MEET THE BAND

Aaron Perlut was raised in Virginia on the sounds of bands like Little Feat, The Rolling Stones, Ray Wylie Hubbard, The Byrds, Willie Nelson, Delbert McClinton and others. Landing in St. Louis, he founded Atomic Junkshot with Denzel Whitewell (who ultimately retired after a tragic llama-training accident). From the start, Perlut has been the band's primary songwriter and rhythm guitarist, and Atomic’s spirit grew from the chip he carries on his shoulder towards electronic music. He was determined to pair the analog sounds of rock 'n' roll, country and blues with a sarcastic lyrical edge—following in the footsteps of his heroes. Beyond music, Perlut is an activist, advocating for using tire burning farms as clean energy sources and eliminating legal protections for vegans. 

Bassist Clay Mudd was raised in a small town in Mississippi, in a two-room cabin with his mother and half-sister. At age seven he began honing his musical talents on a borrowed lap steel guitar at a nearby open-air train station under the tutelage of bluesman “Kool” Walker Walker.  At 16, he backed away from music and hitchhiked to Los Angeles where he worked odd jobs in restaurants, on pornographic film sets and sold hats and underpants reading "Shart Free" on piers.  Finally, Mudd was inspired to enter a different aspect of performance—landing a role as a stunt double for actor Denver Dell Pyle on The Dukes of Hazzard—beginning a lengthy career as a stuntman and fluffer. But Mudd would rediscover his passion for music again, picking up bass guitar and ultimately becoming accomplished enough to sit-in for studio gigs with bands like Stale Bread, Tuna & the Fisherman, Winger, the Dolby Sisters, White Lion and Red Nipple among others. After The Dukes of Hazzard ended, he decided to put stunt work behind him and moved east, landing in the Midwest where he joined Atomic Junkshot shortly after the band was formed.

A former hand model, fashion consultant and past director of janitorial services at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Brian McCary joined Atomic Junkshot as the band’s drummer after a tragic llama training accident ended the musical performance career of former percussionist Joey Baals. Whereas Baals came from a background of speed metal drumming, McCary—who is commonly referred to as “B-Money” at roller skating rinks throughout Delaware, Puerto Rico and North Dakota— comes from an altogether different place. He loves hatwear speaking to hazardous waste and has deftly provided the band with a more nuanced percussion style that is deeply infused in a range of jazz, country, rock and Sedaka (a west African rhythmic style named for Neil Sedaka). McCary indeed tends to walk to the beat of his own drum kit, although his playing is often compared to that of the late Cream drummer Ginger Baker (who ironically was a ginger), as well as the Muppets' Animal (also technically a ginger). Either way, Brian's our drummer and he likes to hit shit with sticks

Markus Everblus was born on a sweltering, 100-degree July afternoon on a blanket in dusty Oklahoma oil field. His father was Hans-Johan Everblus, a renowned Dutch slide guitar master with a penchant for heroin. His mother was Lulu M. Hefner, a notable Cherokee businesswoman from Nowata, Oklahoma. She is an historic figure on Oklahoma as the first woman to not only drill for oil on her own property, but as the first female oil operator in Oklahoma. Markus grew up with oil in his blood. But after spending his teens and 20s as a roughneck working the Oklahoma City Oil Field—one of the world's giant petroleum fields near in Oklahoma City—Markus decided he wanted to pursue music. He shifted towards his father’s passion for slide guitar and also discovered harmonica from another oil field roughneck—Earl "Slick Donnie" Walsh. He quickly developed expertise both on the Fender Stratocaster and harp, and after spending 15 years as a roadie and stand-in guitarist touring with Motley Crue and Gordon Lightfoot, in 2023, Markus joined Atomic Junkshot.