Mommy's Little Monster

Background

In 1982, Social Distortion took part in the tour with Youth Brigade (as chronicled in the documentary Another State of Mind) and broke up shortly afterwards. However, because of the tour's success, the band reconciled not long afterward and decided to begin work on their first album. Mommy's Little Monster was recorded at The Casbah in Fullerton, California, on December 24, 1982. They recorded the album in a single session for numerous hours to cut down studio costs, which explains low budget production.

Reissues

Mommy's Little Monster was reissued several times, with different formats and labels. The album was originally released on vinyl LP in 1983 on 13th Floor Records, a label owned by their manager at the time, Monk Rock.

The Triple X Records label reissued the album on CD, vinyl and cassette in 1989. Six years later, Mommy's Little Monster was re-issued once again when Ness started Time Bomb Recordings with some of the profits he made from Social Distortion's Epic releases, and reissued Mommy's Little Monster on vinyl, cassette and CD through a distribution deal with Arista Records. The 1995 version has remained in print ever since. The 13th Floor and Triple X versions are out of print. A third reissue was released in 2010 on Epitaph Records in Europe and the United Kingdom.

A gramophone picture disc version of Mommy's Little Monster was released in 2001, but it is rare.

Cover art

Designed by Art Mortales, the front cover of the album has an image of a skeleton and human child (wearing a mask), who are seated in a chair watching a war movie featuring a mushroom cloud in a somewhat abandoned house, with nothing except for the chair, television, mailbox, a picture frame, three lead pipes and a lot of debris. It is suggestive of the after effects of an early hydrogen bomb test and an archetypal hardcore image.

The back cover features a photograph of the band taken by Edward Colver.

Reception

Paul Tinelli of Allmusic gave Mommy's Little Monster four out of five stars and called it "the epitome of early-'80s suburban California punk and provided inspiration for many future Californians, including the Offspring and Rancid" and said that it "finds the band supplying plenty of attitude and aggression as they rip through nine tracks worth of hard, fast, power chord-filled tracks loaded with snarling anti-establishment lyrics and themes." Tinelli also stated that "The Creeps" and "Telling Them" "show a young punk group that is very angry, and they were going to let society know it whether they wanted to hear it or not", and adds that the title track "Mommy's Little Monster" "gives you a good idea of the characters Social Distortion was surrounded by in the scene of the day."

Tim Yohannan of Maximumrocknroll said "You've got to know by now what Social Distortion sound like--those distinctive vocals, the harmonies, the rockin' guitars, and melodic hooks galore. Their album is filled with more of the same. Nothing here is too frantic except 'The Creeps', which really blazes forth. There's precious little exciting punky-pop around these days, but this is one of the rare examples of it."

Track listing

All songs written by Social Distortion.

1. "The Creeps (I Just Wanna Give You)" – 2:03
2. "Another State of Mind" – 2:38
3. "It Wasn't a Pretty Picture" – 3:10
4. "Telling Them" – 3:12
5. "Hour of Darkness" – 2:49
6. "Mommy's Little Monster" – 3:33
7. "Anti-Fashion" – 2:19
8. "All the Answers" – 2:23
9. "Moral Threat" – 5:16

The title track was used in the game Tony Hawk's Underground, and the live version of the title track is used in the game Guitar Hero: Metallica. "All the Answers" and "Moral Threat" were originally recorded in 1981 and can be heard on the 1995 compilation Mainliner: Wreckage from the Past. "Another State of Mind" was covered by Green Day as a bonus track on 21st Century Breakdown when pre-ordered on iTunes. Blink-182 refer to the album name in their song "Easy Target". Face to Face covers "Telling Them" on their live album

Personnel