Diarrhea Planet

Nashville, TN
http://diarrheaplanet.blogspot.com

So your band's name is Diarrhea Planet. What's that all about?

Jordan Smith: "We all went to a college that's known for its music business, its commercial business program and stuff like that. And basically, I came from a background of hardcore punk and noise and stuff, and the other guy who started Diarrhea Planet with me, we decided to make a noise band to kind of be irritating to our school, Belmont University. On top of that, our school's reputation in Nashville, promoters and stuff will go, 'Oh, they're a Belmont band,' and they won't book you because they're like, 'Those kids don't drink enough alcohol. They're not gonna go crazy...' So we just decided we'd make a band that would be like totally irritating to Nashville and Belmont both."

So it's the ultimate punk rock expression for your community.

"We're just trying to do something that's not really cool or anything like that. We can't really put the F-bomb in the name, or something, like y'know how there's a lot of bands who use gay terminology or F-words and stuff and it's kind of a cool, hip thing to do. We were like, 'It's got to be something that will never be cool.'"

Take us back to that band practice or rehearsal when you guys had that first conversation, "What should we call our band?" How did that go?

"It was pretty easy because the guy that I made the band with, his name is Evan P. Donohue, and he plays in Nashville still under his name. But me and Evan have a pretty similar sense of humour in that we both think we're 12 year olds, so we both thought it was the most hilarious thing ever. We actually have another project we're working on called the Gross Ass Cowboys. We're writing a cartoon we want to make called 'Super Duper St00upid' -- with two zeroes and a U. The original intent was, I made a noise project called the Don Knots Bowel Movement the summer before -- there's actually stuff on Myspace. It's pretty embarrassing -- it's just screaming and lots of noise and stuff -- but the original intention was to do that sort of music. We both thought it was hilarious and we came up with the name together."

So what does a planet full of diarrhea actually sound like?

"Aw, man. Probably like a lot of banjo and kazoo sound effects. And if you ever watched 'Ren & Stimpy,' that guy who you never see his face but he's got these leather straps holding his socks up like garters, and every time he's moving there's always crazy, deep, weird fart sounds. It's probably like that guy."