Unfortunately, Nashville's Diarrhea Planet went their separate ways in 2018. In their approximately nine years as a band, they simply rocked. They signed with one of my favorite independent labels, Nashville's Infinity Cat Recordings (who I first discovered about 15 years ago thanks to the now-defunct garage punk band Be Your Own Pet), and released their first full-length album, Loose Jewels, in 2011. It was 11 songs and all of 19 minutes long, but it was awesome. Two years later, they released I'm Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams, which contained songs that were more in the 2- to 4-minute range, but continued the electricity and eccentricity of Loose Jewels.
Set aside the band's name -- which I think is hilarious -- and focus on the music, which I have previously described as a blend Weezer, Van Halen, Thin Lizzy, and Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. They had four guitarists (three of which also handled lead vocals sometimes), the energy of punk, and the technical proficiency and guitar solos of metal. It was such a unique sound, especially in this day and age. I saw them live a few times, and they were one of the best live bands around. The shows were frantic and energetic, with each of the guitarists taking turns trying to out-shred each other, generally with smiles on their faces to boot. The band always looked like they were having a great time on stage, and I know the audience was having a great time watching them.
Favorite song from Side 1: "Lite Dream"
"Lite Dream" is the first track on the album, and I think it's a great example of why this was such a great band. It rocks, it's fast, it's catchy, it's weird. The song is an ode to heavy metal and being excited and scared of success. Just was you think the song is winding down, at about the 2:54 mark, there's a solo guitar that plays for about 10-12 seconds, and you still think that might be the end of the song, until the drums come back in, and then at 3:16, the other guitars jump in and there's an all-out riot for about 25 seconds.
Favorite song from Side 2: "Emmett's Vision"
This is the last track on the album, and it's about guitarist/sometime vocalist Emmett Miller freaking out in a funeral home. I can't describe it any better than Jordan Smith, one of the band's guitarists and main lead vocalist (I got this quote from a Spin interview with the band about the album), so here you go: "The first time we played in Cleveland, we didn't have anywhere to stay. We met this girl there who was really cool. She used to live above a funeral home, and she invited us to stay there. So we went to this funeral home after we'd been drinking a lot, and we decide to explore downstairs. There was this painting of this dude who has some sort of skin disease, and his face is kind of rotten in the painting. And we were like, 'Oh my god, so scary!' And we were kind of tipsy, so it was even more exaggerated. We went down even further in the funeral home. Then Emmett came running back out. He was freaking out because he had gone in this room and there was a dead body lying in a casket for a funeral the next day. He was so freaked out that he went back upstairs and played a classical concerto almost all the way through for all of us. It was super fun and kind of weird. So that song is about Emmett seeing a dead body and coming up and playing guitar."
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