SmithAntics

May your weekend be free of pants-soiling anxiety and fear.

George Will is a fucking idiot.

Even idiot David Brooks thinks so. What planet is this nimrod living on?

This is the new light of the GOP?

Good.

Guess who?

I’ve got nothing at the moment. Maybe Underhill will chime in. Otherwise, consider this an open thread.

What's on tap for the weekend?

I am surviving pretty much day to day on scraps at my job. There’s talk of more layoffs coming, and I’m not at all confident that I’ll survive this round. My high school teacher wife could get the ax any day now. Of course, we’re not alone. Everyone is pissing their pants right now, and the unemployment rolls are growing by the thousands each day. And these cocksucking Republicans, who made this fucking mess, have the balls to smirk and balk about socialism.

Fuck you, George Will.

Surprisingly, we haven’t discussed California politics too much on this blog, which was born out of the national / global tragedy that was BushCo. Through this post I discovered the progressive California blog Calitics, which includes a huge blogroll of California blogs.

In northern Orange County the kids were just as detached but seemingly less priviledged or spoiled, though. Areas like Placentia, Buena Park and Fullerton were downright depressing and consisted of an endless landscape of strip malls and suburbs, high schools and cops. It was in late 1978 that 16 year old Mike Ness from Fullerton decided to form the first incarnation of Social Distortion.


Mike Ness was a known character in OC. Living in the low-rider, ghetto area of Fullerton, Ness stuck out as one of the early progenitors of "punk". In fedora and eye make-up, Ness never backed down from a fight. He also began a Heroin habit that would plague him for the next ten years.

Mascara lesson!

Ness eventually moved into an apartment in Fullerton were the local "punks" came to congregate. It was know simply as "The Black Hole" and the Adolescents immortalized it on their 1980 self-titled album. Social Distortion would later do "Playpen" in honor of the hangout.

The first Social Distortion lineup was with Casey Royer and Rikk Agnew, both 19 and friends of Ness' who played in the La Habra based outfit The Detours. Agnew would play lead guitar and Royer the drums. Rikk's brother Frank (not pictured) age 14, was brought in on bass.

Casey Royer
Rikk Agnew

It didn't last -- Agnew was constantly in and out of the band and unreliable. Royer left after Ness brought in high school chum Dennis Dannell to take Agnew's place. Dannell had never played an instrument and Casey and Frank didn't feel like waiting for him to learn.

Robbie Fields of Posh Boy records liked what he heard and recorded 'Moral Threat' with Dennis Dannell on Bass and a drummer named Carrot. The trio did 6 songs for Robbie Fields and Posh Boy in April 1981 including the above mentioned Playpen as well as 1945, Mainliner, All the Answers and Justice for All. Social D. were now alongside contemporaries such as TSOL, Shattered Faith, The Crowd and Channel 3. Carrot was replaced later that year by Derek O'Brien on drums.

1982. Solo in his room, a young Ness composes Another State of Mind.



The final 'Original' lineup of Social Distortion circa 1981 -- Brent Liles- bass, the often overlooked Derek O'Brien - drums, Mike Ness, and Dennis Dannell on rhythm guitar and vocals.


The first LP, Mommy's Little Monster, 1983. By far their best album, sorry Butterheads!

Winnipeg, 1982 Mommy's Little Monster.

Social Distortion rehearses in Fullerton 1983. Under My Thumb / 1945.

The Creeps, It's the Law and Moral Threat.

In 1987 - after numerous stints in county jail and detoxes, a sober Ness reformed Social Distortion and took them in a more country & western or "Cowpunk" direction. They are seemingly more popular now then when they were labeled "punk".

In 2000 Dennis Dannell died of a brain Anuerysm at age 38. Bassist Brent Liles was killed in a cycling accident in Placentia, he was 44.
Mike Ness, a true survivor, carries on with Social Distortion to this day and are regulars at KROQ's "Weenie Roast" as well as other "alternative" festivals and shows.

Agent Orange & Adolescents to follow...

I watched The Godfather yesterday. I think I’ll watch The Godfather II today. I think I’ll smoke marijuana too.

Is the Godfather III worth watching?

Behold the glory....

I got nothin' at the moment. What do you want to talk about?

Again with this shit. Jeezus.

"The pigs were really heavy... they carried mugshots of punks -- guilty of being a punker! If you looked funny, they'd take your picture and you went on a sheet. I felt bad for those (OC) kids."

-- Mike Watt of the Minutemen on playing the Cuckoos Nest in Costa Mesa.

The Cuckoos Nest was a night club in an industrial / business area at the end of the Newport Beach freeway in Costa Mesa. In law and order Orange County, circa 1980, the "Nest" was really the only mainstay venue that hosted "Punk-style" or even "New Wave" groups. In the beginning you could see a bill that consisted of The Chiefs, The Crowd, Eddie & The Subtitles one night, and The Zippers, UXA, Redd Kross, and TSOL the next. As the club grew in reputation and popularity, nearly every cutting-edge 80s act, including The Ramones, Iggy Pop, Black Flag, and the Damned, ventured into Costa Mesa to play the Nest.

Club owner Jerry Roach booked the bands and dealt with the cops, who invariably descended on the Nest. The club shared a parking lot with Zubies Cowboy Bar & Grill, and this unlikely arrangement would bring violent consequences. It was not uncommon to witness a late-night fight between a kid with green hair and combat boots and some shit-kicker in a cowboy hat and Nocona boots outside the Nest. Since the doors of both establishments faced one another, the brawls were almost inevitable. Indeed, The Vandals wrote "Urban Struggle" about the legendary battles between the punks and the cowboys. Casey Royer talks of beer and cowboys at the Cuckoos Nest in a new documentary titled We Were Feared.

By late 1980, the fun and violence was gaining media attention. Here's a great 10-minute piece on Jerry Roach and So Cal punk rock. Some footage may be from The Starwood, probably early 1981.

The Legend of Pat Brown is born February 2, 1981 at the Cuckoos Nest.


The incident was immortalized later that year when the Vandals', The Legend of Pat Brown, appeared on their debut release, Peace Thru Vandalism.

The following 30-50 second clips are from the newly re-released Urban Struggle: The battle of the Cuckoos Nest, now on DVD.

Jerry decides to make a movie.

Jerry on OC punks and Disneyland.

Jerry thinks of quitting!

Jerry's philosophy on punk music.

More to come...

Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

Watch your volume if you're at work.

Not what I voted for.

But hey, at least the Republicans have been placated. Oh wait, no they haven’t.

Loving this "chess match."

Simply said, this album kicks ass! I am a jazz fan and have been since I was a kid so I have a fairly decent collection of jazz classics, greats etc...
I own three copies of Kind of Blue, however. If one copy should get lost or break due to overplay... then I have another copy waiting! The album is just that good and important. Miles breaks all kinds of shit down here and then beautifully re-assembles it before our ears.

Kind of Blue

Night Owl here! Happy Sunday y'all!

Orange County (OC), in the late 70's, was the last place one might think of finding a youth sub-culture by way of Clockwork Orange, but as author Steven Blush writes in American Hardcore (Feral Press, 2001), "...scattered action began in OC as punk-minded bands played high school keg parties".

Blush goes on to cite The Middle Class as the only OC band to gain acceptance by the LA/Hollywood crowd at the time.

We'll start at the begining with what has been long reported as the very first "Hardcore" record. The Middle Class, from Santa Ana, with their 1978 debut single "Out of Vogue".



It wasn't long after this, while bands like X, The Germs, The Weirdos and The Bags flourished in Los Angeles, that a somewhat different form of "punk rock" manifested itself in the endless suburbs that stretched southward into OC and beyond.

Along with the Middle Class, Orange County initially sprouted groups like The Crowd, Eddie & the Subtitles, Snickers, The Klan, The Chiefs and, though technically from Long Beach, Vicious Circle -- whose shows were reportedly "magnets for mayhem".

Graverobbers, being some of the more extreme cases, OC kids seemed more bored, aimless and angry - products of the ultimate suburban joke. Author Steven Blush simply points to "broken families" and general apathy from parents.
"No artistic hipsters, these (OC kids) were the products of the American Dream gone awry....with some absolute monsters among them".

More to follow

Paging Fried Wire.

Take it away, Underhill....

Lux Interior 1946-2009

Lux Interior passed away this morning at Glendale memorial hospital here in the San Fernando valley, so I'll definitely be spinning some Cramps today.

A comment from Fried Wire on Lux's passing got me thinking about all my punk heroes who are turning fifty or passing away and making me feel, in turn, quite old! Granted I am the youngest of the group here, but with guys like Casey Royer and Rikk Agnew turning fifty recently, I can't help but notice the 'snow on my own roof' and feel a little depressed.

R.I.P. - Lux, thanks for the memories!

The Cramps - live at Napa Valley state mental facility, 1978

The original video for Garbageman

Is it just 'sour grapes' on this vile, creep's part or is the big Dick playing the politics of fear to the hilt? How dare this son-of a-bitch cast his poison upon us all.

Chris Matthews just mentioned that Cheney's comments today are like "something out of Dr. Strangelove".

To imply that the new administration is going to make us unsafe by "talking friendly" to Al Qaeda is almost treasonous in my book! What good does it do, Dick?!

In Politico.

I’m in a rush this morning, so I offer this.

And this brilliant remix.

The fucking idiots we need to stroke because we’re better than them.

I played a gig in lovely Stockton yesterday afternoon, but I made it home in time for the second half of the Super Bowl. Good game.

What’s going on?

I was at home today, nursing a late winter cold, when I got a reminder note from a Mr. Richard Fader of Fort Lee, New Jersey that original Saturday Night Live Not Ready for Prime Time player Garrett Morris is 72 today!

Since football isn't really my thing - my money is on Pittsburgh - I've been eating Zinc tablets and watching season four of Saturday Night Live, 1978-79.

I think season four may be the original cast's best season, and Morris is definitely this group's most overlooked performer.

Thanks for all the laughs!



A brief 1986 interview with Ebony/Jet.

Garrett's bio.

Since SNL footage is hard to come by on You Tube, I would advise you all to go out and purchase season four of Saturday Night Live. Not only is Morris in his prime, but the entire cast, and writers, are at their best!