Folk-punk duo AJJ was playing Mama Buzz Cafe in Oakland when they were approached by a guy named Skylar Suorez who was angling for some free records. Skylar told the Phoenix group that he worked at Asian Man Records. The group was excited at the prospect of being on the same label that released groups like Ten In The Swear Jar, Shinobu and copious ska albums. Shortly after, Asian Man signed them. On this episode, we bring on Sean and Ben from AJJ and dissect their ska roots. Ben is a much bigger fan of the genre and even played some ska in an early band called Free Delivery. While Sean admits he clowned on ska in high school (The entire golf team at his school listened to Christian ska!). However, we find out that he sang lead vocals on the ska song "ABCs" (with Mike Park and Jeff Rosenstock). He also performed at an "In Defense of Ska" event at Sojo's Donuts in Mesa, Arizona, and told the audience he was "ska-adjacent." On today's episode, we talk about all of Ben's favorite 90s and 2 Tone ska bands, how AJJ and Blue Meanies are similar, which ska bands AJJ has played with, and which grocery store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, AJJ once did a show at. We also talk about AJJ's AV Club Undercover show where they mashed up songs by Talking Heads, Neil Young, Wheatus and more. We discuss Mike Park telling the group that they were too big for Asian Man--but no other label was interested in them, and we talk at length about Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, who opened for AJJ last year. And we beg him to be a guest on the podcast.   Support the show