In Defense of Ska Ep. 2: Keith Lowell Jensen (Punching Nazis and Other Good Ideas, Not For Rehire)

I met comedian Keith Lowell Jensen shortly after I moved to Sacramento in 2013. We first got to know each other when I interviewed him for the local newspaper, Sacramento News and Review, but soon became friends. Before the pandemic, we were getting wieners on a regular basis. (It technically started as hot dogs for lunch, but soon wieners became synonymous with hanging out)

Of the many things we bonded over, a mutual love for ska was high on the list, especially when Keith learned I was writing a book about ska. He insisted that I include him in the book with a chapter called “My Friend Keith Likes Ska.” That didn’t happen, but here we are a few months before In Defense of Ska releases and “My Friend Keith Likes Ska” is now a reality—as a podcast episode.

Keith always hires a clown for his birthday parties

In this episode, Keith talks about local Sacramento band Filibuster (Who Keith attempted to manage for a minute), his love for Fishbone (He was at that crazy Warfield show at the beginning of Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone), and a slew of other topics. One highlight this week comes by way of co-host Adam Davis, who revealed that his childhood church had a “No Skaw dancing” policy at their dances. Scandalous!

Check out Keith’s latest special Not For Rehire on Amazon Prime and leave a review.

Also be sure to pick up his book Punching Nazis and Other Good Ideas.

Keith also has a podcast. Make sure you listen to the episode when he brings on In Defense of Ska author Aaron Carnes.

Follow Keith on Twitter. His next book, What I Was Arrested For will be available for pre-order soon. It’s getting released by Clash Books—my book publisher! 

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.