The first time I saw Diarrhea Planet I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew nothing about them other than they were a rock band with an absurd name. Two huge hip bruises and a lost cell phone later I was hooked.

Loose Jewels by Diarrhea Planet

That was only three years ago. Yesterday, they announced their break up, leaving me to wonder what the heck happened to the band I planned to be moshing and crowd surfing to for much longer.

In an Instagram post they wrote, “we’ve had an incredible run largely thanks to all of you incredible people, but we’ve decided to bring it to a close. It has truly been amazing to share our music with y’all onstage and off.”

In a statement to Rolling Stone the band said that nothing really happened, they just felt the band had run its course, “yeah, we finally made a poop joke but fuck it y’all love it,” it reads.

When I saw that, I immediately texted guitarist Evan Bird. I met the band when I swung by Nashville to catch Fuzz Fest on my way back from The Nude Party’s Send It Week festival last year. We’ve since become friends and I’ve caught them every time they played NYC, including New Year’s Eve, and even took a road trip to their hometown of Nashville to catch them play with NY-natives Thick.

Bird told me that they’ve all devoted their whole lives to the band for almost eight years and that calling it quits wasn’t easy. Ultimately, the band decided as one that they needed to go out with a bang, not a whimper. “We unanimously agreed it was time to step away and, for lack of better words, burn out rather than fade away,” he says through text. “We’ve been so fortunate to build such a fierce, supportive fan base over these years, make some incredible friends and have the opportunity to travel (a lot)—it allowed me to realize my wildest musical dreams and then surpass them by such an absurd margin that it’s felt like a dream.”

Diarrhea Planet “Emmett’s Vision” Live @ Fort Houston’s Birthday Bonanza 6

Only a few months ago the band finished up a tour with The Darkness—the early 2000s pop rock band with the classic hit “I Believe In A Thing Called Love.” Diarrhea Planet played huge, sold out shows, in over 2,000-people capacity sized venues all over the U.S.

Drummer Ian Bush tells me via texts that the band was a huge part of his life from the second he moved to Nashville in 2010. Coming from Wisconsin, the band made him fall in love with Nashville and led him to make the music city his forever home. “They were the first band I saw that made me realize how much more there was to Nashville than what was covered in Rolling Stone and pamphlets strewn about hotel lobbies—when I got the chance to play with them full time I took it without hesitation.”

He says though the break up is bittersweet, he’s eagerly looking to the future. “I’m excited to see where all the other dudes end up, all of us love this band so much,” he texts. “The possibilities are endless and the amount of talent those guys have has been both incredible to work with and intimidating—they’ve all forced me to be more creative, a better player, a better band mate and a better friend. For that I am eternally grateful.”

Diarrhea Planet has always been a band where you could feel the love and passion for music in their performances. Their songs are bursting with layers upon layers of guitar harmonies that melt faces and fist-pumping chants that drive a crowd seriously wild. I mean it, if you were ever lucky enough to attend a DP show, then you know about the endless crowd surfing, jumping along ‘till your feet burned and sweating out all your worries.

At this past New Year’s Eve show, it was raining stage diving bodies. I caught DP members mouthing to several people, including myself, “are you ok” when someone appeared to have dived a little too chaotically into the crowd on top of someone or to someone who appeared to land painfully.

Diarrhea Planet, “Kids”

I will truly miss these shows but I’m sure such talented and genuine musicians have nowhere to go but up.

“I’m not sure what the future holds yet, but I don’t think this is the last the world has seen of me prancing about and throwing Telecasters everywhere,” Bird says. “It still feels so strange that anyone cared, you know? What a privilege.”

Their last shows will be held where it all started in Nashville on September 6 & 7 at Exit In.

“I’m certainly sad about it ending but I’m also extremely excited to be able to say goodbye to it with two final shows in our favorite venue,” says Bush. “DP Forever. Shred till you’re dead or go to hell.”

As my favorite band shirt reads, “Four guitars and a name like Diarrhea Planet? Who the hell do they think they are?” A band we’ll never forget, that’s who. Ghost with a boner forever, guys.