2 Skinnee J's Online Athens, 7.23.98 Two skinny kids from Brooklyn and five of their closest friends will descend on the Georgia Theater Thursday to prove they have the funk in all the right places. New York-natives 2 Skinnee J's will make their second stop in Athens as part of a national summer swing with The Urge through the states and a pit-stop in Canada. "We had one show in Canada, so we can call it an international tour now," quipped J. Guevera, one half of the vocalist duo for 2 Skinnee J's. The band is now making their way back east after touring the West Coast and Midwest. The tour is going well, with the exception of Texas, Guevera said by phone after spending a well-earned day off "bounding" around New Orleans. "Texas was too hot and too dry with too many insects," Guevera said. Despite that snag, touring has been a part of life for the band for a few years now, and this tour has been particularly good for the band since they have an album to support and more people to play for, he said. "We've been a touring band for four years. We've been touring as a way to eat for a while," Guevera said. The band is touring to support their first major-label release on Capricorn Records, entitled "Supermarcado!" While they may be on Capricorn, home of Widespread Panic and such, they are not a hippie band, although they've been known to definitely groove. They have been compared to fellow label-mates 311 and the Beastie Boys for their blend of rock and rap, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and salute to the old-school hip-hip that practically sprung from their backyards in Brooklyn. "It's good music. We're a rap-rock combo kind of thing, but we're not as heavy and riff-oriented as the genre, although we're definitely part of it," Guevera said. The rest of the band in addition to Guevera includes (stage names only please): A. Mays, Eddie Eyeball, The Spice, Andy Action, A.J. Stumpy Johnson and fellow MC Special J. And what about that double-entendre name of theirs? Guevera said the name came about simply through him and his counterpart vocalist. "We're both skinny and we're both named J. It's not the drug reference everyone thinks it is," said Guevera. <====