Suthrn Cuz: Wrong Place, Wrong Time

How’s this for a foolproof barroom bet?

“Name the home state of the Dixie-fried boogie band Suthrn Cuzn.”

Alabama, some will say. Mississippi, Georgia and Arkansas will rack up some votes, while sly participants angling for a dark-horse victory might offer Florida, Texas or Tennessee.

“They’re not from a Southern state,” you’ll calmly reply as you collect your greenbacks and victory shots of Blue Ridge Bristleback. “They’re from an Eastern state. Middle Eastern, actually.”

Yes, the redneck rockers responsible for such twang-injected tunes as “Sonofabitch,” “Hello Trouble” and “Dirty Macon Momma” hailed from Israel. And not even Southern Israel, but the Northern seaside town of Haifa.

If this fact surprises you as much as it would the hundreds of fans who embraced the swaggering guitar solos and cocksure lyrical stance of the quartet’s sole Clubbo release, 1987’s Kiss’n Cuzns, credit the Cotton Belt credibility of frontman/bandleader Mordechai “Mordy” Madovitz.

“That's funny — you don't look Southern.” Mordy Madovitz in 1987.

Young Madovitz served with distinction in the Israeli armed forces — so much so that he was dispatched overseas as a tactical liaison to the U.S. Army. It was while stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, in the late ’70s that Mordy commenced his lifelong love affair with Southern culture, from boogie-rock to BBQ. Before the decommissioned junior officer returned to Haifa, he swapped his Uzi for a top-of-the-line Peavey guitar.

Unfortunately, by the time Mordy had schooled several ex-army buddies in the intricacies of Southern rock, the style had long since retreated to the sidelines of musical fashion. But Madovitz believed that long guitar solos and testosterone-fueled sentiments were due for a rebound, and Clubbo chief Bas Carlton gambled on his vision. The mere fact that both men were 100% wrong doesn’t dull the impact of Suthrn Cuzn’s trademark twin-guitar attack.

The making of Kiss’n Cuzns was as full of strife as the regions that inspired the album. Suthrn Cuzn actually commenced the project with three guitarists: Mordy, Aryeh Spiedowski (a.k.a. R.E.A. Speed-Demon), and Tim McGee, the band’s sole gentile.

But just as the album neared completion, McGee, an evangelical Christian from the Denton, Texas-based Hasten Thou Yeshua sect, bailed on the band in order to assume the pastorship of his home church. Furious at Tim’s untimely departure, Mordy insisted on rerecording everything, overtaxing the production budget and aggravating tensions within the band.

A newly rediscovered version of “Flyin’ High” featuring McGee on lead guitar offers a tantalizing taste of what might have been — not to mention an object lesson for our troubled times. Just as three great religions can simultaneously pursue their own visions of holiness atop the dusty hills of Jerusalem, so too can three great guitarists pursue their own pentatonic blues-rock licks atop a dusty E-minor chord progression.

Kiss’n Cuzns finally arrived, many days late and many dollars short. The album’s sparse liner notes disclose nary a hint of the band’s geographical origins. Hoping that the Mid-East angle might win media attention after the overlooked debut, Clubbo’s Carlton persuaded the group to pose wearing yarmulkes for the cover of the planned follow-up, Mason Ben-Dixon. But sadly, that album was never to be completed. Mordy became increasingly absorbed in Israeli politics, standing for Parliament as a member of a far-right splinter party. These extra-musical excursions contributed to the group’s 1989 dissolution, as the remainder of the band were Labor Party supporters and the bassist was a member of a prominent mainstream political family.

At last report, Mordy resided in disputed West Bank territory, where he operated a fried chicken shack and offered beginning guitar lessons.

Swiss Mix: DJ Hellvetica spins at Clubbo’s 1995 35th anniversary party.

Ironically, Suthrn Cuzn scored its biggest international success several years after disbanding. In 1992, Zurich-based remixer DJ Hellvetica retooled “Sonofabitch” as a Hi-NRG track, securing a minor club hit in Switzerland and the Benelux countries.

Hellvetica’s real name, by the way, is Johann Langenthal — and yes, he is the son of Ava Langenthal of Ava & the Avalanches, one of Clubbo’s original Swiss Invasion bands. Who could have imagined back in the ’60s that the blonde kitten purring “Ski Baby Ski” would one day produce a son who would make his name with a Euro version of a Southern rock track by a band from the Middle East? Sonofabitch!

(Please note: We’re not calling DJ Hellvetica an S.O.B., or implying that his mom’s a bitch or anything. Ava Langenthal is a real nice lady, and she makes a killer fondue!)

LISTEN:

Sonofabitch

Flyin’ High

BONUS TRACK! DJ Hellvetica’s 1992 remix

SOB NRG

(song lyrics and credits)