### Mike Ness: Under the influences

#### 29/12/10 || Daemonomania

Why is a country covers album by a punk rock frontman being covered on GD? Because of forum-dweller extra-ordain-airy cyberfaust, that’s why. His sexy little self put in the request, and Daemo obliged. So any complaints you have about this shit being irrelevant, out of scope, wrong direction or wrong tone can be PM’ed directly to him. Here’s another great idea, and this one will require even LESS effort: if you hate country, punk, and anything that might be ejaculated from their union, don’t fucken read this review, jizzcatcher. Go back to discerning blastbeat varieties or watching midget horse hentai marathons or whatever else it is that keeps you busy.

For those of you who are still here and not off in ponypornland, you may already know Mike Ness as the frontman of long-running SoCal band Social Distortion. Albums like “Somewhere between heaven and hell” have a heavy leaning towards 50’s/Western music, so it’s no surprise that Ness harbors deep respect for classic American tunes. He sat down with a gang and recorded “Under the influences” after the success of his first solo album “Cheating at solitaire”. What we get served are 12 love letters from The Lord of the Greasers to the hits of yesteryear. Done with great attention to detail, a lack of sacrilegious alterations, and capped off by Mike’s gravel-filled vocals. The 13th tune is a fantastic honky tonk cover of Social D’s own “Ball and chain”, for those who were about to nitpick.

I’ve heard of some of the original artists before (Hank Sr., Carl Perkins, The Carter Family), and these covers give me plenty more that needs to be checked out ASAP. You can tell from the breadth and depth of material he gets into that the dude really knows the history and cares for the songs he’s handling – joyously caressing each tale of outlaws and love gone wrong like a set of freshly shaved balls.

So yeah, if sparklingly-produced odes to the dusty West with a tattooed twist sounds like it would be up your alley, pick up “Under the influences” (and “Cheating…” while you’re at it). You’re in for some down-home toothpickin’ sister-kissin’ good times. This is one of those discs in your collection that, like the songs herein, will never get old.

- Information
- Released: 1999
- Label: Time Bomb
- Website: www.mikeness.com
- Band
- Mike Ness: vocals, guitars
- Brantley Kearns: fiddles
- Chris Lawrence, Sean Greaves, James Saez: guitars, banjos
- Brent Harding: bass
- Mando Dorame: sax
- Charlie Quintana: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. All I Can Do Is Cry
- 02. Gamblin’ Man
- 03. Let the Jukebox Keep on Playing
- 04. I Fought the Law
- 05. Big Iron
- 06. One More Time
- 07. Six More Miles
- 08. A Thief in the Night
- 09. Once a Day
- 10. Funnel of Love
- 11. House of Gold
- 12. Wildwood Flower
- 13. Ball and Chain