drive Thru roster inside its aggressive, firebreathing three-and-a-half minutes. Following a couple of uneventful solo albums, Mike Ness and his new partners, ex-U.S. Bombs/Cadillac Tramps guitarist Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham, legendary drummer Charlie Quintana (whose played with everyone from Los Cruzados, Cracker and Soul Asylum to Dylan, Joan Osborne and Izzy Stradlin) and recently departed bassist John Maurer (Rancid’s Matt Freeman has replaced him on the current tour) are finally getting the recognition they deserve with this, their best album since 1991’s self titled, major label (Epic) debut. The mission statement “Don’t Take Me For Granted” (dedicated to former lead guitarist Dennis Dannel, who passed away from a brain aneurysm on Leap Day, 2000) contains the seminal line “I’m the volume in your fucked-up teenage band” and should be mandatory listening to all you fucked-up teenage bands schlepping across the US stages and cluttering our airwaves with your moronic whining. To paraphase Ralph Kramden, “Step aside... some men are gonna play some music and show you the glorious results of a misspent youth.”
And while the kids may scratch their heads quizzically at the bluesy sludge of “Footprints on My Ceiling,” it’s a lesson learned that not everything has to be played at 100 mph. Fans, new and old, will enjoy the punchy, punky adrenaline rush of “Live Before I Die,” Ness’s nifty guitar solo on “I Wasn’t Born To Follow” – definitely NOT the old Byrds tune, and the anthemic, heart-pounding closer “Angel’s Wings,” which may be his best song since, coincidentally, “When The Angels Sing.” Ness can also be counted on for a few self-deprecating, barnstorming confessionals to score pity points with the babes in the audience (from the self-titled’s “Ball and Chain” to Somewhere Between Heaven & Hell’s “Born To Lose” to White Light White Heat White Trash’s “I Was Wrong”), and here the award goes to “Winners and Losers,” where once again Ness plays the role of the sad sack down on his luck at the edge of his rope. Overall, a ripsnorting return to form by one of punk rock’s undisputed legends.
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