Plastic Seat Sweat
This is a raspberry swirl in a bran-muffin world: bad for you but too good to pass up. On their sixth album, Southern Culture on the Skids offer a tour of white-trash, Americana, hillbilly funk, B-movie instrumentals, road-kill rock--all without leaving their customized Laz-E-Boy. Southern Culture guitarist Rick Miller, bassist Mary Huff, and drummer Dave Hartman genuinely love this music, even as they mock its black-velvet trappings. The highest low points: "Banana Puddin,'" an ode to day-old desserts, and "Carve That Possum," an Uncle Dave Macon cover that sounds like an in-bred cousin of the blues. When Southern Culture move into the neighborhood, you can bet property values will plummet in reverse ratio to the elevation of your mood.--Keith Moerer