AJJ

Comprising core members Sean Bonnette (acoustic guitar) and Ben Gallaty (upright bass), AJJ is a folk-punk outfit from Phoenix, Arizona. They formed as Andrew Jackson Jihad in 2004, when frontman Bonnette was still a teenager, and the duo quickly began writing humorously explicit music with macabre themes. Early topics ran the gamut from self-sacrifice to childhood drug addiction, all sung in a frantic manner with acoustic instrumentation. Their self-released debut, Candy Cigarettes & Cap Guns, appeared in 2005, after which a number of self-released demos and EPs attracted the attention of Plan-It-X Records. The label issued a split release with Andrew Jackson Jihad and the similarly styled Ghost Mice in 2007.