Happy Birthday, Mike Ness! Somehow you still have a career after all these years! Also, congratulations on still being alive—sadly, two of the members of Social Distortion featured in this video have left the planet.
 

RIP Dennis and Brent.

What we have here is some killer 1983 rehearsal space footage of Social Distortion performing “Mommy’s Little Monster” from the album of the same name which was recorded for a Flipside Video Fanzine. 

This song, included in the excellent 1982 documentary Another State of Mind, was an introduction to hardcore punk for thousands of kids of a certain age who witnessed it on the classic USA Network Nightflight TV series, and it remains a concert staple for Social Distortion, despite their radical departure from the hardcore punk sound of the first LP.
 

“The Creeps (I Just Wanna Give You)”

This clip is a crucial reminder that dudes with spiky hair and eyeliner will always be cooler than dudes in vests and fedoras. Not to knock what Social Distortion has become, but… actually, yeah, I’ll go ahead an knock what Social Distortion has become—a sort of fakey Americana band for dudes who used to be skinheads—but now have pompadours and dice tattoos—and their Bettie Page-banged girlfriends with rollerderby arms and polka dotted dresses…

On Mike Ness’ birthday, let’s please remember THIS Social Distortion.