At the age of 15, frontman James Lee Lindsey Jr. (stage name Jay Reatard) began recording his own Oblivians-inspired tapes after seeing them as the opening act at a Rocket From The Crypt show. Later, Lindsey sent a demo tape to Goner Records, owned by Eric Friedl, former Oblivians member. Friedl was impressed and signed him to the label.

This brought to the world the 7" EP Get Real Stupid (1997). Get Real Stupid featured Lindsey on all instruments and vocals with buckets as drums. Later, Greg Cartwright, also a former member of the Oblivians, played drums for Lindsey and helped release the EP Fuck Elvis, Here’s The Reatards on NoFi Records (1997).

The Reatards have undergone many lineup changes.

In 1998, guitarist “Steve Albundy Reatard” (Sean Redd) and drummer “Elvis Wong Reatard” (Ryan Rousseau) joined the band. The three of them created Teenage Hate (1998, reissued 2011— split with Fuck Elvis, Here’s The Reatards casette) which includes covers of Fear, the Dead Boys, and Buddy Holly.

Then came two more EPs, Get Out of Our Way (1998) and Your So Lewd (1999), quickly followed by the second studio album Grown Up, Fucked Up (1999, reissued 2015).

In 1999, the Reatards toured the west coast and Europe before briefly disbanding. As Lost Sounds (Jay’s band with Alicja Trout and Rich Crook) was coming to an end in 2005, Lindsey reformed The Reatards and released their third and final studio album, Not Fucked Enough (2005) on Empty Records.

The Reatards came to a final conclusion in 2006 as Lindsey started his solo career, still under the name “Jay Reatard”.