Southern Culture’s Pedal-to-the-Metal Spirit : Pop Beat: With its blend of rockabilly, blues, country, R&B;, surf and lounge, the band is a hybrid of the Cramps, the B-52’s and the Beverly Hillbillies.

Like most bands, Southern Culture on the Skids lists several musical reference points. In this case, the influences go all the way back to Chuck Berry and Link Wray to Creedence Clearwater Revival.

But Southern Culture, which plays the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana tonight, may be the first band to throw auto racing into the mix.

“If the Eagles are NASCAR,” says band leader Rick Miller, referring to the major leagues of stock car racing, “then we’re dirt track.”

And that’s OK with Miller.

“I love the whole idea of dirt-track racing,” he says. “It’s kind of like the garage rock of automobile racing. I kind of like that whole run-what-you-brung attitude.

“You could probably record our album in the same garage that you built a car in--it’s funky and low-down because you’ve got budget constrictions.”

Miller, 38, broaches the subject in song on “Dirt Track Date,” the group’s major-label debut album on Geffen Records. The singer-guitarist also addresses such mundane items as fireflies and oatmeal pies, but his lyrics are so playful and the songs are driven with such pedal-to-the-metal spirit that the sound is hard to resist.

“Music should be some sort of celebration and should be fun,” says Miller, who is joined in Southern Culture by his girlfriend, bassist Mary Huff, 28, and drummer Dave Hartman, 32. “You should give people a break from their problems, not make them want to take sedatives. People should be entertained by a band.”

Southern Culture on the Skids is nothing if not entertaining. A highlight of its frenetic live shows is “8 Piece Box,” during which Miller brings out a container of fried chicken and invites fans onto the stage to dance with the chicken parts and throw them into the crowd.

“There’s a little something for everybody,” says Ray Farrell, the executive who signed Southern Culture to Geffen. “The lyrics are clever enough to reach the intellectuals, and yet at the same time it can reach anybody because it’s really a party band.

“It’s not a band that’s about trying to change the world, or reflecting on how rough it is to be a rock star. In a way, it’s kind of a traditional thing because it’s pure entertainment.” With its blend of rockabilly, blues, country, R&B;, surf and lounge--a mix that has been described as swamp-rock--Southern Culture has been called a cross between the Cramps, the B-52’s and the Beverly Hillbillies. The latter is a nod to its hayseed fashion sense.

Miller, who writes almost all of the songs, formed the band 11 years ago while earning a master’s degree in art at the University of North Carolina. A native of the Tarheel state, he lived in Southern California for several years, graduating from Corona High and San Diego State before returning home for grad school.

“In Chapel Hill at that time,” Miller says, “there were all these R.E.M. clone bands and we just said, ‘Man, we’re so sick of this. Let’s do something that rocks.’ ”

At a theater where one of the band members worked, Southern Culture made its debut as a warm-up to a porno movie. After the band’s original bass player dropped out in 1987, Huff hitchhiked down from her Virginia home to join. A year later, with Miller the only original member remaining, Huff brought in her old friend Hartman to be the drummer.

Touring constantly, they still found time to release three albums on independent labels--1990’s “Too Much Pork for Just One Fork,” 1992’s “For Lovers Only” and 1994’s “Ditch Diggin’.”

All the while playing up its “white trash” image--”It helps translate the music,” Miller says--the tireless trio built a loyal following by staying out on the road for as many as 250 days a year, once putting together a tour of women’s prisons.

They once played a frat-house gig where some of the brothers brought out live chickens.

Says Hartman, “I was just sure that they were all going to get drunk and say, ‘Hey, let’s kill some chickens.’ ”

“But they didn’t,” Miller says. “Actually, they treated them really nice--better than their dates.”

* Southern Culture on the Skids plays tonight at the Galaxy Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana, 8 p.m. $10. (714) 957-0600.