Bob Bert grew up in nearby Clifton as Robert Bertelli, the son of a former professional football player, and moved to Hoboken with his future wife, artist Linda Wolfe, at the dawn of the 1980s.



Because of the bands Bob Bert is best known for, he has always been considered a New York musician:

Bert's resume as one of indie rock’s premier drummers includes stints with noise-rock pioneers Sonic Youth, garage-rock gods Pussy Galore, and retro-rock revivalists the Chrome Cranks.



Bob Bert answered the infamous advertisment which Sonic Youth had put

up in the record store called 'Rocks in your Head' in 1983. Eventhough his

contribution to "Bad Moon Rising" is impressive, Bob never really seemed

able to connect with the ideas of the other members. They therefore

decided to replace him after the European Bad Moon Rising tour (in 1985), and gave the job to Steve Shelley.



Bob continued his musical career with Pussy Galore. Never making a secret of his bitterness over the way things went, he has often remarked on his importance in shaping Sonic Youth.



Bob Bert originally came to Hoboken as an artist and only started playing drums on a whim. Bob: "I was at the Beat’n Path Café on Washington Street and this band called the Vectors didn’t show up. I probably had had a few drinks. So this crazy guy named Peter Missing got us all up on stage, I started playing drums and he did this crazy spoken word thing. And we had a lot of fun." That eventually morphed into the band Drunk Driving.