Nashville Garage & Punk
Music City's loud back room: brother bands, basement labels and guitars played like pranks.
What you're really asking
This is Nashville with the rhinestones off: a 2000s garage-punk scene built on house shows, sibling telepathy and the conviction that fun counts as artistic intent.
Where it sits
The Orrall brothers' JEFF The Brotherhood and their Infinity Cat label are the spine — releases for their own circle that turned a basement economy into a national one. Be Your Own Pet detonated first, teenagers on Thurston Moore's imprint in 2006.
Diarrhea Planet brought four guitars and zero shame; Natural Child played the country card with a smirk. Third Man setting up shop in 2009 put a vinyl press in the middle of it.
The scene
Who: JEFF The Brotherhood and Infinity Cat at the center, Be Your Own Pet as the spark, Third Man as the neighbor. What: garage rock at party speed — riffs first, polish never.
How it works: it gets in by being fun live; the pressings are small and the sleeves look homemade because they were.
The leading records
Be Your Own Pet
Be Your Own Pet
2006
Teenage velocity — the record that made Nashville punk a headline.
JEFF The Brotherhood
Heavy Days
2009
Two brothers, three strings, the whole scene's blueprint.
Diarrhea Planet
I'm Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
2013
Four guitars of pure joy; the name is the filter.
Natural Child
1971
2011
Country-fried punk — Nashville's heritage played for keeps and laughs.
Turbo Fruits
Turbo Fruits
2007
Be Your Own Pet's guitarist keeping the wheels spinning.
Oddballs
Keep digging
- What did Third Man change in Nashville?
- Where did Be Your Own Pet's members go?
- Which Infinity Cat records matter most?