1. What's your favorite band?
current: Yo La Tengo of all time: maybe The Band or Jefferson Airplane (difficult choice...)

2. Do you play an instrument?
a few, drums with some distinction

3. Sing?

kinda sorta

4. Write lyrics?
very few but that's because I want them to be good.

5. Have you ever slept with a drummer?
not to my knowledge

6. What's the coolest concert you've ever attended?
Randy Newman with orchestra directed by his uncle, circa '74 in Philadelphia

7. Who's the most skilled guitarist of all time?
it is such a versatile instrument and "skill" is so vague... still, a few contenders: Django Reinhardt, Ry Cooder, Fred Frith

8. Name a song that just makes you want to break shit.
I prefer to build things and lots of music makes me want to build instruments. Sometimes a song will make me want to smash the radio, though...

9. Name three musicians who died of drug overdoses.
that is so uninteresting to me, some of the best and some of the worst musicians I can think of have/had drug or alcohol problems and it just doesn't line up with my enjoyment of their music.

10. What's the best lyric ever written?
"Sun like a bubble,
POP!
yellow, down she go"
from Beefheart's "Bellerin' Plain"

11. If you could experience one band/artist perform live at any point in history, who?
I wish I could have been along with Ornette Coleman on his visit with the Master Musicians of Jajouka. Alternatively, seeing Muddy Waters in Chicago around 1950 would be a blast!

12. If you could master any instrument, which would it be?
Brazillian surdo, bass drum played with two hands but one mallet

13. If you had the power to rid the world of one genre of music, what would be gone?
I'd rather steer certain styles, like getting Merengue to slow down and find its deeper groove instead of the flattened out 2 step it becomes at excessive velocities.

14. What song do you have playing right now?
"En El Cachumbbambe" by Orquesta Revé

15. Greatest album in the history of time?
I usually identify this as Aretha's Spirit in the Dark but The Minutemen's Double Nickles on the Dime is extremely important to me, too...

16. Is Elvis still The King?
never was in my book, but then I hate royalty

17. What's your favourite musical?
I'm quite ignorant of Broadway. I was very touched by Across the Universe, though.

18. When you hear the phrase "Rock 'N' Roll" what comes to mind?
Neil's "Prisoners Of Rock 'n' Roll"

19. Ever wanted to be a DJ?
I've done it a bit at parties and had fun. I was flattered when once told I should do a radio show but I don't think I have the dedication for a regular gig like that.

20. If you could sleep with any famous musician, who would it be?
My wife Sue Garner should be a lot more famous than she is. Queen Latifah is a very attractive person but I don't know if I'm her type and then there's that royalty thing...