For most music fans, Diarrhea Planet sounds like nothing more than a potential opening band for Butthole Surfers; a head-scratcher for noobs grazing over festival lineups, and a source of contention and consternation over the Nashville’s rock band’s choice of moniker. But people are slowly coming around to the wonders of Diarrhea Planet, and the process usually involves a) getting over the name, and b) experiencing their live show.
This year, Diarrhea Planet have maintained at the helm of quasi-famous punk rock bands with the release of their newest album, June’s Turn To Gold, an 11-track dabble in strains of garage and modernized classic rock. The Tennessee outfit’s third studio album acts as a slick continuation of 2013’s I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams, the record that solidified their spot as staples of the punk scene.
Diarrhea Planet shake up The Sinclair in Cambridge this Saturday (October 1), rolling into town with fellow Nashvillians and post-punk crew Western Medication and devilish North Shore garage rock band Salem Wolves. Vanyaland chatted with bassist Mike Boyle before their tour kicked off, discussing Diarrhea Planet’s upcoming tour dates, their old shenanigans in the Allston basement scene, and the madness behind the band’s name after all these years.
Victoria Wasylak: What made you guys decide to release another round of tour dates?
Mike Boyle: We’ve been off most of the summer, as far as longer tours go. We put Turn to Gold out in the beginning of June, then we went up to New York and played a show there and came back, but other than that, we’ve really been off for most of the summer. We had a few in-town shows. Now we’re leaving this week to start touring again, and we’ll be up in Massachusetts in September or October. This will be the beginning of us touring for Turn To Gold.
How many times have you played songs from the new album live?
Not too many. We had about a six-week tour. In the spring we did about six weeks, and we played three songs from the new record, but other than that, we didn’t really play them. We kind of pieced it all together last summer and fall, before we went in and recorded it. Normally, in the past, like with I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams, we would already have a bunch of the songs written, have been playing them for a long time, but with Turn To Gold, we just got everything finished up before we went into the studio and only chose three to play on the road beforehand.
I was going to ask what your favorite song from the new album is to play live, but maybe you can’t answer that if you’ve only played a few.
We’ve started playing a few more now because we had a few shows in Nashville. It was fun to play “Headband,” which is really like playing two songs, and I also really like playing “Dune.” “Dune” feels a little bit different than a lot of our other songs, which is really fun.
You guys play around 200 shows a year. How do you stay sane with that kind if schedule?
We’ve done that in the past, but it has been a little bit slower in the last couple years. I don’t know! You just kind of try to enjoy playing every night. You kind of realize after a couple years of doing it, you’re like “okay, going out with your friends every night — you have to save that energy. You can’t go out and party every night.” So really, playing is the most fun part of every day. Other than that, I like to run a lot on the road, just to do something by myself, get away from the people that I’m with 24 hours a day usually. We all get along great, but it’s nice to go be by yourself for a while.
What are three things that you always take on the road with you?
Running shoes, headphones, probably a book.
What do you usually like to read?
I kind of go in phases with it. I like reading some Kurt Vonnegut. You have all that band time, so having that down time, having something to read or watch on your computer is necessary to kill all that time.
What remains one of the most memorable festivals that you’ve ever played?
I think Hangout — that was pretty surreal. I think that was one of the first big outdoor festivals we played, and if I remember, we played really early. I don’t think we played very much after noon — it was either noon or one, or something like that. For people partying at a festival the whole weekend, it was pretty early for people to get up and start seeing music. There were still a bunch of people who came out, and a bunch of what looked like blowup Simpsons’ donuts in the crowd, so everyone was crowd surfing in those donuts. That was just really hilarious and really fun. [Guitarist] Evan [Bird] was climbing up the rafters — he does that sometimes — and I think that was one of the first times he did that. There’s a picture of Evan up in the rafters pointing at Emmett [Miller] while Emmett is crowd surfing, and it’s just silly. It was a fun one.
You’re from the Boston area originally, correct?
Yeah, I was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. I have a lot of family from the Boston area. My dad’s from Boston.
What was it like growing up in Massachusetts?
Actually, I only lived there until I was four. My parents have a house in central Massachusetts now, so I’ve spent a decent amount of time in Massachusetts. I love it there, I think it’s wonderful. Boston is definitely one place that I always look forward to playing. You’re on the road for a little while, and you go and hear everyone with these Boston accents and it’s just a very comforting thing. It’s like “cool, I feel good I made it up here.” And then we always stay at my parent’s house in central Massachusetts. Because Boston is as pretty far north as we go on the East Coast, it’s halfway through a tour always, so you’re like “Oh! I just get to go home halfway through and spend the night here, this is great.” New England in general, I think, is just a great place. If I wasn’t touring, I think there’s a good chance that I would end up living there part of the year, if not the whole year.
What are some of your favorite Boston venues to play at?
We haven’t played very many venues in Boston. For so long we only played Great Scott, which, that place is awesome. One tour, we were with Jeff The Brotherhood and we played the Sinclair, which is where we’re playing this time, and that’s one of my favorite venues in the country, I think. Most of the dudes would say that. Every single part of that [show], every person who was working, the way the sound is, it was just like “oh this is perfect.” And then a lot of people came out, and it was a great show. Definitely looking forward to being back there. We played T.T. The Bears (R.I.P.) once, but I don’t think we’ve played anywhere else in Boston. We played a couple house shows early on.
In Allston?
Yeah, we played a couple house shows in Allston, I think. Was there a place called Gay Gardens?
Yes, it’s gone or been renamed by now, but I’ve definitely heard of that from people who are a few years older than me.
I think we played there once — I don’t know if I was on that tour, but I heard about Gay Gardens being a really fun show. We played one other house show with Skimask, which was our first show. It was in Allston as well, but I don’t think that house even had a name. I think the police showed up and we had to leave the house or something like that. So, the Sinclair sounds just fine.
Whenever I think of Diarrhea Planet fans, I always think of college radio kids. What do you think your average fan is like?
I think that can definitely be pretty accurate. I think a lot of people are, like you said, looking at and listening to, and trying to find a whole lot of different music, and that’s why they come across Diarrhea Planet, whereas a lot of people who aren’t listening to a different kind of music might skip over a band called Diarrhea Planet. So that is definitely part of the demographic. When older, middle-aged men and women see us, who were really into classic rock — I don’t know if they’re always coming to the shows — but that’s a pattern that we see. People are like “What? People are still doing silly old rock and roll?” like we’re doing.
What was your parents’ reaction when you told them the name of your band was Diarrhea Planet?
My parents — they love this band, but they still don’t love that it’s called Diarrhea Planet. Starting off, it was just a college party band, not something that any of us were taking seriously. And now it’s like “Oh, I’m not going to graduate school now because I’m still playing in this band called Diarrhea Planet.” They’re like “Well, I guess I get it now, but it’s still kind of crazy that it’s named that.” [laughs]
I’ve always said that when it comes to naming things, especially bands, if you say it with enough confidence and you just go at it, the name can be anything and people will buy it.
Yeah, it’s kind of funny seeing how people will react to it. So many times we all get out of a van or something and [someone says] “You must be in a band!” It’s like “Yeah, we are.”
“What are you guys called?” Here, we go, what’s it going to be?
“Diarrhea Planet.”
It’s something we don’t think about anymore because it’s just what our band has been called forever. I don’t even think about it until that question is asked.
DIARRHEA PLANET + WESTERN MEDICATION + SALEM WOLVES :: Saturday, October 1 at The Sinclair, 52 Church St. in Cambridge, MA :: 8 p.m., 18-plus, $15 in advance and $17 at doors :: Bowery event page :: Advance tickets