Rob's earliest experiences as a performing guitarist were with The Wicked Farleys, a band he co-founded as a high school freshman. Evolving into a noisy melodic math-rock band, they toured the US, released a 7" single, and recorded their first album (at noted Boston alternative rock studio Fort Apache) before he entered college, where more tours and another album followed. This led to him meeting and eventually joining Boston lo-fi shoegaze band the Swirlies (Taang! Records) in 1998, a band that was hugely influential to him in the preceding years.
After moving to New York in 2001, he joined Diamonds, a hard-rock band formed by some of his Boston acquaintances. After changing their name to Diamond Nights, they released an EP and album on Kemado Records (eventually to become Mexican Summer), and toured internationally. The songs "Destination Diamonds" and "The Girl's Attractive" were featured in several TV shows and ads.
After working full time in recording studios for a few years, he reconnected with his friend Kurt Vile and joined his live backing band The Violators as bassist in 2011. He featured heavily on all subsequent albums, often co-producing and playing a variety of instruments (frequently bass, guitar, and synthesizers, occasionally drums and percussion). On a day off while touring Australia, he played on the session with Courtney Barnett and members of the Dirty Three that led to the Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett Lotta Sea Lice album and tour.
In 2022, he released his first solo endeavor under the name Raw Bell, on which he played all instruments and handled all engineering duties. It combined elements he brought to all of the acts above.
Other guitar appearances include a tour and album cameos with Mice Parade (featuring Doug Scharin of June of 44 on drums), concerts with Lansing-Dreiden for their first album, and an uncredited contribution to their recording "Cement To Stone.” Additionally, he performed and recorded with Cheeseburger, Tom Brosseau, and Lockgroove (Boston). He was the live drummer for former Swirlies vocalist Seana Carmody’s band Seana and the Sharks, and spinoff band Motowife. One night at TT The Bear's in 2001, the band Bright invited him to play tambourine so he could claim to have played with all four bands on the bill. He is currently working on more solo recordings, with plans for a single release and live appearances in the near future. He also plans to compile early recordings such as his Emerson senior thesis project, an aggressive synth piece mixed for surround sound.
See: Allmusic credits
Current musical solo project: Raw Bell