Fringe Binge brings punk past, present together

Punk lives, and a bunch of Atlanta bands that play it loud, fast, funny and stoo-pid will screamingly attest to that this weekend at the second annual Fringe Binge at the Star Community Bar.

Along with youngsters like Gentleman Jesse & His Men, Howlies and Carbonas, one of the seminal head-banging outfits of the '70s, the Akron, Ohio-spawned Rubber City Rebels, will be there to add a geezer dose of retro-raunch.

Longtime Atlanta garage rockers the Forty-Fives join the fray on Aug. 1. And the Rent Boys, once more likely to be found gigging with strippers at the Clermont Lounge, close out the festivities with a reunion set on Aug. 2.

"It's a lot of the up-and-coming garage and punk bands," says Bryan Malone, singer and guitarist for the Forty-Fives and talent booker for the Star Bar. "There are just so many of those bands in town now. I think the music scene in Atlanta is as strong as it's been in many years. There seems to be a new excitement going on. And it's a very cool thing to get the Rubber City Rebels, one of the real early punk bands, on the bill."

The Rubber City Rebels were regulars at clubs on Sunset Strip, including the Whisky, and played with the likes of the Knack and the Plimsouls. But two record deals failed to push the band beyond cult status.

Against all odds, in 2001 the Rebels re-emerged after about a 20-year hiatus, and eventually recorded a new album, "Pierce My Brain," which gleefully revisited the heyday of crass and crazy punk on songs such as "Born Dead" and "Pinhead."

Singer Rod Firestone credits bands like the ones playing Fringe Binge with bringing the Rubber City Rebels back to life by recording covers of some of their early songs. It didn't hurt that the title song to "Pierce My Brain" was featured on a Tony Hawk skateboard video that sold 4 million copies and even appeared on a television commercial.

"It's funny," Firestone says. "The Ramones and Dead Boys and Dictators — those bands were unheard-of at the time. You never heard the Ramones on the radio. But now you hear them on Pepsi commercials. I think a lot of young kids think that they were big or something."