Venerable indie label Bar/None Records is releasing the LONG overdue solo album from percussion outlaw Bob Bert, a veteran of Sonic Youth and Pussy Galore among many other determinedly button-pushing ensembles. Beach Bongo Bloodbath was recorded at Deepsea Studios in Bert’s hometown Hoboken, NJ and produced by Bob and Mark C (Live Skull). Special guests include Julia Cafritz (Pussy Galore, Free Kitten) and Mary Hanley (Bunny X). Beach Bongo Bloodbath is being released on 12” LP vinyl, CD, digital download and streaming platforms June 12, one of several notable releases by Bar/None in celebration of its 40th anniversary.
Many music gourmandizers know the name “Bob Bert” from his stint as drummer for Sonic Youth in their formative years. He also beat car gas tanks for Pussy Galore. In the years since, Bob has recorded albums and toured the world with Bewitched, Action Swingers, Chrome Cranks, Knoxville Girls, Five Dollar Priest, and in more recent times Lydia Lunch Retrovirus, coming full circle playing metal percussion with fellow Pussy Galore alumnus Jon Spencer in his HITmakers.
With Beach Bongo Bloodbath Bob finally steps out under his own name with his first true solo album. For this outing he mixes original material with extensive re-workings of a number of covers to create a veritable soundtrack for the B-movie of his life.
Surprisingly for a guy who has slammed away for some very noisy guitar outfits, this album has absolutely NO guitars; once you hear his beat-centric take on Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen,” you will never hear that song the same way again. Bob creates a new world of sound utilizing a variety of drums and percussion as well as a diverse array of keyboards and theremin. The results suggest Sandy Nelson playing with the Flying Lizards on their greatest hits collection of Kraut Rock influenced Cramps covers!
The six originals and eight covers play to his love of campy teenage horror flicks, art damaged punk fuk-u-ness and Warholian underground groover vibes. In fact, let’s cue up some tracks from the album to help tell the Bob Bert story.
After seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan show as an eight-year-old, he took drum lessons for one year at age twelve and learned enough to bang along to the Rolling Stones and garage-punk nuggets of the 60’s (Cue up the Barbarians’ “Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl”).
Bob became desperate to get out of the hell of his Catholic grade school. “In my town, which was 11 miles outside New York City, we had two types of kids, the rah rahs (jocks) and the hoods (greasers). The hoods were mainly in the public school, and I gravitated towards the hoods mainly for the style; black leather jackets and girls that looked like the Shangri-Las and the Ronettes. I told my mom I would drop out if she didn’t take me out of Catholic School!” One day Bob got called out of class by the principal who slapped his face back and forth saying “why would you ever want to go to public school?!”. (cue up “Mississippi Queen,” Quaalude Interlude”, and “Oink Oink”).
In high school Bob drifted away from drumming and headed towards Pop Art, Andy Warhol being a big influence. He got into Glam Rock hitting the NYC clubs to see the New York Dolls, Harlots of 42nd Street, Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys etc. He discovered CBGBs in 1975, when he wandered into a Television / Patti Smith double bill. He took classes at SVA and learned how to silk screen. He moved into Manhattan in 1978 and became a fine art silkscreen printer, eventually working for Warhol up until his death. (Cue up the Velvet Underground’s ” Foggy Notion” and the Modern Lovers’ “Pablo Picasso”).
In 1979, Bert saw an ad in the Village Voice soliciting “Punk Rock art,” submitted a piece which was accepted for a group show at the Nonson Gallery on Wooster Street, much to his delight. The opening was a gas, the whole downtown scene was in full effect. Joey Ramone’s piece was a toothbrush with red paint on it glued to the ceiling entitled “Bloody Gums.” Daniel Rey’s Shrapnel performed in the back and someone drove a motorcycle through the front door! It was at Nonson that Bob met artist Linda Wolfe.
In 1981, Bob and Linda moved to Hoboken, living a block away from the famed club, Maxwell’s where Bob would spend half of his life seeing great shows and making tons of friends. In 1981 while hanging at a different club, he got up on stage making a racket with Peter Missing and Jeff Holiday (RIP). “We became the band Drunk Driving causing trouble most of the time we played. We were banned from Maxwells after Peter put his upside-down martini glass graffitti, which he became well known for when he formed his next band Missing Foundation, on the newly painted wall.” After about seven months, Bert saw a flier that Sonic Youth needed a drummer. Bob took the flyer which he still has and joined in 1982. As it turns out he was the only one to call. After his tenure with them, he joined Pussy Galore, staying with them from the mid-80’s through the end of the decade.
In The 90’s Bob and Linda Wolfe (RIP) started the acclaimed fanzine BB Gun, printing seven issues between 1994 -2004. In 2019, HoZac Books published Bob’s book I’m Just The Drummer” My Time Behind Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Chrome Cranks, & BB Gun Magazine, currently out of print.
-Glenn Morrow
“Bob Bert proves he’s the coolest thing to come out of New Jersey since the vibrating bed, as he takes over the controls and spews his groovy magic all over his latest joint BEACH BONGO BLOODBATH. Playing nearly every instrument, spouting the occasional beatnik banter and covering Love Comes In Spurts makes this psychedelic hullabaloo the perfect party album.”
– Lydia Lunch