My own introduction to the Chapel Hill NC ensemble known as Southern Culture on the Skids came much later than their 1985 self-titled debut, and honestly, I knew a lot more about what the swamp rockin' trio looked like for a good while before actually getting to hear their music. Back when he was still a swinging bachelor, my husband had a promo photo of the SCOTS propped up on the radiator by his bed, and for nearly six months, that happy little picture of the big-haired lady and her two jug-band companions gave me something to look at during some mighty fine hump sessions.

To the uninitiated, Southern Culture On the Skids - fronted by original member Rick Miller on guitar and joined by members-since-1987 Mary Huff on bass and Dave Hartman on drums - has brought their love of big cars, greasy food, and big hair to audiences around the world. Now, with the release of their newest album, Mojo Box, SCOTS is giving audiences a glimpse of its spiritual side. The album jacket is covered with pictures of Mojo products and ringing endorsements of such for bottles containing "Law Stay Away Oil," and Lucky Mojo Oil," and "Lovers Oil."

[Pictured: Rick Miller]

"Down South, where we live, you can buy Mojo products, you can buy them at swap meets, drug stores, anywhere," explains Miller of the album's theme. "Like potions, healing creams, powders, magic stuff. Basically, it's probably no more than Vaseline or Glade, you know what I mean? But they put the labels on it, like, 'Powers to heal,' or 'Lucky in Love,' blah blah blah, and people, they buy them up, and probably even believe they work. 'Satan in a Can.' In fact, I have a Mojo product here in the car with me now," he adds. "We have the 'Powerful Indian Health Blessing: Protection From Harm.' The way it works is if you get hexed, or jinxed by somebody, you can sprinkle this on yourself, or some sort of fetish item, and hopefully you will become uncrossed." To accompany the real ads in the album, the band came up with their own products to advertise, such as Mary Huff's "Do As I Say Hair Control Spray," Dave Hartman's "High Roller Mojo Cologne," and Miller's own "Three Day Quick Money Incense." "These are not actual products," cautions Miller. "You cannot order them from the band."

[Pictured: Rick and drummer Dave Hartman]

Along with the deep, spiritual messages that can be found throughout the album are, of course, SCOTS' mainstay songs about girls and cars and white trash culture. "Doublewide" is a crazy mix of gorgeous surf guitar, cheesy organ music and rapid-fire percussion, kind of a clash against a song about a couple buying a double-wide trailer. "I Want a Love" features Huff and Miller harmonizing against a backdrop of Jerry Lee-style piano riffs and scratchy guitar, while "'69 El Camino" is a snaky, Cramps-style piece with creepy-crawly bass riffs and lots of minor chords and feedback. "Swamp Fox" tells a wicked story about being left for dead by a "swamp fox in a halter top," while the slower-paced instrumental "The Sweet Spot" stands apart from the rest of the album with its echoey, Don Ho guitar riffs and bongo drums.

[Pictured: Mary Huff]

Mojo Box is also the first album produced and recorded entirely by SCOTS in their very own recording studio, Miller's Kudzu Ranch. "We decided to do it this way because nobody else could get it right," says Miller of the decision to do all the production themselves. "We've always been an independent band and tried to do what we've wanted to do, and I think that as we worked longer and longer and were into the music business longer and longer, we realized you just spend so much money in a studio. Back when we got signed to Geffen, we took some of the advance money and bought a little 8-track tape deck, and the first song we recorded on it got put in the movie "Flirting With Disaster." We got all this money for this song that cost us basically nothing to do, so I thought, "This is the way to do it." So for the last 10-12 years, I've been slowly acquiring a lot of equipment, and when I finally bought a house about 4 years ago, we started putting together our own studio."

When they're not in the recording studio, Southern Culture on the Skids is almost perpetually touring. Their performances are infamously wild and messy, with the highlight of the show consisting of the band throwing pieces of KFC chicken into the crowd - it's up to the audience what to do with the chicken after that. "I think Mary got hit in the head with a piece of chicken last night, actually, or at least that's what she says," says Miller of their Portland, Oregon show. "I had one skip right off my head last night, too, like a rock on a lake. You never know what's going to happen. Our live shows, they're kind of like a chemistry experiment. You get a box of chicken, some rock'n'roll, some people that have been drinking for like, four to five hours, and you never know what's going to happen. We've seen everything from people, like, stripping their clothes off - there was this one girl who was actually masturbating with a chicken wing in Wichita, Kansas, of all places. But then, you know, some nights, people just want to eat the chicken. They're hungry, and they don't even pay attention to you, they're so focused on the chicken they're eating. Or they want to throw it, and if they throw it, like they did last night, it always comes back a lot faster and harder, you know what I mean? And it's just too bad that sometimes we happen to be standing in the way."

© 2004 - Holly Day