Elvis Is Dead, I’m Still Alive: The Story of Asian Man Records comes out this month. It’s a colorful rundown of local music history, lovingly written by Mike Hugenor after compiling hundreds of hours of interviews with artists, booking agents, former staff, volunteers and close ones who’ve orbited the celebrated label through the decades.
Hugenor earnestly illustrates the importance of one of the area’s longest-running and beloved independent labels. “I was surprised many times when interviewing people for the book,” he says. “But the thing that was most surprising of all was just how almost every single person really wanted to express how much they love the label and love Mike Park. It says something about the work that Mike has done over the last 30+ years.”
Hugenor, both as a writer and musician, also has deep roots in the area. For as punk as his career has leaned, his book begins with an evergreen quote from Bay Area rap legend E-40: “I don’t bump mainstream, I knock underground. All that other shit sugarcoated and watered down.” Hugenor’s open-mindedness to all musical forms is displayed throughout the book.
Founded in 1996 by Mike Park, Asian Man Records has amassed almost 400 projects and is integral to the fabric of South Bay music history.
The label began when Park started putting out records from his parents’ garage in Monte Sereno. It went on to release artists such as Alkaline Trio and Less Than Jake. Park’s DIY ethos saw him managing packing, shipping and day-to-day tasks himself while maintaining his own playing schedule. The catalog expanded through the 2000s without aligning to industry cycles, staying organically connected to the South Bay.
Hugenor grew up in South San Jose. His musical knowledge came by way of ska tapes and punk records. As a teenager, he was drawn to the guitar and ran through several bands that came and went with little fanfare.
“I first learned about Asian Man through Less Than Jake,” says Hugenor. “I remember looking at CDs at Tower Records and seeing an Asian Man copy of Pezcore. Not long after, a friend of mine volunteered at Asian Man and happened to give me a few promo CDs. It was amazing to think that there was a label nearby releasing bands like the ones my friends and I were in.”
After graduating in 2002, he co-founded Shinobu, a band that operated in the overlap between indie rock and punk. He later played in Hard Girls, where the material had sharper edges and tighter structures, and in another band, Classics of Love.
Through this experience, he became the guitarist in Jeff Rosenstock’s live band. Rosenstock is a heralded, prolific musician and spearhead of Bomb The Music Industry!, and has been referred to as the “Fugazi of the internet age.”
Hugenor’s own solo work, like 2020’s instrumental album X’ed, consists of pieces performed entirely on two acoustic guitars. His 2025 release, Surfing the Web With the Alien, intimately builds ten tracks using only one electric and one acoustic guitar.
These experiences kept Hugenor near operations that sustained the region’s music. When he set out to document Asian Man’s history, he drew on firsthand knowledge.
Hugenor, a former Metro writer and arts editor, still relentlessly tours, returning to San Jose as a natural home base. These days, he reflects on his duality as a local creative. “I see myself as a musician and writer. I’m bisexual, so it’s not hard for me to understand that two things can be true at once. For a long time, I tried to keep them entirely separate, but that kind of artificial separation never really works. It feels more truthful to bring the two together.”
The book traces Asian Man from its first 45 singles through the period when ska-punk projects gained traction and wider distribution. Hugenor details the painstaking logistics: order fulfillment, budget constraints and choices about catalog direction. He includes accounts of recording sessions, newsletter mailings and the ways individual releases traveled beyond the immediate area.
The sharp writing stays with the mechanics and the human element involved in running a label. It begins with Park turning down a huge financial offer, never selling out, even after three decades.
For Hugenor, writing the book required adjusting from songwriting to sustained prose and in-depth research. Hugenor’s output remains anchored to the area, but his body of work are living documents that reach further.
*Mike Huguenor will be at Books Inc at the Pruneyard on May 22nd, hosted by author Aaron Carnes. Elvis Is Dead, I’m Still Alive: The Story of Asian Man Records is out May 19 on CLASH books.
