It was a big weekend for Nashville music, thanks especially to the bloggers of Nashville’s Dead. After realizing that every other great punk band and his sister was coming through our area to make it to SXSW, Nashville’s Dead decided to put together three nights of non-stop music. "The Freakin’ Weekend" brought ten bands from Brooklyn, Baltimore and surrounding areas to play alongside a few of Nashville’s favorite groups.

Not-so-serious rockers Larry David and the Hipsters, Ben Stein’s Money and Millions of Dead Punks kicked off the party Friday night at The Jungle. When a "special guest" was unable to help finish off the night, legends Jeff the Brotherhood stepped up to the mics, more-than-worthy substitutes, and filled the room faster than you could say "bananas." By the end of their set, everyone’s clothes were stained with sweat.

Saturday night was just as exciting. Out-of-towners The Beets, Ex Humans, Terrible Twos, Peacekillers and Beach Fossils were welcomed to the stage of Glen Danzing’s house (no, you won’t find a Misfit there) to play alongside Nashville’s The Looking Glass and Natural Child. The Looking Glass played a mostly instrumental set, flawlessly setting the vibe for a mid-2000s late night Bonnaroo show with jam-band worthy tracks. Natural Child sealed the night with catchy, driving punk that we all wish we could have pumped our fists to in high school.

Nashville’s best dive bar, Bett’ys, held the scene for the final night of the Freakin’ Weekend. Sisters, Grooms, Videohippos, Lesser Alvarez Gonzalez and Coasting (seriously talented babes from Brooklyn) all shared a stage with Nashville bands So Jazzy and Daniel Pujol. So Jazzy, as usual, was a super enjoyable blast from 1980 with undeniable influences of bass-led Joy Division/New Order. Finally, it only made sense for "Mr. Nashville" himself (comment made by one of the Brooklyn bands) Daniel Pujol to put Nashville’s most monumental weekend to bed. Pujol, returning from a Spring Break tour, half screamed bouncy tunes permanently stuck in every Nashville show goer’s mind by now. When asked how they felt about closing out the weekend, both the bassist and the guitarist agreed that it was like having to grip their croches on a long road trip and then finally being able to relieve themselves: aka the best feeling in the world.

When vans were packed and SXSW-bound rockers had finally crashed on all of Nashville’s couches, Nashville’s Dead proudly admitted that the weekend was a success. "The bands were great, the crowds were great, and we probably made like, a million dollars." An exaggeration, no doubt, but there definitely wasn’t a person who left any of the shows without a bag of unforgettable times and tunes. Nashville’s Dead’s only complaint? Nashville, apparently, needs to learn more bathroom manners. Hopefully they’ll overlook that and help Nashville bands along the way to SXSW again next year. – Sarah Marie

Though Oli Endless and the Possibilities’ mellow folk rock and Bows and Arrows’ pretty indie rock are done well, Murfreesboro bands Turtle Bangs and Gold Sounds are the ones who brought the heat at The End last Thursday.

Second to go on, Turtle Bangs, composed of Greg Stephen and Casey Carter, proved themselves as a capable duo. The hardest part about being a two-man band is whether the stripped-down nature of music produced only by two instruments can be enough; whether a set of drums and a guitar will achieve a sound that is whole and powerful, or fall short into the category of elementary.

It can take time to "get" Turtle Bangs’ music. At first it may just seem like noise, but perhaps the living rooms at the house shows – where the band so often plays – don’t do their music justice.

If given a careful listen, one can find an unexpected finesse to Turtle Bangs. The sound is somewhere between the punk and the polished, and while some listeners have compared them to the Pixies, the scratchiness of Stephen’s guitar is really more reminiscent of earlier White Stripes, and the creeping melodies of songs like "Wolf" could even be compared to Tom Waits (his weirder stuff).

Gold Sounds opened an entirely different book after Turtle Bangs, stirring the indie and alternative rock melting pot from the ’90s onward, bringing to mind bands like Pavement, Band of Horses and The Broken West. The bad news about Gold Sounds is that everything the band is doing has been done before. The good news about Gold Sounds is that they have chosen some of the best of it to replicate and morph into something of their own – plus they know how to write a memorable tune; there isn’t a forgettable melody – especially in "The Slumberist" – on the album they have yet to release.

As a fairly new band, Gold Sounds have created a name for themselves playing Murfreesboro house shows, often with Turtle Bangs. And if they can fill a small house, they can most likely start filling Nashville venues. – Jessica Pace