PUSSY GALORE
Bob Bert, spills it all.
Kirk: What band were you in before Sonic Youth?
Bob: I was in this neighborhood band called Drunk Driving. Peter Missings first band. We were really pretty terrible.
Kirk: What year did you join Sonic Youth?
Bob: Year? 1981.
Kirk: That’s when they had just started.
Bob: Yeah. I went on their first two tours in support of their EP and we were working on the ‘Confusion Is Sex’ stuff, then after one tour they wanted to try out Jim Subuno who was playing with Teenage Jesus. He only lasted like 3 shows but he recorded 3/4 of ‘Confusion Is Sex’ even though I did all of the touring for that record. I played on a couple of songs on that. Then I joined them for a couple of years.
Kirk: Why did you leave the band?
Bob: It was really not that big of a deal at the time. We had toured Europe 5 times. I was getting kind of bored. I was really broke and I just wanted to change the scene. I wasn’t really happy with the situation.
Kirk: Did you like the music they were doing?
Bob: Yeah, a lot. I’m still really good friends with them, hang out with them and stuff.
Kirk: How did you hook up with Pussy Galore?
Bob: After I left Sonic Youth, I was hanging around New York for awhile. I put out a solo EP and I was kinda bored. They (Pussy Galore) moved down to New York and their drummer didn’t come down with them. I met them, they gave me their record. Out of the two bands I was going to play for I really liked their record so I joined them.
Kirk: I didn’t know about your solo project. Bob: Yeah, it’s a 12 inch single called ‘Bewitched’, it was pretty independant. I put it out myself in 1986.
Kirk: Who played on that?
Bob: Dave Rick from fanclub played guitar, Mark Cunningham from a New York band called Mars played on it. It was mixed by Clint Ruin from Wiseblood.
Kirk: Would you like to do more solo stuff?
Bob: I want to if I had a little more money, a little more time. Pussy Galore is really keeping me busy.
Kirk: Was it pretty successful?
Bob: For the most part it got really good reviews. I don’t know how to describe it. It was avant garde, half funk or something. But it got good reviews and I got rid of most of the records I made. Something like 2000. It was originally supposed to be put out by Blast First which is why I did it but by the time Clint Ruin remixed it, he didn’t like it anymore. So I put it out on Pussy Galore’s label Shove.
Kirk: Did you have to use the name Sonic Youth to sell records?
Bob: I thanked them on the record because they did help me a lot. But I didn’t use them to try and sell records.
Kirk: What do you think of their new stuff now. ‘Daydream Nation’?
Bob: Uhh, it’s kind of funny, I have the cassette, we’ve been listening to it in the car. I have the same opinion that everyone else has that hear sit, it would have been a great single album. It’s a little too much to swallow but it’s good, I like it. I kind of have preference to their early stuff myself. I’m all for their success and everything.
Kirk: Well Pussy Galore is ding really well.
Bob: Yeah, we’re on Caroline and on ‘Product Think’ in England and this label called Super Natural Organization is going to release it in Japan.
Kirk: How’s it doing in England?
Bob: Good. Pussy Galore’s doing real good. We have an EP coming out next week and we just came from Japan to here. We had a great time over there.
Kirk: Doesn’t the language get in the way? Do you speak it?
Bob: No, but we have people working for us that were translating and stuff. We had a great time. They took real good care of us, put us in hotels, paid us well, paid all of our expenses.
Kirk: A lot of shows.
Bob: 3 shows.
Kirk: How come you didn’t do a lot of shows in L.A.?
Bob: We had a hard time getting this one! Look there’s nobody even here. It sucks.
Kirk: No, this is good (3 or 4 dozen is good for L.A. on a Thursday night, unfortunately people here are stupid shits). You can tell everyones here to see you guys.
Bob: We got this show at the last minute. We were getting calls from L.A. but when it came to booking it, it was hard cuz… we just had a hard time because Red Kross and the Butthole Surfers were playing, everyones around, everyplace is booked.
Kirk: Do you see Pussy Galore getting pretty big?
Bob: Well it’s been totally uphill but things have been getting better. This record coming out next week will either make us or break us. It’s getting well distributed, can’t complain.
Kirk: Were you looking for a band that would do well?
Bob: Yeah, obviously, but that’s not why I joined the band. If I wanted something that was really going to grow I wouldn’t have joined a band like Pussy Galore. Things are going pretty well for the kind of band that we are.
Kirk: Are you guys surviving off of the band?
Bob: I’m surviving between Sonic Youth royalties and Pussy Galore – then barely surviving. The rest of the band are surviving but they’ve got money from other places or whatever. We’re starting to do ok. When we toured Europe the first time we actually made money- we went there for six weeks to play a shitload of shows and we actually came out ahead. Which I mean… I went to Europe 5 times with Sonic Youth and we broke even or lost money each time. So to go there the first time and actually make money is amazing.
Kirk: And Japan did good too?
Bob: Yeah, we got paid well. The guy must have lost his shirt, he paid for all of our meals and hotels.
Kirk: How does it compare to Europe or even America?
Bob: It’s weird because the kids there are just so crazy. I mean we walked into the club to play and everyone’s sitting there like a church. As soon as we got on stage and plugged in the guitars they all came up and went berzerk! They were stage diving. It was great. Then the next day there were all these young girls giving us gifts. It was really weird. We signed like a million records. They were really enthused.
Kirk: Do you think they’re hurtin’ or really dig it?
Bob: Kind of a combination of both. I think they really dug it. We put on a good show. The guy that brought us over there, we were kinda like Guinney Pigs. Now he’s bringing over Sonic Youth in February and he’s asking all these other bands. He’s got a good thing going. He’s got a record store and he’s bringing in all of these independent American records. It was weird because his store was on the 4th floor of this building. It’s just a room but he’s got stuff like… Bong Water… he’s a happening guy.
Kirk: I could never figure why Sonic Youth released their records in Europe first?
Bob: Because when Sonic Youth first started there really wasn’t like a million independent labels, there was no big demand for them, we just take anything we can. We went to Germany and the guy from Zensor just approached us and we put out the ‘Kill Your Idols’ EP with him and he totally ripped the band off! I don’t know how many times he pressed that thing.
Kirk: Well, it’s good you’re still getting some royalities.
Bob: I’m amazed. I’m getting more money from that band now than 4 years ago when I was in it. Every few months they’ll send me a check.
Kirk: They’re quite popular now.
Bob: Yeah, they’re incredibly popular now. This new record is getting such big press. They’ve had two big articles in the Village Voice in like 2 weeks in a row. They’re doing incredible.
Kirk: A lot of people that have seen Pussy Galore live say your last album wasn’t really you?
Bob: Well in a way because in the studio we fuck a lot of things up. Take a little bit different of an approach. But I think the records are still raunchy. I don’t think it’s that big of a difference. You can say that about any band.
Kirk: What kind of stuff are you listening to nowadays?
Bob: We listen to a lot of stuff. We listen to a lot of rap in the van. A lot of independent stuff. The Subpop guys set this thing up, rented a van and car that had a tape deck but we only have the Green River tape and Sonic Youth. I listen to a lot of stuff. I’m pretty open minded.
Kirk: Do you know why Pussy Galore moved from Washington to New York?
Bob: Julia and John formed the band and they kinda got black listed down there because it’s a tightly nit scene and if you weren’t a Dischord band… They had a song called “Fuck lan MacKaye” and the girl that booked the 9:30 Club worked for Dischord and she wouldn’t book Pussy Galore. So they thought they would give New York a try and went kinda half together.
Kirk: I always hear that it isn’t like that then other people tell me that it is, it’s just a big clique?
Bob: I never lived there but yeah, I get that impression from talking to them. If you don’t kiss the asses of a few people in that town…
Kirk: Is New York anything like that?
Bob: No, in New York you can always find
some little hole in the wall to play in. In New York if you do a show and you’re good, you’re going to get some attention.
Kirk: Are you familiar with L.A.?
Bob: I was here once with Sonic Youth, we spent a week and… L.A. is a nice place to visit. I couldn’t live here. To me it’s like a lot of spoiled white brats on drugs. When we came out here with Sonic Youth we played out in the desert and everybody was trippin’. It was some big acid comeback, the girl that was managing Redd Kross was dealing it and she said she sold like 300 hits and there must have been 350 people there! (Laughter) I mean Jesus, how weird. We stayed at Kim’s mom’s house and I spent a lot of time roaming around. It just seems like… change cards… it’s nice but it’s a totally different atmosphere than New York.
Kirk: What’s New York like?
Bob: For one thing L.A. is so spread out. You can drive for 20 minutes and still be in a part of L.A. N.Y. is more compact, 9 million people in a couple of square miles. It’s more expensive, it’s filthy. There’s a lot of things that could be said about it but I’ve always felt that culturally New York is far ahead of even (tape gets cut off here)… ramones, Black flag – you can’t really compare. I always feel things happen there first then… maybe it cuz I grew up there.
Kirk: It’s true, look at the noise bands… Teenage Jesus…
Bob: It’s like the Velvet Underground, Teenage Jesus, N.Y. Dolls, the art world… (tape goes wacko once and for all……..)
