Taste Test: Mike Noga

THE FIRST ALBUM I BOUGHT WITH MY OWN MONEY
The first album I ever purchased with my very own, hard-earned coins (from mowing the lawn, no less. As a side note, when I was really young my uncle told me that you could eat grass so I went out and filled up a bowl from the lawn and sat down and ate the whole thing. No one paid me for that effort though) was Run DMC's Tougher Than Leather on cassette. “Pretty cool,” I hear you say? Yes, yes it was. Unfortunately all cool points will be instantly rendered useless by my answer to your 'first gig I ever attended' question, Read on.

THE ALBUM I'M LOVING RIGHT NOW
I'm quite a latecomer to Harry Nilsson, hence I have been giving his Nilsson Schmilsson album a bit of a burl. Watched a doco on a plane recently about him. Interesting chap. Strange life. Amazing work ethic. Great sense of humour. Naughty boy. Apart from that I normally survive on a steady diet of Bob Dylan and ABC Classic FM. I'm working on a new solo album and when you're in the midst of doing that you end up listening to nothing but your own demos. It's horrible and narcissistic but necessary. Then when it comes time to head into a studio and put the tracks down properly you suffer from what is commonly referred to as 'ilikethedemobetteritis'. An affliction where you are CONVINCED the demos you did months earlier sound infinitely better than the more 'hi-fi' versions you're currently laying down. You are always wrong.

MY FAVOURITE PARTY ALBUM
I don't have a favourite party album, per se. But I do have certain songs I like to dance a jig to: Jockey Full Of Bourbon – Tom Waits; Mess Around – Ray Charles; Misty Mountain Hop – Led Zeppelin; 100 Miles & Runnin' – NWA;  Ball Of Confusion – The Temptations; Just A Gigolo – Louis Prima; and Kenny Loggins' Footloose are all songs that I have been known to throw shapes to. I dance very well and am often told by my girlfriend that I “could have been a dancer”. I don't think she means it as a compliment… but I pretend she does.

MY FAVOURITE COMEDOWN ALBUM
I don't listen to music when I'm coming down. I see it out via a strict regime of watching Wifeswap UK, Come Dine With Me (again, the UK version. Infinitely better) and Toddlers & Tiaras, whilst all the while perusing the menu for the La Porchetta down the road.

THE MOST SURPRISING RECORD IN MY COLLECTION
Although not technically mine, Justin Timberlake's first album is floating around our house and the first two tracks off that have been known to mysteriously make their way onto the stereo. The production is tight and punchy and wonderful. The grooves are plentiful. And the singing is spot on. Fuck you. Shut up.

THE FIRST GIG I EVER ATTENDED
Jimmy Barnes' Soul Deep tour. Derwent Entertainment Centre. Hobart. Fuck off. I went and saw Cold Chisel a few months back and they were absolutely amazing and Jimmy Barnes' voice was incredible. So there.

THE WEIRDEST GIG EXPERIENCE I'VE HAD
Over the years with The Drones I've been fortunate to play some pretty far-flung and far-out places so it's quite difficult to pick one. Playing at 2am in BROAD daylight inside the Arctic Circle in Tromso, Norway was rather odd. Having Drones guitarist Dan Luscombe render me unconcious by throwing my snare drum very high into the air only to watch it crash down precisely on my noggin, knocking me of my drum stool and inflicting a brutal case of concussion was also 'weird'. I did a solo tour of Guatemala a few years back and the local residents of one of the tiny villages around Lake Atitlan built a stage for me on the side of a volcano out of bamboo overlooking the lake and lugged a PA and a generator up through the jungle for me to play through. The whole thing was lit by flaming torches and the villagers all sat below me on the mountain while I played my songs and pretended I was a kind of folk guitar-playing Indiana Jones. That too was weird. And wonderful.

THE COOLEST PERSON I'VE EVER MET
Can't tell you that. But I can tell you the coolest person I've ever STALKED – Jim Jarmusch at the ATP Festival in upstate NY. I won't go into details but let's just say a rather drunk Mike touched him inappropriately and accidentally followed him around afterwards. It was a complete misunderstanding and all charges have been dropped, thank god. Oh, I met Henry Winkler once in a Seattle hotel too. The Fonz.

THE BIGGEST CELEBRITY CRUSH I'VE HAD
Much to the disdain of my fellow Drones, I've had a very large crush on Meryl Streep for as long as I can remember. And not just young, spunky Meryl. I even feel funny when I see old, grandmother Meryl. Is that weird? It is, isn't it?

IF I COULD HANG OUT IN ANY TIME AND PLACE IN HISTORY
I'm just back from living in London for four months. I finally fell in love with the place and its remarkable history. Spent my days trying to find the oldest pub in town and looking for remnants of Roman ruins (they named it Londininium, did you know that?). I became quite obsessed. Perhaps I would like to go back in time and live in 1600s London. I would wander around in a drunk and lecherous fashion selling onions then totally get the plague and die in a massive fire. My dream come true.

IF I WASN'T MAKING MUSIC
I would dress in tracksuit pants each day and have much longer and greasier hair and a very strange beard and live with my mum on the Gold Coast and sell drugs out of her front room and look foward to going to the shopping mall for a Wendy's hotdog each afternoon and have friends with names like Jezza and Chippo and listen to nothing but Eminem and play Call Of Duty on the PlayStation all day and probably be very happy, far less anxious and quite content.