Southern Culture on the Skids may do many things as a band, including mixing sounds across genres and decades, but one thing unites it: the South. Courtesy Southern Culture on the Skids

Nothing is more Southern than Southern Culture on the Skids.

Formed in 1983, the Chapel Hill, N.C.-based hillbilly surf-rockers formed their image on the concept of everything so wonderfully south of the Mason-Dixon — with songs like, “Banana Pudding.”

“We just started writing about things we grew up with and Southern things,” guitarist Rick Miller said. “It really evolved around food and geography — and we indulged our sense of humor and licked some musical inspiration from the ’50s and ’60s. Anything from classic country to rockabilly to swamp pop. Southern forms of music is a very rich field to mine, so we’ve made own brand and we do our own thing.”

Within this musical mine-field, the band has concocted a melting pot of blended Americana.

“We used to just call it ‘toe-sucking geek rock.’ It’s kinda weird but once you try it, you probably like it … it’s pure Americana from the other side of the tracks,” Miller said. “It’s not your typical Americana band, but everything we do is so American. It’s all about growing up and living in the South, but it’s kind on of the wrong side of the tracks.”

Playing a varied style of music, Southern Culture has managed to form a wide and varied fan base that spans across state and national lines.

“We actually have a really broad fan base,” Miller said. “The type of music we play sort of allows for that — and we have a really fun live show I think. We do as well in Seattle as we do in Florida, as well in New York City as we do in Louisiana. I don’t know if it’s all misplaced Southerners or because we’ve toured so much or because Southern music is its own thing.”

Some of those fans include inmates of state prisons in North Carolina. Back in the ’90s, Southern Culture did a tour of the state prisons with a gospel quartet.

“It was pretty wild,” Miller said. “We played women’s prisons, men’s prisons, prison hospitals and youth correctional facilities. One time we got up and jammed with the gospel band when we were rocking out a women’s correctional on the basketball court — and in the middle of a song, a woman dropped down and started speaking in tongues.”

Perhaps the woman’s amen, corner-esque possession occurred from the sheer energy of Southern Culture’s live shows. The band has made a name for itself not only for its music, but also for its eccentric live sets.

“It’s fun, we don’t really take anything seriously … and we kinda have a classic rock ‘n’ roll kind of attitude,” Miller said. “We involve our audience a lot and we’re very involved with our fans. A lot of times we’ll have a dance contest during a song like, ‘Daddy Was A Preacher, but Mama Was A Go-Go Girl’ and we’ll eat some fried chicken, maybe an eight-piece box and do some sort of twist songs.”

Even outside of venues the band creates a communal vibe on its website that includes a message board of traditional Southern recipes.

“We’ve actually tried some of those recipes,” Miller said.  “The ‘meat turtle’ takes it all though. That’s the funniest recipe that sounds like it could actually taste pretty good.”

Recently, Southern Culture released a new LP entitled, “Zombified” that was originally only released in Australia, but has now been re-mastered with new artwork for an American re-release.

“It’s a collection of not necessarily Halloween songs but it’s sort-of dedicated to monster movies and things like B-movies and exploitation movies of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s,” Miller said. “It’s a really fun record.”

But for Southern Culture on the Skids, the music all goes back to its  roots — even with a horror-themed album.

“There’s some Southern gospel going on in there definitely,” Miller said. “We did this song called ‘Bloodsucker’ and it just sort of resonated with people these days feeling a certain drive by like, you know, banks and credit cards and just the expenses of living in a downturned economy. But it’s just kinda funny but it’s resonated just because of that. It’s like any of our other records: it’s all over the place, but its held together conceptually by the whole Southern-soul thing.”

SOUTHERN CULTURE ON THE SKIDS

Where: 40 Watt

When: 8:30 p.m.

Price: $10