Southern Culture on the Skids returns to Auburn, poor crowd
| Ñ Review by Jeffrey Hahne Assistant Intrigue Ed
itor There might not have been a large crowd at the Hogpen last Sunday, Sept. 29, but there was still a great amount of fun, fried chicken, wrestling and limbo-ing. Only an estimated 200 people were around when Southern Culture on the Skids hi t the stage. The first words out of Rick Millers' mouth were, "I like it down here on the farm." The band then began to play "Voodoo Cadillac," the first track off their most recent album, Dirt Track Date . Even though there was an extremely larg e area of mud in front of the stage, most of the crowd gathered around to dance in front of the band. After "Voodoo Cadillac," Miller said, "Hey, mud feels good between your toes." The band then began to play "Whole Lotta Things," another song off o f Dirt Track Date . Most of the band's hour and a half set was from that album, including, "Soul City," "White Trash" and "Nitty Gritty." Before playing "Firefly," Miller dedicated it to "this little function right here." The band also played "Bi scuit Eater" from their album For Lovers Only. During a song Miller referred to as "Bo Diddley's Beach Party," a limbo was organized in front of the stage. The winner, the crowd was told, would receive a free S.C.O.T.S. T-shirt and a can of Spam. Af ter the limbo, Miller got a group of women on stage to hand out fried chicken to the crowd during the song, "8 Piece Box." After the free food was consumed, a dance contest was organized on stage while the band played, "New Cooter Boogie." "New Coo ter Boogie" Miller dedicated to "all of the new cooter in Alabama." One of the band's singles, "Camel Walk," was then played and dedicated to "all of the lil' Debbies" by Miller. The band's last song of the night before the encore, was "The Great At omic Power" which was accompanied by an onstage wrestling match. The band played a three-song encore and it appeared to be having fun during the entire set along with the crowd. Southern Culture on the Skids was last in Auburn three years ago, and t he show this past Sunday was much, much better. S.C.O.T.S. is a band that is more fun live than on their albums. It was very upsetting to see the small turnout for what ended up to be an incredible show. If the Auburn population expects larger name bands to come and play in the area, they will have to support the smaller ones first. S.C.O.T.S. was one of these smaller bands, and I hope it won't be another three years before they come back. After the show, we had a chance to talk with Rick Mill er, the lead singer and guitarist. Here's what he had to say about the Plains. What are your first impressions of the Hogpen? Muddy (laughs). Coming in, though, we saw a dead hog. Somebody shot a hog. I wasn't going to eat any pork sandwiches today . I like the Hogpen, though. It's just too bad we didn't have more of a turnout. So how long are you guys on tour? Oh, we just got done with a huge tour (for Dirt Track Date). Now, we're just kinda playing on the weekends and working on some new mate rial for our next record. What's this I heard about Japan? Well, we've been to Japan already once this year. We did really well, and they wanted us to come back. We were going to go back next week actually, but we postponed it until springtime. We w eren't really up for it, and we got an offer to go on a bigger and better tour. In the spring, we'll probably do some Deep South tours. You might see us back here. Kinda go down where it's warm. Then, the record, if everything goes on schedule, will be r ecorded in January and probably come out in May or June. It hasn't been recorded yet. We're just getting together material for it right now. Do you have a name for it? I don't know. There's a lot of things. We were thinking about naming it Crackers i n Bed. Why did you guys take so long to come back to Auburn?
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Well, we kinda lost where we played when Darnell's shut down. And as much as I like Auburn, I just didn't really feel like the Locker Room was the best venue for us. The sound just isn't good in there, ya know? And we've been busy also. Our touring sche
dule stepped up quite a bit. We haven't got back to the South as much as I would've liked to. We've been all over the place Ñ Australia, Japan, Europe twice, plus the United States and Canada. Some of the places we were doing two, three, four times a year
, we're (now) only able to play there once a year. Hopefully, we'll be back in March. So I understand you have a microphone with a piece of cornbread in it (that flew out of James Brown's mouth)? Yeah, yeah. Can I see it? No, it's not here. It 's at the studio Ñ in the studio in Charlotte where we recorded. Now (James Brown) bought all those microphones from Arthur Smith Studios. That is where they recorded I Feel Good (I Got You). I didn't see the piece of cornbread to be honest with you, but it's a good story. You guys have been playing "Camel Walk" live for a while. Why did it take so long for it to come out on an album? It came out on an EP a long time ago. The record label that put that out went out of business and just kinda took tha t whole thing with it. Dirt Track Date is the first full album we put it on. I know you're a big Cramps fan. Who else are your major influences? I 'm a big fan of Link Ray and Slim Harpo. I like a lot of stuff. I like a lot of soul and R&B. I like a lot of easy listening, too, like Billy Strange. Any guitar-oriented music I like. I like everyone from John Fogerty and Van Morrison to P.J. Harvey and stuff like that. What did you think of Auburn's Quadrajets? They're a good band. They've improved immensely, I think. Their sound has really filled out. We've played with them a couple times in Florida, and they came up and played the Sleazefest. I really like the direction they're going, too. It's kinda got that boogie, that Southern thang. Around here, your music has been getting a lot of play on Tiger 95.9. What are your impressions of mainstream radio in general? It's great. Good work if yo u can get it. We don't write songs or tape records tailoring it for any major radio airplay. It was wild because it took a while for "Camel Walk" to come out. But any radio station they played that on was very popular on the phones. We got a lot of suppor t from the listeners. It wasn't so much the DJs, it was the people listening. But ya know, it sounded so different from anything else. This modern rock radio, everything starts to sound the same. They format it, they program it, they bleed any little bit of life out of it. That's because it's all based on money. The DJs don't even have a say anymore. On the other hand, any market where we got played on modern rock radio, our shows were packed. So it really does make a difference to get it out to peopl e. It's just the people that are driving around in their cars listening to the radio, ya know. What is your impression of MTV? Aw, MTV sucks. How would you categorize your music? We call it toe-suckin' geek rock. It feels good (laughs). It's kind of obvious from your music, but where did you get the name, Southern Culture on the Skids? We all grew up in the South. It's so funny coming from the South because a lot of people have a lot of funny stereotypes about Southerners. There's kind of a truthful side to it, and there's a totally exaggerated side. We just have fun with that. We grew up with all this stuff so we understand it. If we do poke fun at anything, we poke fun as much at ourselves. It's just that sort of sense of humor. We came up with the name actually as an off-the-cuff thing. We were listening to a radio station, and they were playing R.E.M. The disc jockey came on and said, 'the sound of the South Ñ R.E.M.' I said, 'If that's the sound of the South, I like the sound of Southern Culture on the Skids.' Nothing against R.E.M., but they sounded more like The Byrds to me, ya know what I mean? It seems like Southerners relate more easily to your music. How do you do out West and up North? We do great all over, and I'll t ell you why Ñ rock 'n' roll is Southern music, ain't no doubt about it, At least the real sh**. I ain't talking about Fabian. You can thank the Yankees for that. When I think of rock 'n' roll and the North, I think of doo-wop and Motown. I think of the No rth, I think of Velvet Underground Ñ great rock 'n' roll band but very different. Very conceptual and not as emotional. I think the South is more emotional and the North is a calmer, cooler, more intellectual approach to the music. |
WEGL airs music, news, more
| n ANDIE THOMPSON Staff Writer For most students, purchasing textbooks has put a big dent in their CD-p urchasing funds. If you are one of these students, don't fret. Tune your radio to 91.1 WEGL-FM. WEGL gives listeners an earful of music such as bluegrass, reggae and ska, that you can't find on other radio stations. Also, the station offers local news and call-in shows, News Director Age Roth said. WEGL recently upgraded its equipment to improve the sound. "We have quite possibly the nicest facilities of any college radio station," Production Director Chris Phurrough said. WEGL plays a lot of local music, Phurrough said. "We play new music before anyone else does," he said. WEGL welcomes local bands to bring in their tapes to be played. This year, WEGL will be giving away free food, Grants Director Roy Washburn said. The program is called Free Food For Starving Students. When the station plays a dinner bell on the air, the correct caller will win a free meal from a local restaurant. WE GL gives away concert tickets, including local shows at venues such as the Hogpen, Phurrough said.
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WEGL is a student operated and funded radio station. During the first week of each quarter, students and faculty may go by the station at 116 Foy Union to sign up to be a deejay. "Anyone can be a DJ," Jay Henton, training coordinator, said. An announce r's class is taught each quarter, he said. "We do not play commercials," Phurrough said. Instead, WEGL gives a short thank you on the air to local sponsors. Phurrough also said non-profit organizations may publicize events and meetings on the air. Th ose organizations can call Emily Flagler at 844-4116 for more information. WEGL is now on-line, Phurrough said. WEGL's homepage address is http://www.auburn.edu/wegl.html . and the e-mail is wegl@mail.auburn.edu . |
Museum explores origins of soccer
| Ñ Charlotte McIntosh and Ashley Seuell Staff Writers This summer thousands of fans went to Bir mingham to watch Olympic soccer history being made. They waved their flags, wore the colors of their countries and cheered for their teams. Few of them, however, actually realized how ancient the game's roots really are. In honor of the city's par t in the Olympic festivities, the Birmingham Museum of Art opened an exhibit called The Precolumbian Ballgame: 3,000 Years of Sports and Sacrifice.. This display reveals the earliest evidence of man's interest in the game of soccer. The Mayans are cred ited with inventing soccer. Around 1500 B.C., this civilization began playing a game with a heavy rubber ball in which the participants used their legs, hips and arms to deflect the ball into goals. The game was a ceremonial tribute to their gods and was played on courts built beside their temples. Because of its religious meaning in Mayan culture, soccer was more than just entertainment to them. Usually the teams were made up of slaves and prisoners of war, and when the contest had ended, the los ing team was sacrificed to please the gods.
| The exhibit at the museum features many artifacts from the Mayan civilization. The main part of the collection is a group of carved figures of ancient soccer players. Some of these are around 3,000 years old and show the elaborate headdresses and protective belts the Mayans wore while playing the game. Although the Mayans wore cloth belts during the matches, several stone models of these belts were on display. Because of the religious nature of the game, the belts and headdress es the athletes wore were decorated with serpents, deer, the sun and the moon to show respect to their gods. For anyone who enjoys the sport of soccer, this exhibit is an eye-opener. Although the display was informative, it was small; one room held all the artifacts. The exhibit revealed only the Mayan civilization's place in the history of soccer. It would have been much more interesting if it had dealt with the evolution and progress of the sport as a whole. We were generally disappointed wit h the size and limited content of the display and would not recommend taking a special trip to Birmingham just to see it. In spite of its shortcomings, this exhibit did make us thankful for one thing, though Ñ we're glad someone decided to quit killing the losers! |
