Tennessee DJ Brings Appalachian Punk To The World

This conversation originally aired in the Aug. 24, 2025 episode of Inside Appalachia.

Appalachia is home to thriving punk, metal, indie and hardcore scenes. Now, the world is getting a chance to check out Appalachia’s extreme metal scene, thanks to Maximumrocknroll Radio. 

Maximumrocknroll started as a radio show in Berkeley, California, in 1977, but became better known as a zine that launched in 1982. It published its final issue in 2019, but the radio show has continued, and now it’s a podcast, too. 

Since October, DJ Cary Allen has been flying the flag for Appalachian bands in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Host Mason Adams spoke with Allen.

The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.

Adams: So, you’re hosting a somewhat regular show for Maximumrocknroll that showcases punk, indie and extreme metal from Appalachia. What would you say distinguishes Appalachian punk and metal and just extreme music?

Allen: The biggest distinction is probably the experience that these musicians have that’s different from the L.A. scene or the D.C. scene or the New York City scene. Not that it’s better or worse, it’s just a different experience, and that shows through their music. Also, I think that being a Southern band — being that Central Appalachian is definitely southern — it’s got a groove to it that you just don’t find in the other bigger scenes. It’s like distinguishing New Orleans jazz from Chicago jazz or New York City jazz; it’s very much jazz, but it’s very distinct in its sound.

And it’s something you have to listen to experience, and you’ll hear it, and you’ll go, “Oh, that’s probably a Southern punk band, or that’s a Southern metal band.” Not better or worse, but just distinctly different from the other scenes. And also, at the same time, it’s the same. It just doesn’t have the exposure that those bigger city bands or scenes typically have.

That’s sort of my goal in doing this, these shows for Maximumrocknroll, is just giving this scene, which is very prominent and has been around for a long time, the exposure that I think it deserves. Did you want me to mention how I got involved with Maximumrocknroll?

Adams: Sure! Yeah, I’d love to hear that story.

Allen: I wasn’t a regular listener until I started getting involved in radio and Pirate Flag Radio, which I do my Fuzzkill show for. It  hosts Maximumrocknroll every week. That’s when I really started listening to it regularly. I started following them on Instagram and Facebook. They put out an ad that said, “Hey, we’re looking for someone to fill in our spots when hosts aren’t available.” I simply sent an email. I was like, “Hey, I’m hosting the garage rock and punk rock show here in Bristol, Virginia.” I sent them a file of my show. When I first started, I was just a fill-in. That’s how I got started. And then they lost some hosts, and I just said, “Hey, if you want me, I’d be happy to come on as a regular.” And they’re like, “Yeah, that’d be great. We’ll put you on every six weeks.” And I was like, great. That’s awesome. So I don’t know, I may be the first southern boy to host Maximumrocknroll.

Adams: I feel like Maximumrocknroll has made a name for flying the flag, not just for New York and Oakland, but bands out of Japan and South America. You’re the first Appalachian DJ, perhaps, but you’re still part of a long lineage of them showcasing lesser known bands. Can you give me an example of a band or a couple of bands that you play, and maybe what makes them distinctive within that frame of Appalachian music?

Allen: When I think of that specifically, I think of “L.I.P.S.” from Harlan, Kentucky. It’s very much a punk rock band, but they’re not afraid of that Appalachian identity. It’s very raw. I think a lot of the music around here is very raw and not nearly as produced.

When it comes to a metal band, I would think of “Coffin Smoke” from here in Johnson City. It’s so groovy and it’s so riff driven. It’s very distinctive in its sound. It’s just got a heavy groove to it. You get it from here in the South. And I don’t know if maybe that’s the sweet tea or the biscuits and gravy that we have [that] they don’t have out there. 

“Nerve Endings ” is a good example of the hodgepodge of the genres that are showcased in the Appalachian underground scene. You could definitely put them on any punk show, and they would fit in. You could definitely put them on any doom metal show, and they would fit in. Or any hardcore show and they would fit in. I think they encompass all those genres so well, and their stage antics are what makes them so prominent in the scene. They’ve been around for a long time now, and they’re still going strong. They do a good job of raw punk rock vocals and heavy riffs that would fit well in any metal show that you’d put them in. 

“Ex Parents” is such a good example of that DIY hardcore that is coming out of Roanoke. That Roanoke area seems to really encapsulate that scene. There’s so many good, good hardcore bands, but “Ex Parents” is a highlight for me. 

“Warmones” out of Asheville, North Carolina, are really holding strong to that more straightforward punk that I really enjoy.

When looking at the metal scene, “Wyndriders” from Carter County, Tennessee, just got off an international tour. The doom metal scene is growing fantastically in our area, especially in eastern Kentucky, and honestly here in East Tennessee. Yeah, it’s very “Black Sabbath,” but it’s also very Southern metal. 

The scene in eastern Kentucky has grown like wildfire. It seemed to be started from the doom scene, and now they’re branching out into death metal and this mixture of Southern rock and heavy metal that’s coming out there. “Buzz-Hound” is another band that’s from Whitesburg, Kentucky. 

Adams: Thank you so much for coming on and speaking with us.

Allen: Thank you.

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Cary Allen is a DJ on Maximumrocknroll Radio. He also plays garage rock and gospel on his Fuzzkill and Righteous Fuzz radio shows in Tennessee’s Tri-Cities area.