OLD PUNK ROCKERS DON'T FADE AWAY; THEY JUST KEEP LISTING TO SOCIAL DISTORTION

Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes
2011

530 Miles To Go

As long as Mike Ness can keep punk rock's heritage train rolling, the fans will keep cheering Social Distortion.

The formula hasn't changed much over the years, but the same could be said for Johnny Cash and the Ramones, two of the band's biggest influences.

Musical recipes like these only fail when the original ingredients are wrong to begin with.

Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes brightens the sunnier D that dawned on 2004's Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll.

Ness continues his quest for love, faith, peace of mind and redemption from past sins, real and imagined.

All the while, the guitars roar, the vocals soar and, in the album's biggest surprise, multiple songs feature a flock of female background singers with rocking results. At least a couple of the tunes ebb into a near-ballad flow, but remain true to the spirit that has bred a fervent and multi-generational following.

White Light White Heat White Trash
1996

By the time of their 1996 release, White Light White Heat White Trash, Ness, band co-founder Dennis Dannell (who died in February 2000) and the rest of Social Distortion had seen plenty of all three.

They turned the experiences into the album that best blends their early rough punk fury with the more polished pop sensibilities of their 1990 and 1992 hit albums - Social Distortion and Somewhere Between Heaven And Hell - while keeping the tempo fast and the guitars loud.

Teen angst had burned into white hot adult anger.

"Well I grew up fast, I grew up hard/Something was wrong from the very start," Ness bellows on I Was Wrong. "I was fighting everybody, I was fighting everything/But the only one I hurt was me/I got society's blood running down my face/Somebody help me get out of this place."

As Ness later says on 1998's live at the Roxy, "You can take the boy out of the white trash, but you can't take the white trash out of the boy."

The same can be said for the Social Distortion faithful. As long as Mike Ness wants to play, we'll be there to listen.

Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes Song For The Soundtrack: California (Hustle And Flow)

Running Data For Monday, June 24:
4.31 Miles
48:34

Mileage In The Change Jar: 0.22 Miles

White Light White Heat White Trash Song For The Soundtrack: I Was Wrong

Running Data For Tuesday, June 25:
4.38 Miles
46:28

Mileage In The Change Jar: 0.60 Miles