Chrome Cranks “Love in Exile” 1996. Today, June 11th, is Bob Bert’s birthday (b. Robert Bertelli, 1955). Bert drummed for Chrome Cranks, as well as for Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Knoxville Girls, Jon Spencer and the HITMakers, among many others. Love in Exile was Chrome Cranks’ third and final studio album and also features former Honeymoon Killers’ bassist Jerry Teel along with Cranks founders William Weber and Peter Aaron. Much like Sonic Youth, Honeymoon Killers and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, it’s blues-punked noise rock, with a dash of psychobilly thrown in for a sound Allmusic labels “sleaze-rock.” There’s a deeply sinister cover of the old traditional tune “See That My Grave is Kept Clean” as well as some sparse – and also sinister – experimental tracks like “Movie Star” and “Curtains for My Baby.” Some of my favorites are the growling blues-exploded “We’re Going Down,” the blues-boogie punk of “Lost Time Blues,” as well as “Hot Blonde Cocktail,” a great screaming ass-shaker that weirdly got a decent amount of airplay on MTV in the mid-90′s.

I saw Bob Bert perform with Jon Spencer last summer, July 2018. His “drum kit” was a refabbed car engine atop a bass drum and hooked onto a trash can; he hit his kit mainly with hammers.