Subject: Social Distortion

• Last Night: Against Me! at the Meridian

  August 13, 2007

• Vinal Edge Now Selling Hunter Ward’s T-Shirts, Vinyl

  November 26, 2007

• Reverberations: Clarences, Flamin’ Groovies, Scott Deluxe Drake and Liverpool Five

  April 30, 2008

• Last Night: Mike Ness and Jesse Dayton at Meridian

  May 7, 2008

• Grunge Puppy

  December 9, 1993

• The Offspring

  Conspiracy of One (Columbia)

  November 30, 2000

• Rotation

  November 21, 1996

• Songs and Sickness

  November 21, 1996

• Looking for Billy Zoom

  March 27, 1997

• Flannel File: The Descendents

  One hot morning in August of 1997, my little brother and I hopped on MARTA (Mom wouldn't let me use the car) and moseyed on down to the Lakewood Fairgrounds in Atlanta for the third-ever Warped Tour. Should the writer of a column about experimental music be ashamed of having gone to the Warped Tour as a kid? Yes, clearly he should have burst from the womb reading Henry Miller and listening to Mission of Burma (oh wait, that was my brother). But in my defense, sample the lineups from some of thes

  June 4, 2009

• All Nessed Up

  June 24, 1999

• Tonight: Battle of the Bar Bands at House of Blues

  A more cutthroat distant cousin to the rock/soul package tours of the late '50s and '60s, "Battle of the Bands" competitions were never really in style - except maybe in the Sunset Strip hair-metal heyday of the mid-'80s - but they never really go out of style either. Tonight at House of Blues, the old BOB warhorse gets trotted out once again, with an interesting local twist: six Houston groups will meet in six-string combat to determine Houston's best bar band. Winners get a one-year membe

  March 26, 2009

• Playing Favorites

  April 2, 2009

• Hickoids

  November 6, 2008

• Drive-By Truckers, A to Z

  Alabama Ass Whuppin'

  September 18, 2008

• Mike Ness, with Jesse Dayton

  May 1, 2008

• The Axiom

  Remembering the Axiom, 20 years later

  October 11, 2007

• Vinyl Heads

  September 20, 2007

• Against Me!

  New Wave

  August 9, 2007

• Social Distortion

  Social Distortion appears Sunday, November 5, at Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel. Call 713-225-5483 for more info.

  November 2, 2006

• Destroying Babylon

  Death by Stereo wants to unite the world's punk and metal kids. How sweet.

  October 13, 2005

• Christmas in July

  Six dozen of Houston's finest bands for a mere $7

  July 21, 2005

• Reel Big Fish, with American Hi-Fi, El Pus, Punchline and Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer

  Monday, July 18, at the Meridian, 1503 Chartres, 713-225-1717.

  July 14, 2005

• Warped Minds

  A day at punk rock's biggest summer tour takes more than just stamina

  June 23, 2005

• Tiger Army, with Lost City Angels and the Unseen

  Sunday, April 10, at the Meridian, 1503 Chartres, 713-225-1717

  April 7, 2005

• A Pair of Aces

  John Evans and Jesse Dayton drop career-defining records two weeks apart

  October 14, 2004

• Playbill

  September 23, 2004

• The Whole Package

  Medicine Show is packed with talent, youth, and charm

  January 2, 2003

• Still Angry After All These Years

  The Oven feeds a malnourished punk scene

  October 26, 2000

• Local Rotation

  Local Music Reviewed

  September 23, 1999

• Touring with Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

  Get on the bus, it's a family affair.

  April 30, 2009

• Tonight: Volbeat at Warehouse Live

  Photo by Andreas BondingEvery time us Yanks think we've got the market cornered on strangeness, along come those darn Europeans to show us how much we still have to learn. It's most entertaining when they do it by re-interpreting classic American concepts such as gangsters, country music and punk rock as interpreted by '80s Southern California bands like Bad Religion and Social Distortion. That's what Denmark's Volbeat, a Copenhagen four-piece formed in 2001, does on third album Guitar Gangsters

  May 12, 2009

• Houston's Rememberances of Warped Tours Past

  For the past 15 years, the Vans Warped Tour has been barreling through city after city across the globe creating punk rockers out of boy scouts and riot grrls out of band geeks. The traveling punk, hardcore and emo road show has been coming to Houston since 1995. The first taste local punks got of founder Kevin Lyman's tour was at the AstroArena, starring such future luminaries as No Doubt, Sublime and the Deftones, along with members of the old guard like Sick Of It All and L7. Everyone who is

  July 2, 2009

• Summer Stock

  August 6, 2009

• Aftermath: Green Day at Toyota Center

  Mark C. Austin​ During "Minority," the motorized 2000 Celtic-thrash mash-up that closed Green Day's main set Saturday night, Toyota Center's video screen became a collage of flyers from the group's early days, before the platinum albums, roadies, Grammys and extra live musicians (there were four Saturday). Meanwhile, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, showing little if any fatigue after more than two hours of running, jumping and screaming, might as well have been back in those clubs as he doused

  August 10, 2009

• Aftermath: Blue October and Its Mystifying Cult at Verizon Wireless Theater

  Chris Gray​ Friday's sold-out Blue October show at Verizon left Aftermath wondering one of the most vexing, troublesome things any reviewer can: "What is it about this band," the voice in our head kept asking over and over again like a car alarm, sometimes even threatening to drown out the band itself, "that we just don't get?" Because it must be something. Something we spent the balance of the onetime Houston band's homecoming show trying to figure out, and didn't get much of anywhere - past

  August 17, 2009

• "Snow Leopard," Steve? Couldn't You Do Better?

  ​Dear Steve Jobs,Ugh.  You really think you're so damn cute, don't you?  Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard?  Seriously, what's the deal with naming your operating system releases after big pussies?  Like society has some sort of obsession with cats or something.  Pffft.  Yeah, Steve, that's the sound that society makes when society is deeply offended by your assumptions.  Society is not amused.Okay, okay, look.  Feigned miffed-ness aside, the big kitty motif was kinda rad.

  August 31, 2009

• Ghosts of Washington Avenue

  September 10, 2009

• Overkill? No Such Thing

  September 17, 2009

• Surprise Someone IRL. Via the Internet, That Is

  ​"Looks like there's gonna be an engagement party for you after all!" "There is? Not that Nate or I know of." "Was it supposed to be a surprise?" "I have no idea. I don't know what you're talking about." "Well, I got a Facebook invite from Cynthia, your co-worker." "I honestly don't know anything about that." "I figure if there's a Facebook invite, you'd figure it out soon enough." "I haven't seen a Facebook invite." "Hang on, let me check." ::pause:: "Uh. Um. Yeah. It actua

  October 12, 2009

• A Few of Music's Biggest Tattoo Enthusiasts - Besides Rocks Off, Of Course

  Don't act so surprised... As we can fatefully attest, rock and roll and tattoos go hand in hand. The first time Rocks Off saw a grizzled punk rocker walk by at Fitzgerald's back in the '90s with two sleeves full of tattoos and a chest full of nautical-themed art, we mentally pointed at him and said "That's what we want", and from that day on we were hooked. Since we started getting tattoos we have seen the world change in regards to how inked people are regarded. They were one or all the follow

  November 5, 2009

• He Said She Said: Songs from the Year We Were Born That We Still Listen To, Part 2

  ​When He Said began researching the music that came out the year we were born, 1983, we were taken aback by how much of this music has warped, shaped and informed our life. Pretty much all of the albums and bands that were prevalent that year are still on our turntables and playlists. Why just this morning in the shower, we were rocking the first Metallica album while using just this darling facial cleanser we got from Avon. You wouldn't believe how well it invigorates your pores. Anyway, the

  November 13, 2009

• Metro Rolls Out Facebook & Twitter Accounts To Zero Fanfare

  ​In a press release clearly launched from the Stone Age, the Bayou City's Metropolitan Transit Authority (that's Metro, if you're nasty) puffed up its chest and triumphantly declared today that it is "expanding the conversation by adding social media tools Facebook and Twitter to its communication portfolio."Oh goody gumdrops! Yes, folks, that's a bona fide quote, straight from the horse's mouth. We know you're trying to decide whether to yawn or vomit. Just remove your finger from your th

  November 17, 2009