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Mommy's Little Monster
Studio album by Social Distortion
Released	1983
Recorded	December 24, 1982, at The Casbah in Fullerton, California[1]
Genre	Hardcore punk
Length	27:14
Label	13th Floor Records (original) Triple X (1989) Time Bomb Recordings (1995)
Producer	Social Distortion Chaz Ramirez Thom Wilson
Professional reviews
Allmusic link
Social Distortion chronology
Mommy's Little Monster (1983) Prison Bound (1988)
Singles from Mommy's Little Monster
"Another State of Mind" Released: 1983

Mommy's Little Monster is the first album by American punk rock band Social Distortion, released in 1983 (though the CD erroneously notes 1982).^[2]

The album was critically-acclaimed but was, however, not commercially successful. The album includes their live staples "The Creeps", "Another State of Mind", "Telling Them" and the title track, which has been frequently played by KROQ.

Background

In 1982, Social Distortion took part in the Someone Got Their Head Kicked In 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. They recorded the album in a single session. Mommy's Little Monster was recorded at The Casbah in Fullerton, California, on December 24, 1982, for numerous hours to cut down studio costs, which explains low budget production.

The exposure afforded to Social Distortion from the tour and subsequent documentary led to Mommy's Little Monster being a surprise hit despite being self-released. However, the album went out of print in the mid-1980s after leader Mike Ness started to take the checks that were coming in to 13th Floor Records and which were meant to be put towards future pressings of the album or new releases, and used them to subsidize his drug habit.^{[citation needed]}

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 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.

To date, the 13th Floor and Triple X versions remain out of print.

A gramophone picture disc version of Mommy's Little Monster was released in 2001, but it is also rare.^[3]

Album cover

The 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, 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 album cover was designed by Art Morales.

Track listing

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 computer game Tony Hawk 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 special bonus track on 21st Century Breakdown when pre-ordered on iTunes. Blink 182 refer to the album name in their song "Easy Target".

Personnel

• Mike Ness (as Michael Ness) – vocals, guitars
• Dennis Danell – guitars
• Brent Liles – bass guitar
• Derek O'Brien – drums, backing vocals

References

1. ^ (1983) Album notes for Mommy's Little Monster by Social Distortion [liner notes]. US: Time Bomb Recordings (70930-43500-2).
2. ^ Due to a typo on the tray card and CD, many believe that this album was released in 1982, but this appears to be false. According to the liner notes, the album was recorded on Christmas Eve in 1982.
3. ^ "Social Distortion - Mommy's Little Monster". Discogs.com. http://www.discogs.com/release/1067669. Retrieved December 7, 2008.