Rob Gottstein, bass player for The Hangdogs, began his career by blowing off the Brooklyn public school system to play in punk rock bands and get laid. He DID play in punk rock bands, including the seminal 1980s combo Radical Elite, with whom he shared bills with such legitimate acts as 10,000 Maniacs and the Subhumans. A consummate professional, Gottstein flamed out by age 19 on steady diet of smack, Everclear, Orange Sunshine, Window Pane, bathtub meth, hot toddies, shoe polish, Dexedrine and s'mores. After not cleaning himself up, he went on to become a tentpole member of New York's most uncompromisingly tolerant hardcore band The Deviators and a heroic consumer of pornography. Rob, now 25 and a proud graduate of Hawkeye Tech, lives on the Upper East Side with his cat Mister Snuggums.