Beat Beat Beat reunites again

• Beat Beat Beat
• Beat Beat Beat Brethren: Brannon Greene (from left), Stephen Hutton, Mike Beavers, Warren Bailey, and Josh Martin

It’s often a reunion with friends when a former Atlanta musician-turned New Yorker is back in town, but when punk guitar ace Josh Martin brings his latest project, Shocked Minds, to the Earl on Sept. 28, he will also share the stage one more time with his Beat Beat Beat brethren.

This won’t be the band’s first “last show” at the Earl - the most recent one happened July 15, 2011, as part of Die Slaughterhaus Records’ 10th anniversary celebration. “That last show went so well, and our friends had so much fun, that it was easy to convince everyone to do it,” Martin says.

Beat Beat Beat, formed in 2004, featured Martin and Warren Bailey (A.P.A., Gentleman Jesse, Barreracudas) playing guitar and splitting vocal duties, rhythm guitarist Stephen Hutton (Customers, Bobby and the Soft Spots), bassist Brannon Greene (Predator, Frantic), and drummer Mike Beavers (G.G. King, Dino’s Boys).

Looking back, the group’s ‘77 punk inspired sound helped bridge the gap between Atlanta’s late 90’s street punk and oi scene, in which Martin and Bailey first collaborated in the Breakaways, and the early aughts garage-punk boom. When the local punk and garage scenes were riding a high, Beat Beat Beat was consistently sharing the stage with fellow locals like the Heart Attacks and the recently reunited Booze. Like many of its contemporaries, the group went from getting music released by a local upstart label - their debut 7-inch was Douchemaster’s launch title - to getting signed in 2006 by an established label, Portland’s Dirtnap Records.

For Martin, playing Beat Beat Beat songs again will be a treat because he feels they have stood the test of time. “A lot of those songs are still good songs,” he says. “It’s the same with Carbonas. I’m proud to have been part of all that, and it seems natural to get up and play those songs.”

The short history of Shocked Minds is also filled with familiar names for fans and participants of the scene in which Beat Beat Beat thrived, as several collaborators lived here before relocating to New York. When Martin wanted to record some songs he had written around the time his other band, Ex-Humans, started to phase out, he turned to fellow ex-Carbonas Dave Rahn and Jeremy Thompson. Once the record was out and it was time to put together a live band, Martin recruited Atlanta ex-pats “Punk Rock” Jon Atcheson (Beat Beat Beat, Ex-Humans) and Dave “the Wave” Klein (Heart Attacks, Stalkers). When the band’s regular drummer, Kurt Podell (Cute Lepers, Neo-Cons), found out he could not go on this tour, the band flew in Atlanta’s Tyler Kinney (Ralph), son of Drivin ‘n’ Cryin’s Kevn Kinney.

Martin isn’t the only one playing twice in the same night, as Greene will also perform with Predator. Beavers’ night trumps them all, as he’ll drum for Beat Beat Beat and Predator and play guitar in Dino’s Boys. This is old hat for a band that often played, both in Atlanta and on the road, with Martin’s other band at the time, Carbonas, and Beavers and Greene’s Frantic project. “I think all of us Atlanta guys are used to pulling double-duty,” he says.

Beat Beat Beat, Shocked Minds, Predator, and Dino’s Boys play the Earl on Sat., Sept. 28. $7. 9 p.m.