By the time I meet Bob Bert, when the Chrome Cranks stayed at my band’s house in Austin in the mid-1990s, not only had I witnessed a few of his performances and owned a number of his recordings (with the likes of Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Action Swingers, Bewitched, etc.), but, along with a number of my friends, definitely considered him a legendary figure in rock’s noisy international underbelly. After I made it to New York a couple years later I saw him everywhere – at all the shows, checking out everybody’s bands, publishing one of the more important r’n'r rags there is, or has ever been, BB Gun, and playing pounding the skins (as opposed to his old trademark metal) with the likes of Knoxville Girls, and later Int’l Shades (IS), and most recently, Five Dollar Priest (Size Queens).

In addition to his cultural role as one of the scene’s great natural resources, Bob also remains one of the key custodians of this town’s proud cultural memory. In the city of eight-million stories, he’s one of those rare figures with eight-million of his own – involving everything from early New York punk shows to his years recording and touring as Sonic Youth’s drummer to memories of the Swans, Birthday Party, and other architects of our world all the way up to his very active present. Despite his generosity with his past, Bert is a rare artist who doesn’t rest on his laurels and continues to create very vital work.

Bob recently released a compilation by Bewitched, entitled, The Worst Poetry Of 1986-1993. The unsung band in which he emerged from behind the drums to take front stage center, Bewitched evolved from an informal side project in the mid-1980s to a formal touring and recording act by the early 1990s. The album’s twelve tracks document this seven-year period in which the group, featuring a number of prominent members of the NYC underground, fearlessly morphed from one stylistic beast to another before calling it quits in 1993 on the heels of a prestigous SubPop singles club release, “Hey White Homey.”

While Bob needs his own autobiographical book(s) to tell only a small corner of his epic story, and I hope to eventually prod him to share other chapters with you, this interview is exclusively concerned with Bewitched and the release of The Worst Poetry…

NYNT: I love the CD. Why did you decide to compile the Bewitched materials now, in 2007, fifteen years after the fact?

BB: Thanx, because everything had been out of print for so long and I knew that I could easily compile a cohesive yet fucked up LP that represented the only musical project that I was in charge of all the creative decisions. I’d been thinking about it for years.

NYNT: Your lyrics ain’t so bad, why did you choose self-deprecating title “The Worst Poetry Of 1986-1993″ to sum it all up?

BB: I didn’t think that best of or greatest hits was appropriate. I just came up with that title while I was putting it all together and thought it was funny. One thing that Bewitched prided itself with was a sense of humor and not to take the whole trip seriously.

NYNT: Where were you on the musical map when Bewitched materialized? Still a member of Sonic Youth? Already in Pussy Galore? How did it all come together?

BB: After 4 to 5 years being a member of Sonic Youth, I quit at the end of 1985. Not long after that Thurston Moore made up a story to the British press that I had a new band called Bewitched with Susanne Sasic who at the time was their merch girl. She later became their lighting director, moved on from Sonic Youth to Nirvana and every other big act. She is currently on tour with the White Stripes and married to Smokey Hormel. They live in Hoboken. This was in 1986 in between Sonic Youth and joining Pussy Galore. The project materialized by dragging Susanne into Wharton Tiers Fun City recording studio, (she had no interest at all in performing vocalizing or even having her photo taken) and forcing her to moan and scream over some tribal experimental noise laid down by me, Dave Rick from Phantom Tollbooth and King Missile, and Mark Cunningham from the no wave band Mars, who switched from bass to trumpet and at the time had a cool band called Don King who was on the bill for the first show I had played with Sonic Youth. This recording was originally supposed to be put out by Blast First, however they backed out and I ended up pressing 2000 copies and using Pussy Galore’s (who I joined later that year after they moved from D.C. to NYC without a drummer) label name Shove Records
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NYNT: How difficult was the jump from drums to the responsibilities of vocals, lyrics, and general band-leadership?

BB: At first it was fun, it was just meant to be an experimental side project with no aspirations, I by no means ever needed to be a front man and was smart enough to know that I couldn’t sing. It wasn’t until about 4or 5 years later as Pussy Galore was falling apart that Bewitched turned into a real so called band and the real responsibilities kicked in. Bewitched played one show with me and Sue Hanel who was the guitarist for Swans before Norman Westburg. There is a photo from that show behind the CD of The Worst Poetry.

NYNT: There’s a wide stylistic variation throughout the compilation. What were you initially setting out to do with the project?

BB: Initially I just wanted to make interesting fucked up music inspired by African beats and no wave sounds. At the time I was into the Butthole Surfers, Einsturnsde Neubauten, and Big Stick’s Drag Racing 7 inch and of course DNA, and Lydia Lunch.

NYNT: And how did this idea transform from a studio project to a band?

BB: Around 1990 or so, 2 stoner friends that I knew from hanging at Maxwell’s, Jim Fu (guitar) and Chris Ward (bass) asked me to jam with them at their practice space in town. We were doing this for a while and we were offered a show opening for Spacemen 3 at Maxwell’s. Someone had to take charge so we brought in a drum machine and I switched back and forth from drums for the instrumentals and front dude for the rest. I was also making looped cassettes and playing them through an amp for added effect. Chris Ward suggested we bring in his bud, a wigger named Dave P who had turntables and a mixer and nix the tapes. Spacemen 3 couldn’t get into the country for some reason and our first show was at Maxwell’s with STP, the all girl supergroup including Julia Cafritz from Pussy Galore and Sally Barry from the Honeymoon Killers who later joined Bewitched as drummer. Sonic Youth had just signed to Geffen and took Bewitched and STP on tour. We toured the east coast and I still can’t believe that I fronted a band on Roseland”s stage. Bewitched got bounced off the west coast leg of the tour for Nirvana. After Pussy Galore really fell apart after we recorded Historia as a 3 piece and Neil Haggerty disappeared to Frisco to be a Royal Trux junkie was when Bewitched really started going. I was also playing and recording with the Action Swingers. It was at this time that Jon Spencer called me up and asked me to join his new band with a guitarist that he was working with ( Judah Baur) I turned down his offer and the world was introduced to Russell Simmins.

NYNT: Tell me about ‘Chocolate Frenzy’?

BB: I think I already did. Like I said before Blast First whose first release was Bad Moon Rising, were going to release it. When I first turned it in, Paul Smith said he didn’t like the mix, so I called in good friends J.G. Thirlwell and Roli Mossiman who were doing Wiseblood at the time to jazz it up which they did. I’m really proud of the flip side a nine-minute romp through the jungle called Swamp Shoot.

NYNT: And what about Brain Eraser?

BB: I was working in a very groovy legendary record store in Hoboken called Pier Platters. One day this funny character named Terry Tolkin approached me and said he wanted to release a Bewitched album on his label No. 6 which had a deal with Rough Trade where he was working at the time. He didn’t even know that Bewitched was an actual band and dug the Chocolate Frenzy 12 inch. Terry later became an A&R guy for Elektra and signed Luna, the Afghan Whigs etc and can be seen briefly in The Devil and Daniel Johnston movie. We went into Wharton’s and recorded Brain Eraser with Jim Fu, Chris Ward, Dave P, and Donna Croughn from the band Tiny Lights on violin. Kaz the cartoonist let me use his amazing artwork for the cover. Next we recorded the 7 inch of 409 (a different version is on Harshing My Mellow) and Junket’s Theme (a track that sums up the Bewitched sound that I was searching for and is included on the latest comp.

NYNT: And Harshing My Mellow?

BB: Jim Fu left the band after we had some minor disagreement and was replaced by Art Reinitz, who was another local who we were friends with. He can be found now bartending at the Jones Cafe in NYC. Art was a really good guitar player, he was way into Led Zep and the Rollins band but I much preferred Jim’s insane approach. Terry Tolkin gave us a reasonable budget to record with so I flew out my friend Steve Albini who had helped a bunch on 3 Pussy Galore records and Pussy Galore toured a bit with his band Big Black. He slept on my couch and we recorded Harshing My Mellow at a studio called Quantum in Weehawken, NJ which doesn’t exist anymore.

NYNT: And how kind was the road to Bewitched?

BB: Early on it was quite good, we somehow hooked up with Boche Billions booking who was a big booking company at the time. Their big acts were Pavement and the Jesus Lizard who I loved and we did a bunch of shows with. Dave P. was at times a real pain in the ass. There was some incident with Artie and we had to kick him out. Without a DJ we became a normal rock band which was the last thing I ever wanted to have anything to do with. Sally Barry joined as drummer which made me a full time singer. We did a six-week tour of the states and Canada which except when we were opening for someone was pretty much a disaster. When we returned to Hoboken Art got out of the van and kissed the street. He called and quit the next day. Chris Ward called the following day and quit and soon after sold his bass and amp. He now lives out in Joshua Tree CA., and recently started playing music again. That was the end of Bewitched as we know it.

NYNT: You guys were really hitting your stride with “Hey White Homey”? Why did you decide to call it quits at that point?

BB: The band was way over at this point but as we know I always considered Bewitched to be whatever the hell I wanted it to be. Sub Pop contacted me to do a single for their single of the month club and gave me money to record with. So Donna Croughn and I got together, She played violin, bass and sang and I did the rest. We went back to Wharton’s and recorded Hey White Homey (which lyrically was inspired by the way I felt at the time about the DJ Dave P.) and the flip side called Troll Doll (which I also banged some metal on and almost made it on to the comp).

NYNT: And “Making Out With Satan”? That’s the Chrome Cranks backing you up?

BB: Peter of the Chrome Cranks was stalking me trying to get me to join the Cranks. I wasn’t that into the idea, it was a little too close to Pussy Galore and I was probably into other things at the time. I was once again given some money to record one song ( why doesn’t this ever happen anymore?)for a split single with an Italian band called Meathead. I made a deal with the Chrome Cranks that if they help me record a left over song from the last lineup of Bewitched I would play a CMJ show as their drummer. I ended up sticking with them for 6 years.

NYNT: Does this compilation hint at any reunions in the cards? Or are you gonna let the corpse rest?

BB: The only way there would be a reunion is if I was offered a bunch of cash. It definitely wouldn’t be with the same people and would be way weirder and better. I actually am way skinnier and hotter now (biased opinion) than I was 20 years ago and would make a better entertainer. Right now I am concentrating on my latest projects the Int’l Shades who have a great LP in the can and the Five Dollar Priest who also have a great LP in the can.

Bob is way skinnier and hotter now – you can see for yourself tonight at Motor City where he’s NewYorkNightTrain’s guest DJ as well as a birthday boy.

You can learn more about, and purchase, The Worst Poetry Of 1986-1993 here.

And you can follow threads on Bob’s two current bands here (Five Dollar Priest) and here (Int’l Shades).