Southern Culture On The Skids: Dig This

Southern Culture on the Skids
Dig This
(Kudzu)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

By now, you are either on Southern Culture on the Skids’ goofy garage, country, swamp stomp, surf trailer they have been driving to every club in the country since 1991 or you have decided that their 8-piece box of Southern fried friskiness just isn’t going to satisfy your palette.

This rollicking revamp of the band’s 1994 Ditch Digging release finds the trio re-recording the 13 originals — but not the two terrific Link Wray and Louvin Brothers covers — from that album. They have jiggered the running order and the sound is better, but otherwise little has changed. That begs the question of why bother, which aside from buying the group time to write originals and add another item to their already congested merch table, isn’t clear.

Still, if you haven’t yet experienced the greasy, gutsy, reverbed charms of eternally underrated guitarist Rick Miller, been charmed by bassist Mary Huffs’ 60s go-go schtick or danced around to drummer Dave Hartman’s cocktail kit kicks, this is the perfect time to sign up. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to get through this cheap thrills album with songs such as “Chicken Shit Farmer,” “Tuna Fish Everyday” or “Put Your Teeth Up on the Windowsill” without them leaving a goofy grin on your face.

If Dig This does nothing other than show SCOTS to be the same bunch of backwoods Southern fun loving hooligans we’ve known through the years, we can rest easy in knowing they will never change their fried chicken chomping, too much pork eating, day old banana pudding eatin’ ways.