For the last fifteen years, Louisiana doom metal band Thou has filled eardrums with unsettling noise, and guttural screams. They are a magnificent group, one of the few sludge metal bands that gets accolades from music critics at typically-tame venues like NPR. However great this attention has been, the critics at NPR have failed to ask Thou one specific, but incredibly important question: Do they like ska? The answer is a little complicated. To help unravel this complicated question, Thou lead singer Bryan Funck and bassist Mitch Wells were kind enough to join us on In Defense of Ska. They promised to explain their positions on ska and go into detail about their personal connections with the genre. And it’s a fascinating journey. In this episode, Bryan walks us through the various ska-punk bands he was once a fan of back in the 90s. He even made us a two-hour ska-punk mixtape that included detailed linear notes! Mitch, on the other hand, gives us a glimpse behind the scenes of the awesome Bad Operation videos he shot last year during the pandemic. We also discuss Bryan’s affinity towards juvenile pranks, what Mitch likes to do to celebrate 311 Day, the infamous folder filled with unused touring connections that inspired a brutal Thou song, and which Operation Ivy songs they’d cover if they HAD to Support the show