  The band structure of N=Z nuclei is constructed from intrinsic states defined
in terms of quartets. The simplest of these states is a condensate of
collective quartets with isospin T=0. The other intrinsic states are built by
promoting one quartet of the condensate to an excited T=0 configuration. From
these intrinsic states, by angular momentum projection, band structures are
generated that approximate well the experimental ones. The projected states
also reproduce to a very good extent the spectra resulting from configuration
interaction calculations based on the same quartets forming the intrinsic
states. These results show that the quartet-based intrinsic states provide the
appropriate framework to understand in a simple and intuitive manner the
emergence of band-like structures in N=Z nuclei.
