Nashville’s music industry is worth many millions, but there are still scores of punks who don’t really have any interest in the Big Machine. Their music industry was forged in basements, motorcycle garages, even old police precincts, like in the case of Glenn Danzig’s House, the famed DIY venue spearheaded by the late Ben Todd, a figurehead in Nashville’s DIY scene. As urbanization continues to swallow up cities nationwide, Nashville is no exception, and as landlords salivate at higher rents, locations for DIY shows have been shuttering left and right. Danzig’s House, on the corner of Southgate Avenue and Allison Place, served as home base for Nashville’s Dead, the unofficial blog of the scene, and as a hub in a neighborhood of show houses.



It was through the efforts of Todd and local bookers like Jon Prine that local Nashville bands were able to get on bills with nationally touring bands, and eventually grow into touring bands themselves. Glenn Danzig’s House is where they cut their teeth. But by the time the Planet was recording their latest LP, the site had been reduced to rubble, and “tall and skinnies” of the sort that will inevitably replace it could be seen next door.

The pain of that loss still rings loudly for the band, and it’s bled into the music. “Hot Topic,” a black-metal influenced track on Turn to Gold that features a terrifying scream from Bush, references it quite directly: "Pull the ghosts straight out of Danzig's House and listen to them raging," Smith sings.

