"garage rock" starting becoming trendy about 10 years ago with bands like The Hives and The Strokes hitting the mainstream. Then we had The Black Keys and The White Stripes. After that, The Black Lips, and to a lesser extent, King Khan, Mark Sultan/BBQ, The (UK) Horrors, and others. and no one's mentioned Little Steven's Underground Garage, which also helped make the genre suddenly a LOT more accessible. suddenly you saw the words "garage rock" everywhere, whether bands using the term actually fit the traditional definitions of the genre or not (ahem, The Strokes!). all of this contributed to it. that doesn't mean that a lot of it hasn't remained underground... it has. but this scene has changed considerably over the last decade than where it was at in the '90s. that's obvious.
by the way, i totally get the joke about playing surf music. good one! it's ironic how garage & surf were so connected or intertwined and almost interchangeable 10-20 years ago, but now you rarely ever hear anyone talking about surf in the "garage scene" or whatever. surf got left out.
