Reading, writing, music, coffee, swimming, watermelons, Irn-Bru, cat portals, Klaus Kinski, people, Peckham, pak choi, Werner Herzog, punk/post-punk, shoes, Richard Brautigan, woodlands, fish(ing), foxes, Tapper Zukie, running, Caught By The River, mountains, dub, Nation Of Ulysses, boxing, Axl Rose's cornrows, imaginary bodies of water, The Mars Volta, ropey indie bands, Durham, Knut Hamsun, eating, politics, British Sea Power, London, seismic vibrations, Minor Threat, the way that city foxes look at you like you're a chicken wing in in the street after midnight.
Music
This is the list of bands I hope will somehow make me look cool. It's a tall order, but here we go: British Sea Power. Nation Of Ulysses. PiL. Nick Drake. At The Drive-In. The Mars Volta. Gogol Bordello. Circle Jerks. The Teardrop Explodes. Guns N Roses. The King Blues. Biffy Clyro. The Fall. MIA. Circulus. Fugazi. Dizzee Rascal. The Slits. Wu Tang Clan. Suicide. Bert Jansch. Ol Dirty Bastard. Zero Boys. Manic Street Preachers. Minor Threat. Davey Graham. King Tubby. Weird War. Dead Kids. Black Flag. Buzzcocks. Can. Refused. Chrome Hoof. Bad Brains. Pentangle. Gallows. Lee 'Scratch' Perry. Amon Duul II. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Angry Samoans. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. Incredible String Band. Thistletown. The Kinks. Ewan MacColl. Teardrop Explodes. Girls Against Boys. Desaparecidos. The Make-Up. Pentangle. The (International) Noise Conspiracy. John Coltrane. Rancid. Gang Of Four. NOFX. Simon And Garfunkel. Mogwai. My Bloody Valentine. System Of A Down. Dillinger Escape Plan. 13th Floor Elevators. Gray Matter.
Movies
A Room for Romeo Brass, If..., Naked, Fitzcaraldo, Oh! Lucky Man, Aguirre: Wrath Of God, Carlito's Way, Dead Man's Shoes, Donnie Brasco, Rumblefish, A Clockwork Orange, This Is England, Withnail And I, The Outsiders, Twenty Four Seven, Meantime, The Warriors, Made In England.
Television
Gash.
Books
I like these writers: Knut Hamsun, Richard Brautigan, Jack London, Li Po, Henry Miller, John Fante, Mikhail Bulgakov, Henry David Thoreau, Dan Fante, George Mackay Brown, Charles Bukowksi, Jim Carroll, Pedro Juan Gutierrez, Jim Carroll, Dennis Cooper, Harold Norse, William S. Burroughs, Roger Deakin, David Peace, Cormac MacCarthy, Chris Yates, Roald Dahl, Edwin Morgan, Jim Dodge, Gordon Burn, Bret Easton Ellis, R. Crumb, Etgar Keret, Kurt Vonnegut, Tony O'Neill, Adelle Stripe, Daniel Woodrell, Jean Genet, Brendan Behan, Travis Jeppeson, Richard Hell, Lee Rourke, Heidi James, John Rechy, Chris Killen, Mike Topp, Brendan Behan, Frank O'Hara, Simon Armitage, Willy Vlautin, Jack Kerouac, Ian Svenonius, Yukio Mishima, Billy Childish, ee cummings, Matthew Coleman, Alisdair Grey, Julian Cope, Dennis Cooper, Halldor Laxness, Travis Jeppesen, Edward Bunker, Hubert Selby Jr, Albert Camus. And then some.
Writer of words. Sceptre of the city. Incorrigible blaggard.
I have written books of fiction, books of poetry, books of fact and books of slander. Many of them are available in the shops.
Publications I have written for include Mojo, The Guardian, Melody Maker, Bizarre, Kerrang!, Mojo, The Quietus.com, 3AM Magazine, Q, Alternative Press (US), Arena, Shortlist, Arena, Time Out, Loose Lips Sink Ships, Playlouder.com, Plan B , Record Collector and quite a few more.
For information about my novels, biographies, forthcoming fiction / anthology appearances, articles and some random thoughts about foxes and watermelons why not visit:
www.benmyersmanofletters.blogspot.com
www.iaxl.blogspot.com
Some press quotes...
“There's no denying the abundant energy, passion and pleasingly warped imagination of Ben Myers” – The Guardian
“Something odd but irresistible that’s both poetry and prose…yet neither one nor the other.” – Time Out
“So self-aware you’d think he had spent ten years on a Tibetan mountain” – Rock Sound
Praise for The Brutalist poets (Ben Myers, Adelle Stripe, Tony O’Neill)
“This series of blank verse ruminations on the horrors of small town living are among the most open and direct poems in circulation today." - The Roundtable Review
"Remembering has rarely been so rewarding ..like postcards from places you’ve been to but long since forgotten"
- Shortlist magazine
"These are poems for the modern generation; they thrust the underbelly of Britain that we all try so desperately to ignore straight in our faces.” - Caught in the Crossfire
Chicks dig scars, everyone knows that, right? Meet Severence DeSnappio, a man who creates ‘fake’ injuries for desperate clients. He’ll get you a stab wound, shot gun blast, snowboarding injury - but a bite from a great white shark?
Set in Miami, Chicks Dig scars is a lyrical, Lynchian mix of dream logic and hard boiled detection.
Greetings from Brisbane, Australia. Just thought I'd drop by and say hi. I must say that your taste in music - and literature, for that matter- is impeccable. Which is most probably the reason I'm sending this.
hello untypical one! thanks for being a pal. Join us in celebrating the 30-year anniversary of Cut with this upcoming official book about The Slits - 'Typical Girls?' You can pre-order it at a great discount (from Amazon). Huzzah! love und romanze, zoe x
I have just read your reviews in a well known music magazine - one of my vices is the obsessive reading of the music press - great stuff - keep up the good work Ben!
That's insane! I have dreams like that sometimes. Always good to see Chris Palmer making an appearance. I remember a great scene from Catterick, in the hotel bar, Chris 'performs'. Announcer- 'Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Chris Palmer and his dreams of parsimony' Cue Chris in a green jumpsuit playing the flute on one leg, amazing.
..
