Ladies and gentle ladies, it is that time again… time to get your freak on. We’ve been working hard for the last while to try and get everything lined up just right, and – you know what? – we’re not even there yet. But! We’re getting close! Like reeeeally close. This year THE FREAKIN’ WEEKEND will be going down March 7th – 10th spread out between The End and Exit/In and it’s going to be a full-blown party with a LOT of your favorite local bands and some of our favorite non-local bands. We’ll drop the full schedule of events and final lineup and everything in the next week or so, but for now you can click below to check out some of this year’s acts. It has us pretty fucking excited. There’s a whole lot more bands to announce and stuff to talk about, like how we’ve got a nice little treat coming for all of you that’ll pay homage to a place we still hold dearly in our hearts [talkin’ about Glenn Danzig’s House, guys] Anyway… watch this video, check out some of the bands who are gonna be playing, and *ahem* please get hyper….

The Freakin Weekend III • March 7th – 10th • Promo from Doug Lehmann on Vimeo.

THE TRADITIONAL FOOLS

Uh huh. For real. Not even a joke or playing around with you guys. The mother-fucking TRADITIONAL FOOLS. Anytime we are down or looking for a party or looking to wild out – we throw our Traditional Fools record on. The band, comprised of a Ty Segall and a Culture Kid and another solid dude, is a veritable legend in the San Francisco area. This one-off will be their first trip to Nashville and we feel oh so lucky to have them come through. I’ve been sitting here trying to find words to adequately express my genuine excitement and all I can think is “MOTHER FUCKING TRADITIONAL FOOLS! THE FOOLS THEMSELVES! THEY’RE COMING!” I still can’t even believe it. Click here for a taste…

JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD

Do you really think we could get FrEaKy without our favorite brothers? No way. This will be the Bogus Bros first show in Nashville for the 2012 year and we feel like it’s been too long since the last time we got to bang our heads with the guys. They’ll be hot off a national tour with The Kills and recording their next full length album – so expect them to be tight and maybe even expect some new jams. On the real though – the Brothers Orrall are the reason we do most of the things we do. We’ve been self-proclaimed JEFF-heads since Day 1 and we’ll never renounce that. JEFF 4EVER.

THE GREENHORNES

Yep! Cincinnati’s favorite sons will be joining us this year and getting freaky deeky like they have so many times before. Their last time in Nashville was over at The Hard Rock Cafe alongside Turbo Fruits and we’ve got a feeling like this show might blow that one out of the water. They had their album,  “★★★★”, come out last year courtesy of Third Man Records and took our favorite Bogus Bros out on a nice jaunt across the nation [and released that split tour-only 7″ with JEFF] In a time where so many bands are springing up and drenching their guitars and vocals in reverb and calling it “garage” — it’s nice to have bands like The Greenhornes around to remind us of what “garage” really is.

MIKAL CRONIN

If we’ve said something once, chances are we’ve probably said it a million times. Case and point: Mikal Cronin’s self-titled album from Trouble In Mind was our favorite record to drop in the 2011 year. We’re happy to bring Mikal and the guys back through Nashville for their second time [the first being last September with Ty Segall at Exit/In] If you still haven’t checked out Mikal’s solo stuff — we really think you’re depriving yourself from experiencing some of the best pop songs to come out in the last few years. Maybe we’ll get another Flamin’ Groovies cover. Even if we don’t — it’s gonna be a party.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Patrick Stickles has taken a pretty noticeable liking to some Nashville bands. A while back he talked to the P4k about catching a Natural Child show at Death By Audio and since then he’s full-on embraced the world of Diarrhea Planet. They’re making the trip on down for their first visit to The Great Nashville Country and we totally expect things to get freaky. It was just announced earlier this week that the guys are gonna be on board for the Orion Music fest in Jersey this Summer alongside Metallica. Yeah. Get stoked!

SCREAMING FEMALES

We are so glad this is happening. Screaming Females have called Nashville their “home away from home” for a pretttty long time now and it’s a claim we’re totally down with. Like we’ve already talked about on here in past posts — they’ll be coming to town on an in-store tour to hit Grimey’s with a brand new limited 7″ under their belts to support their next full length album – Ugly. The New Jersey shredders are always welcome to party with us because they know how to turn the party out. In the last couple years, we can recount atleast 5 different times we’ve seen the dudes blow everyone out of the water — and we expect nothing less this time around either. Gonna party like it’s the end of the world — because it better be…

PUJOL

Perhaps the FrEaKiEsT of the freaks. Daniel Pujol and his gang are some of the hardest working dudes here and every Nashvillian knows it. Come this Spring, when his debut full-length LP comes out, we think the whole world will know it. Really though, we’ve heard bits and pieces of the brand new PUJOL album that’s slated to be released sometime in the next few months and we’re worried that this may be one of the last times we’ll be able to catch PUJOL in a smaller – more intimate venue. They’ll be heading out after Freakin’ Weekend to do the whole SXSW circuit and we’re not sure as to the next time we’ll catch them locally. So don’t miss it. God is floating in your head.

HEAVY CREAM

The creamiest of the dreamiest. Sort of like JEFF — it has been more than a hot minute since we last caught Heavy Cream in the Nashy, which makes us even more excited to have them getting freaky. They recorded their brand new record back in December with Mr. Ty Segall in San Francisco [you can read all about it from Tiffany Minton’s recollections right here] and from what we’ve heard – shit’s about to get tough. They also just announced a pretty hefty tour with our buddies Hunx & His Punx that’ll keep them busy for the rest of the March and April months. If there’s one thing we’ve come to always know and expect from Heavy Cream, it’s that they’ll be bringing the party with them. Get ready to get wild.

THE MEN

The guys… sorry… Men are making their way through the Southern parts of the US for the first time and it’s bringing them straight through Nashville in time to get freaky. They’ve got a brand new LP coming out via Sacred Bones a couple days before their arrival here and you can check out the single from it right here [Remember? We posted about it like 2 weeks ago] It’s hard to nail down an accurate label for the guys since they’re capable of spanning so many different genres from punk to grunge to heavy noise to weird harsh pop – it rules. We’re hoping to bring them through again sometime so this won’t be their only Nashville appearance.

DIARRHEA PLANET

Everyone in town knows that Diarrhea Planet are calling the shots and busting the balls. They don’t plan on stopping anytime soon either. They’ve already hinted a few times via their blog that they’re going to be total road dogs this year; touring with JEFF the Brotherhood, Mean Jeans, and maybe a couple others that they’ll be able to talk about soonish. We’re stoked to have the guys back for a second year in a row. Since they’ve been touring so much in support of Loose Jewels, we haven’t been able to meet our usual quota of DP shows. We’ve had to scale it back a good bit and we’re sure you’re experiencing similar withdrawals — but not any more. Fiddin’ to freak…

USELESS EATERS

Sort of the same case as Mikal Cronin with this one – Seth Sutton [aka Useless Eaters] put out some of the best records of anyone in the nation last year [you probably remember us gabbing about Daily Commute a whole lot because – well – we did] Seth’s been keeping himself extremely busy between playing with Heavy Cream and doing Feral Beat and Useless Eaters — and now announcing that he’ll be joining Peach Kelli Pop on tour this April. Eaters have plans on releasing more records this year including C’est Bon! from Southpaw Records and a new EP from Jolly Dream Records. This show will be a special one featuring an older lineup — so get stoked.

SEX CULT

By the time this show comes around – we’ll probably have to change this post and the labels of a bunch of records because they’ll be changing their name. Don’t expect anything else to change though. They’ll still be packing one of the best live shows you’ll be able to catch anywhere. The Memphis creeps will be bringing their game to Nashy and that’s always an occasion worth getting fucking stoked for. They’ve been working on some new songs and prepping themselves for a trip to SXSW and we think a full length album is within sight for the guys. We’re gonna also suggest that you not wear your studded boots and spikes because that shit hurts when we land on you and when you land on us. Whatever — bring your chains

CY BARKLEY & THE WAY OUTSIDERS

Like just about everyone else we’ve announced so far, Cy and the boys have a brand new record dropping this year that’s going to blow your mind. It’ll be released via our favorite Nashville label – Infinity Cat Recordings – sometime this Spring. In the last year, we’ve seen Cy’s lineup change a little and we’ve definitely witnessed a lot of growth as they’ve been developing their own sound that’s distinguishably “Way Outsider” but also “punk as fuck.” They’ll be featured on that special NDR treat that we hinted at so long ago in this giant post and we think they outshine everyone else on it. Get your kicks… Cy Barkley is coming for you

D. WATUSI

We don’t have enough fingers or hands to count how many shows D. Watusi has played in Nashville over the last year. They’ve spent a nice chunk of time this Winter getting things recorded and ready for their debut album, DARK PARTY, which we’ll hopefully see release sometime this Summer. They’re also planning on hitting the road again a few times this Summer with our favorite Paperhead – so be on the lookout for that. We’re stoked to have them on board this year to get FrEakY because if anyone in town likes to get down — it’s these losers.

RANCH GHOST

Oh baby buddy boy, we think we’ve found one of our newest favorite bands in Nashville. The Ranch Ghost dudes have been straight gooning and killing it around town for the last few months. If you didn’t catch them a little while back at our Zombie Shop party — you truly missed out. They’ve got a brand new single that should be out by the time of FREAKIN’ WEEKEND so keep your fingers crossed on that. We’ll be including a lot more of the “newer” local bands in this year’s festivities because that’s kind of what this whole thing is about: celebrating your brothers and sisters in the rock and roll family and helping everyone grow in a positive direction.

DIRTY DREAMS

Speaking of newer bands around town that have us excited – let’s talk about Dirty Dreams. We think there’s a whole lot of people in the Nashville area who’ve yet to check out the Dreamers and that’s such a shame because they’re doing stuff around here like no one else is. It’s like a shoegaze-y pop vibe but with a weird grit to it. Obviously – we know exactly how to explain it. We’ve heard a couple rumors around town about potential releases from the guys – but there’s nothing on the books just yet. Let’s go ahead and cross our fingers…

Like we mentioned earlier — we’ve got a WHOLE LOT more to announce and talk about. So just go ahead and mark your calendars and get yourselves ready for another wild party. WE GON GET FREAKY! WE GON BE HIGH-FLYING ALL WEEKEND AND SLINGING RECORDS AND HAVING FUN WITH OUR BUDDIES BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO DO. GET DOWN. GET FREAKY.