Bob Bert on how a flyer, a bar stage and a junkyard trip defined four decades of underground music

Transmission 349: Interview with Bob Bert

Bob Bert is an American drummer and percussionist based in Hoboken, New Jersey. He played drums in Sonic Youth during their early years, then spent the latter half of the 1980s beating car gas tanks and junkyard metal in Pussy Galore alongside Jon Spencer. The years since have taken him through Bewitched, Action Swingers, Chrome Cranks, Knoxville Girls, Five Dollar Priest, The Wolf Manhattan Project with Kid Congo Powers and Mick Collins, and more recently Lydia Lunch Retrovirus and Jon Spencer and the Hitmakers.

Title: Beach Bongo Bloodbath

Artist: Bob Bert

Release Date: 2026-06-12

Genres: Experimental Music, No Wave, Noise Rock, Post-punk

Label: Bar/None Records

Description: Bob Bert interview: Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Warhol and debut solo album Beach Bongo Bloodbath on Bar/None Records, June 12. Beach Bongo Bloodbath2026-06-12Bob Bert interview: Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Warhol and debut solo album Beach Bongo Bloodbath on Bar/None Records, June 12.

He has also worked as a fine art silkscreen printer in New York, at one point producing work for Andy Warhol. His debut solo album, Beach Bongo Bloodbath, recorded at Deepsea Studios in Hoboken with Mark C of Live Skull and featuring guest appearances from Julia Cafritz and Mary Hanley, is out June 12 on Bar/None Records.

Bob Bert has been making noise since 1982 across Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore and a dozen other outfits;

Beach Bongo Bloodbath is his first solo record, and it doesn’t have a single guitar on it.

How did you first get into music and what were your first influences?

People around my age, it’s hard to imagine now, but being like eight years old and seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show was a big, big influence to start. That started me; I took drum lessons for a year at the age of 12. Growing up with the transistor radio under your pillow and waiting for your favorite garage rock songs to come on the top 40, that was kind of the start. As I got older, I was just always a big music fan and started going to concerts when I was a teenager.

What pulled you toward the downtown New York scene?

I was always interested in the more underground counterculture going on. I grew up 10 miles outside of New York, so I was going to New York early on. When I was in high school in the early seventies, records like Ziggy Stardust and Lou Reed‘s Transformer got me into Roxy Music. I had already started going to concerts, but at that point I started going to clubs in New York. I went to see the New York Dolls at Max’s Kansas City in like 1973 and started going to see them a bunch of times. Then in 1975, I wandered into CBGB’s for the first time and Television and Patti Smith were playing. I really loved the situation and the vibe. I just started going there like four times a week, so I got to see all those bands right at the beginning.

How did you end up behind a drum kit and what made you want to explore percussion beyond the standard drum kit?

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I kind of got into it accidentally. Like I said, I took drum lessons at the age of 12, but when I moved out of my house at 18, I didn’t play and got more into trying to be a fine artist. I was a big fan and obsessed with the whole Andy Warhol scene. I went to the School of Visual Arts to learn how to do a bunch of stuff and learned how to silkscreen print. I ended up being a fine art silkscreen printer in New York and actually printing Andy Warhol’s artwork, in the 80s while I was in Sonic Youth and Pussy Galore. I became a musician accidentally; that wasn’t my goal. It was actually the No New York compilation album, which came out in 1978, compiled by Brian Eno, with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Mars and the Contortions and DNA. That made me realize that you didn’t have to be extremely technical and could just come up with a cool concept. I moved to Hoboken in 1981, which is right across the river from New York City, and one night I was in a bar and the drummer didn’t show up. So I got up on stage and played, and that became my first band. I just never stopped, and like seven months after that, I was in Sonic Youth.

What was the Warhol world like from the inside? What was your relationship with visual art before music took over?

I was making art, and in 1979 I was working printing in Soho, New York. I saw a little ad on the back of the Village Voice that said “punk rock art wanted.” I went down to the gallery and showed them my stuff and they took a piece. I ended up being in this group show, along with Joey Ramone and Screaming Mad George and all these downtown musicians, which was a big thrill. Through that art gallery I met my future wife, Linda. Then we moved to Hoboken and that’s where it all started.

How did you end up in Sonic Youth?

I was very aware of everything going on; I worked in Soho, so I was going to the record shops, buying all the music magazines and going to all the clubs. One day in the New York Rocker, I read an article saying that the composer Glenn Branca was starting a record label and his first release was going to be the band Sonic Youth. I bought their first EP when it came out and really loved it. I went to see them play a couple of times when Richard Edson was still the drummer. Then one day I went into the same record store where I bought the record, and there was a flyer on the wall that said “Sonic Youth needs a drummer.” I pulled it off the wall, I tried out, and that was that. I just recently learned, reading Thurston Moore‘s book, that I was actually the only person who called up.

“It was actually the No New York compilation album that made me realize that you didn’t have to be extremely technical and could just come up with a cool concept.” — Bob Bert

© Bob Bert

How did Pussy Galore come together and what was different about that band?

Pussy Galore was already together. I quit Sonic Youth in 1985, and one night I was at a club called the Cat Club at an Einstürzende Neubauten show. I was standing there talking to Kim and Thurston and I said to them, hey, I’m getting eager to play again, do you know anybody? They pointed out this little young group of kids; this band had just moved from DC called Pussy Galore. I went over and introduced myself to them; they were like 10 years younger than me, just arrived in New York with their brand new leather jackets. Then about a week or two later, I was standing in front of CBGB and Jon Spencer came over to me and handed me their first record they had just put out themselves called Groovy Hatefuck. I said, do you need a drummer? He wrote his number on it. I took it home and loved it. At the very first rehearsal I was playing regular drums and they had another guy banging metal percussion, but then Jon wanted to combine the two things. We went to a junkyard and built this drum kit. When I was in Sonic Youth, we were all around the same age and influenced by the same stuff, fans of the No Wave scene. Pussy Galore were like 20 or 21 when I met them; they had kind of escaped Washington, D.C. because they weren’t really accepted in the Dischord hardcore scene going on down there. So they came to New York and that’s how I met them.

How did Beach Bongo Bloodbath start taking shape?

Just last year. In 2012 I started playing with Lydia Lunch Retrovirus and we toured around the world. Then towards the end of that, I hooked up with Jon Spencer again and played in Jon Spencer and the Hitmakers, playing metal percussion again. Both of those things came to an end at the beginning of 2023. I was just kind of at home, and luckily I have this practice space recording studio in town where I live that I share with my longtime friend Mark C from the band Live Skull. It wasn’t any really ambitious thing; I started doing a couple of solo shows and said, well, maybe I should start recording this stuff. It was very casual; I would do a couple of days here, listen to it for a month, go back for a couple of days. There was no big plan; it wasn’t like I need to make a solo record for my ego or anything like that, I was just having fun. At a certain point I thought, this could be an album. Luckily, I presented it to Bar/None Records, whose offices are in the same building where my recording studio is, and yeah, it all worked out.

Is there a common thread behind the selection of songs?

I think they were just songs that I liked and that I knew I could play and sing at the same time with this weird percussion setup I had for the solo shows. Mississippi Queen was the first one. Every song that’s on the album I performed live, except for Oink Oink by David Peel, which kind of came together later.

Did Julia Cafritz and Mary Hanley get involved?

I did a cover of Fuck You Man from Pussy Galore and I thought it’d be cool if Julia sang. I just called her up on the phone and she did her vocals over the phone. Then Mary Hanley, my girlfriend, who’s now not doing well; she’s in a health facility. She’s a singer, she had her own band called Bunny X. I just took her down to the studio one day and that was that.

“It wasn’t like I need to make a solo record for my ego or anything like that. I was just having fun.” — Bob Bert

What was the recording process like with Mark C?

I’ve known Mark C since like 1982, so it was great, very casual. We have this space with all the instruments and recording equipment, all his. I actually had a band that made two albums called The Wolf Manhattan Project with Kid Congo Powers and Mick Collins, and we recorded our second album there. Mark records all his recent Live Skull records there too. It’s really comfortable and casual, real easy and fun. Mostly everything was done on the first take, even the stuff I don’t really know how to play.

What does Hoboken mean to you as a place and how did it shape the album?

Hoboken is right across the river from New York City, only a square mile, a beautiful town, very expensive nowadays. When I moved there it was very working class. Hoboken had the best rock club in the world called Maxwell’s, and I always lived a block away, so I practically spent half my life in the place and saw every band you can imagine there. It’s a lot different now. Fortunately we still have this space in an old factory building. Hoboken to me is nice architecture, a beautiful view of Manhattan along the river and easy access; people think, oh, it’s New Jersey, but I can get to Manhattan faster than people from Brooklyn. Even though I live in Hoboken, I did a lot of work in New York and I’ve been in a lot of New York bands. After a night in the city, it’s nice to come home to it; it’s easier to deal with things. I lived in New York City from 1978 until 1981 when I moved to Hoboken. I love Hoboken; I’m one of the few people from that era that’s still around here.

How do you see the relationship between your visual art background and your music now?

Music has kind of taken over, and obviously I’ve become way more known and successful in music. I used to love doing art, and what kind of changed me when I first started playing music was that all of a sudden people were recognizing me and saying, hey, great show. It was a much more social life than sitting in your room making paintings. I still make art on occasion; I actually designed the cover for the Beach Bongo Bloodbath album. It’s all rolled into one because back in the late 70s, early 80s, everybody was doing everything: painters were in bands, poets were acting in movies. That era, the 70s into the 80s, to me that was the best era of New York City as far as music, art and creativity.

How do you feel about the state of independent and underground music today?

I think it’s still great. I still go out a lot; there are a lot of bands playing that I go see. I love Genre is Death, the Skull Practitioners are great, and Live Skull still play. Unfortunately most of the music venues are now in Brooklyn, there are a few left in New York, but I stay pretty much in touch with what’s going on and I still make the scene.

Are you working on new material right now?

Right now I’m just promoting the record. I have a lot of little gigs coming up; a DJ gig, and I’m actually sitting in with Live Skull because the drummer can’t do a show, so I’ve got to learn all those songs. I occasionally help bands out and do gigs with them. I still keep pretty active, but for the time being I’m not in any band or touring. I’ve been doing it since 1982, and from 2012 I was going around with Jon and Lydia. Touring the world in my 60s was great; I had a good time. I enjoy playing, I enjoy people, I enjoy traveling.

Photos courtesy of Bob Bert

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others

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