VIDEO OF THE DAY: “GIMME THE SWEET AND LOWDOWN” BY SOCIAL DISTORTION

For more than thirty years, Southern California’s Social Distortion has been at the forefront of punk rockabilly, playing it hard, loud, and fast on such records as 1983’s Mommy’s Little Monster, 1988’s Prison Bound, and 1992’s Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell. Such powerful songs as “Story of My Life,” “Bad Luck,” “Ball and Chain,” and “99 to Life” came to define the genre, along with their killer cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.” Following an arena stint supporting the Foo Fighters, Social D, led by original front man Mike Ness along with guitarist Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham, bassist Brent Harding, and drummer David Hidalgo Jr. (son of Los Lobos cofounder David Hidalgo), is back out on the road headlining smaller venues in support of their 2011 Epitaph release, Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes, which includes the driving “Gimme the Sweet and Lowdown,” for which the Mad Twins, Olya & Vira Ishchuk, just created an animated video that makes numerous references to Ness’s real life. “I can tell you now / you’ve really gotten the blues,” Ness sings. “I can tell you now / that I’ve walked in your shoes.” Social D will be at the Roseland Ballroom on October 26 with the Biters and Lindi Ortega.