Southern Culture On The Skids

Since the early ’90s, SCOTS has taken its swamp rock party all over the U.S., and did so in a van up until recently. The band currently rents its own bus as it travels around touring behind its sophomore Geffen release, Plastic Seat Sweat. And though it has a firm foot in the corporate music world with its major label deal and top notch business team, tour support is not in the band’s vocabulary.

Miller, bassist/vocalist Mary Huff and drummer Dave Hartman know their business because they’ve been playing together since 1985. The so-called Chapel Hill (N.C.) Gang — now a quartet with the recent addition of guitarist/organist Chris Bess — would preach the virtues of DIY touring to any band today.

“Go out, hit the road, play live, get to know each other. And then things will happen for you,” Miller said. “And when you do have success, I think you’re ready to handle it. And when it comes time to pick a manager, to pick a booking agent, you know what sounds like a good deal and what isn’t a good deal. Basically, just know what you want.”

Though SCOTS knows what it wants — to make a living playing that hillbilly, surf-rock flavored music — things haven’t been exactly easy from a business point of view. The music, which has been labeled everything from trash-rock to joke-rock to toe-sucking geek rock, doesn’t fit into the kind of pretty package the music industry likes to market. “Our music’s kind of like eatin’ in a southern plate lunch joint because there’s a bunch of different flavors and they’ve all been cookin’ for awhile. But when you put them on the same plate, they all run together,” Miller said.

Because the music lacks definition, “a lot of people … just don’t do anything at all,” Miller said. “Or they’re scratching their heads and don’t really know how to package it or present it. But I say screw all that. It all kind of comes out in the wash in the end.”

That’s just the kind of musical goulash that has had a hard time making it onto the airwaves. The band has tasted radio just enough to realize its significance. With the limited commercial airplay the band got with its Geffen debut, Dirt Track Date, “I saw our live attendance at our shows just skyrocket,” Miller said.

On the other hand, he said a huge radio or MTV hit is a mixed blessing these days, the way people devour bands and bands fail to develop a solid fan base. “I think that can end your career as soon as it gets started. It’s just so disposable,” Miller said. “It’s the creeps if you’re a musician and you’ve been doing it for like 15 years but then you’re an overnight success and then nobody wants to hear about you again. It’s a very fickle, fickle [business] — radio and MTV and all that stuff.”

While radio and MTV may be fickle, one thing SCOTS knows it can always depend on is its live show. “I think all good rock’n’roll bands first and foremost should be good live,” Miller said. “That’s the real telling tale.”

With its party atmosphere and audience participation gimmicks, Miller said SCOTS’ live show sometimes turns into something of a chemistry experiment. “We’ve got songs like ‘Eight Piece Box’ where we get people on stage to eat fried chicken. And it’s always amazing what people will do with a piece of chicken in their hand,” he said.

The party that SCOTS throws when it comes through town is one that brings people from all walks of life together and that is something the band is especially proud of. “I was sitting in a bar the other night and this girl came up to me, said she was 18 and that this is the only CD that her and her dad can actually sit down and listen to when they’re driving without complaining or yelling at each other,” Miller said. “I was like, ‘Right on man. The music’s bringing people together.'”

Southern Culture On The Skids is getting ready to wrap up its current stateside tour before taking a Thanksgiving break and then the band is off to Spain for a few dates. After the holidays, SCOTS will take its brand of refined American culture to Australia and Japan, where it has developed quite a following.