Ska-punk fever reached Kansas City with the band of the three Phillips brothers (Brandon on vocals and guitar, the youngest being drummer Adam, who is fifteen): The Gadjits.

The arrangements on Da Gravy On Your Grits (Joco Ska, 1996) are elementary (Hillary Blobaum on keyboards), but for that very reason, they are visceral.

On At Ease (Hellcat, 1997), Brandon Phillips stands out primarily for his melodies—comic pop nursery rhymes like Bullet In The Mattress and irresistible bubblegum tunes like Sh'Bop. Their ska, far from being dogmatic and monolithic, lends itself to horror and surf influences, as in the instrumental Corpse I Fell In Love With; to the raw flair of garage-rock, as in the epic Holes In My Shoes and the lascivious Party Girl; and even to rockabilly nods, as in the rousing Need Yo' Luv. Between witty Elvis Costello-style jokes like Tell Yourself, harmless Caribbean excursions like Traffic Tickets, and sleepy reggae like California, the record flows pleasantly and intriguingly, featuring an impressive number of successful songs.

Wish We Never Met (Hellcat, 1999) offers more ska-punk with little or no variation (Somebody's Wife, Cowboys Always Win).

Today Is My Day (Thick, 2002), on the other hand, is an old-fashioned collection of rock'n'roll and rhythm'n'blues, that echoes the Rolling Stones and the Who.

After the dissolution of The Gadjits in 2004, the Phillips brothers (Brandon, Zach, and Adam) embarked on a path away from ska with their new band, the Architects, that released Keys to the Building (Anodyne, 2004), Revenge (2006) and Vice (2008), The Hard Way (2009) and the concept EPs titled Border Wars (2013-2017), accompanied by comic books, later collecged on Border Wars Episodes I & II (2017).

Brandon Phillips formed the Memory Keepers, documented on Live in the Here and Now.