Let the Good Times Rock ‘n’ Roll With S.C.O.T.S.’ Mojo Box
February 18, 2004
Jesse Christen
Roots rock jokesters South Culture on the Skids return with a new album, Mojo Box.
If you’ve never heard South Culture on the Skids, you’re in a for a treat. They’re an American band whose sound ranges from Southern boogie-woogie to reverb-drenched surf rock to ’60s garage rock all served up with a punk attitude. In other words, music that everyone from a toothless hick working on a ’69 El Camino to record-collector nerd to a smelly spike-and-chain wearing punk rock kid could enjoy.
This is goodtime music. One can’t stay in a gloomy mood with silly songs that sing the praises of ecnonomy living like “Doublewide” (as in a trailer house folks), the exciting instrumental “The Wet Spot” and the grab your sweetheart and slow dance number of “Where is the Moon.”
My personal Mojo Box favorite is the southern-fried version of obscure ’60s band The Creation rompin’, stompin’ number “Biff Bang Pow.”
Every track on Mojo Box features singer/guitarist Rick Miller’s encyclopedia of greasy 1950s and ’60s guitar licks, bassist Mary’ Huff’s grooving Stax style walking bass lines and drummer Dave Hartman’s garage stomp beats. Also, there’s some Farfisa organ (you know, the cheese-box ’60s organ, think “96 Tears”) on a number of the tracks. The album’s musicianship is rock solid; but it never gets so out there that it would isolate the common folks.
Mojo Box is the band’s eighth album released since 1991, not mentioning countless singles and soundtrack appearances – Beavis and Butthead do America, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Miss Congeniality, to name a few.
The band claims the entire album was recorded in a large garage that was the former home of a muscle car builder. And just like a ’69 Plymouth Roadrunner, Southern Culture on the Skids is a slice of Americana that appeals to almost everyone and never goes out of style.
4 stars (out of 5)