Southern Culture on the Skids

People who can’t make it out to see Southern Culture on the Skids can take solace in knowing that the double-wide boogie ensemble just dropped its first live album, Live at El Sol. They shouldn’t take too much comfort, though; listening to it may be a party, but the fun escalates exponentially at the shows. Recorded in Madrid as a tribute to the success of SCOTS’ cross-continental mission to both expose and wallow in the gloriously trashy underbelly of America, the album opens with Spaniards chanting “We want chicken! We want chicken!” And SCOTS does not disappoint, launching into Link Wray’s “Run Chicken Run” and the band’s own “I’m a Chicken Shit Farmer.” (The absence of longtime favorite “Too Much Pork for Just One Fork” makes one wonder if SCOTS has given up the other white meat for good.) Live at El Sol is a tour de force, but it could never replace the hands-on, bottoms-up, cause-for-reexamining-life-as-we-know-it experience that is a SCOTS show.