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

If you’d like to support us and listen to early access, ad-free episodes with bonus content, check out our Patreon! 

If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music. 

Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024. 

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023. 

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.

Support In Defense of Ska by checking out StubHub: https://stubhub.prf.hn/l/DLXVmMB

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