Overlooked and Under-Appreciated: Southern Culture On The Skids

This is the kickoff to this series about bands that just don’t get enough credit - and who better to start with than a band that splits their time between making you laugh and wowing you with tasty guitar while pelting you with fried chicken? That’s right, you may want to wear a bib at the live shows, kids. Soooooo…

“Baby, would you eat that there snack cracker in your special outfit for me please? OOOWWEE!”
Who-What, now? Southern Culture On The Skids (referred to as SCOTS by fans) is a band that writes songs about… well, let’s just say that the band name evokes the proper image. Hailing from North Carolina, they lovingly skewer trailer park life – hitting all the hot-button white trash topics, ranging from tales of kinky sex to carving critters for dinner. And they do it with style.

SCOTS was founded by Rick Miller (guitar, vocals, king of fried chix and hot licks), and talk about the perfect blend of childhood influences – as a kid, his time was split between spending time with his father in North Carolina (who ran a mobile-home factory) and his mom in Southern California (where he discovered surf and rockabilly). After an earlier incarnation of SCOTS disbanded, they settled into their current three-piece lineup in 1987 when Miller reformed with Mary Huff (bass, vocals, bouffant beauty queen) and Dave Hartman (drums, prime minister of Soul City) – both of whom grew up in Roanoke, VA. This lineup has been together since, pumping out eight studio albums, a live disc and a handful of EPs, all on a mix of labels – but they’ve been going steady with Yep Roc Records since 2004’s Mojo Box.

So, what do these guys sound like? They’re not a bunch of inbred hicks, right? Like you should be talking – everyone knows what you did behind the barn with your cousin Tammy in the 6th Grade.

No, these guys are a class act – granted, it’s a class full of clowns but that’s the beauty of SCOTS. They’ve taken this simple parody and turned it into a lifestyle. The sound? Imagine taking everything from garage rock, rockabilly, surf rock, country and blues, squeezing out the delicious nectar and feeding it to a rabid possum that knows how to do the Swamp Stomp. Yeah, it’s a little like that. (Add a dollop of punk attitude or the occasional horns for extra zest). And they found their niche early on – sex and food, baby, the best and greasiest of both.

Okay, Southern rock-y goodness with a twist of lemon. But with so many albums, what should I check out first?! Don’t soil yourself, junior, I’ve got some start-up ideas for you.

First off, you may want to check out Dirt Track Date (1996). This was their first major label release (of their two on Geffen Records), and you may have heard their one big single “Walk Like A Camel”, which gave them a modicum of national attention. The rest of the album featured a few tracks from previous indie releases, like the finger-lickin’ goodness of “Eight Piece Box” – which had already been on two discs. While the repeats were somewhat of a disappointment to longtime fans, this album was a great jumping-on point for new listeners. And the new songs, such as the insanely upbeat “Soul City” (where “It don’t matter if your pants are shiny/If your dick is big or your dick is tiny”), and “Fried Chicken and Gasoline” (their newer ode to food on the road) were poised to be classics.

The next (and final) Geffen release, Plastic Seat Sweat (1997), had one of my personal faves – “Banana Pudding”. Their steaming take on dessert makes you want to grab a partner and swing (and makes you worry a bit about what they’d do in a locked room with a big ol’ bowl of the stuff). And on the opposite end of the spectrum, tracks like their take on “House of Bamboo” evoke a ‘60s cocktail lounge, while “Carve That Possum” conjures up a recipe that you never knew you’d want to cook.

Their most recent disc, Countrypolitan Favorites (2007), shows off their versatility. The album is a collection of covers ranging from T. Rex to the Kinks and back round the bend to countrified classics like “Oh Lonesome Me”. This CD is much more subdued than most of their works, but the patented SCOTS distortion tweaks these songs in just the right way. Horror maven Stephen King even gave the album his seal of approval, listing it as one of his “Top 7 of ‘07” in his column for Entertainment Weekly.

So why aren’t these guys superstars? And I think I’m ready to get beaned off the noggin with a chicken wing – are they touring? As to the superstardom status – let’s blame it on ignorance of how phenomenal these guys (and gal) are together. A lot of folks dismiss them as a novelty act, but Miller’s guitar chops alone will make your jaw drop. As an entire band, they might just blow your mind - so spread the word!

As to the touring, trying to make them stop would be like trying to polish the stank off of a skunk – it’s not likely to happen anytime soon. And the fact that they’re not huge just means that you’re still able to see them in small clubs, thankfully. In fact, they’ll be at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA on Saturday, August 2nd (for more info/tix, go here). SCOTS will have you out of your seat and boogying, and they might even invite you on stage – last time I saw them, the drunk folks pulled from the audience couldn’t get the words right, so you might want to brush up on your “Camel Walk” lyrics!

For up-to-date info on SCOTS, go to their web site here. You can get more tour dates, fun merch and even a recipe for Chipmunk Fricassee – I kid you not.