Script reading & writing, compiling soundtracks and compilations, graphic novels, calendar counting, espresso, owls (they eat annoying rabbits), Gardena hose attachments, planting wonderlawn, breeding, adjusting the mic stand, playing guitar, banjo & lapsteel pretty badly.
Bands I've played in...
Leonard Street Tourists
A bluegrass/country/folk duo with my super talented mate Nick Gilbert. He did the singing, banjo and mandolin while I handled acoustic guitar duties
Hip Replacements
Played acoustic guitar and banjo with them for a few months. Members included Andrew Donaldson, Mark Bennet & Alan Lusk.
We Are The Stars
Played electric guitar and did selected vocals with this short lived but great fun indie/alternative cover band. Other members included Martin (Cellardoor) on bass and Lu (ex 13) and guitar and vocals. We covered everything from Arcade Fire to The Clash to Interpol to Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
I've recently started playing with Christine Roberts. She sings and I do guitar/banjo/backing vocals. It's mainly alt.country and old-time folk at this stage with some Sufjan Stevens, Ryan Adams amd Gillian Welch tunes thrown in amongst others.
News on our first live show soon...
I'd like to meet:
CELLARDOOR LIVE CD2
You'll find recordings by kidofdoom, Wild eyes, Taxi Violence, Dirty Skirts, Eat This Horse, Hellphones, Sick-Leaves, Martin Rocka & the Sick Shop, Harris Tweed, Japan & I, Jim Neversink, Devil's Cartel plus an exclusive live version of 'Girls for satan' by The Diesel Whores.
Bonus tracks include Me & Martin playing with Jim Neversink (Delia's gone) and Harris Tweed (Henry Lee) plus the King Of Town & Sassquatch remix of kidofdoom.
CELLARDOOR CD1 still available at good music stores
It's packed with top tunes played and broken at the club since the start. It features Interpol, Pipettes, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah!, Bravery, LCD Soundsystem, Death in Vegas, Hot Chip, Kaiser Chiefs, Pink Mountaintops, Goldfrapp, Primal Scream, Organ, To La Tengo, Broken Social Scene and Bloc Party to name a few. As always, classic artwork from the steady hand of one Fiona adorns the album.
Music:
Too much to mention...Very broadly:
Indie & Alternative, Folk & Bluegrass and some old time Country, 60's Girl Groups, Rockabilly, Motown/STAX/Chess, odd Japanese Pop/Punk/Experimental, 80's Electro & Hi-Energy, early House & Disco, old School Dub & Reggae, 50's & 60's Surf Music, depressing Classical Music (Preisner, Gorecki, Barber), some Jazz like John Zorn, Count Basie and Charlie Haden as well as discovering amazing old stuff like Big Star, Love, Trashmen, Scott Walker, Hazil Adkins, Karen Dalton, Jimmy Reed and Rev. Gary Davis.
On the iPod:
Adam Kesher
Black Devil Disco Club
Glimmers Fabric Live mix
Digitalism
Love Of Diagrams
Blanche
National
On the turntables:
PJ Harvey - Peel Sessions
Califone
Arthur Russel
Shangri Las
Stooges
Jah Division - Dub versions of the classics
I'm one half of MIA, the company that represents Sub Pop, Thrill Jockey, Secretly Canadian, Light In The Attic, Yep Rock, Loose Records, Smithsonian Folkways, Acoustic Disc, New West, Evangaline and High-Tone Records in South Africa
Movies:
Donnie Darko, Twin Peaks FWWM, Mulholland Drive, Wild At Heart, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Straight Story, Memento, Crash (both of them), Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Faust, Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb, Star Wars, Lost In Translation, Once Were Warriors, Snatch, Godfather Trilogy, Goodfellas, Last Exit To Brooklyn, Taxi Driver, Jacob's Ladder, Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner, Proposition, Walk The Line, Citizen Kane, Heat, Copland, Clockwork Orange, Platoon, Spinal Tap, Green Mile, Thumbsucker, Usual Suspects, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Nightmare Before Christmas, American Beauty, River's Edge, Badlands, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, 1984, A Mighty Wind, Best In Show...
Three movies I really didn't get/enjoy that everyone else seems to love were Dogville, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind and Sin City. Beautifully shot, but...
Television:
Six Feet Under (RIP), Twin Peaks, Big Love, Sopranos, The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Carnivale, Thin Blue Line, Extras, South Park, Simpsons, Fawlty Towers, West Wing, Office (BBC), Top Gear, Silent Witness, Dalziel & Pascoe, Long Firm, Stars In Their Eyes, Blackpool, Monty Python.
The Eurovision Song Contest (BBC Prime in May) is one of the funniest shows to watch, especially if you get commentary by Terry Wogan.
Books:
George Orwell, JD Salinger, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Chuck Palahniuk, Phillip K Dick, Edward De Bono, Nick Hornsby, Jessica Mitford & Thomas Lynch (wrote books on the funeral business that inspired the TV series 6 Feet Under).
Books on my favourite films/scripts/TV/Directors as above.
Graphic novels/comics like Sandman, Lucifer, Blankets, Preacher, Strangehaven, Maus, New Statesmen, Lobo, 2000AD, Slaine.
Music related biographies, essays and reference books like Hitmen, This Business of Music, Seven Years of Plenty, Great Psychedelic Encycopedia, How Hits Happen and such.
Heroes:
Fi, Jed & Dev (a miracle baby and a fighter!)
Alan Ball, Andrew Weatherall, David Lynch, Will Oldham, Steve Albini, David Chase, Ian Curtis, Harry Smith
