Kevin Phillips

Canadian filmmaker William Phillips makes his feature debut with this psychological thriller about an ad exec, a gang of juvenile thugs, and a really big tree. Murray Roberts (David Hewlett) is an up-and-coming salesman for an advertising company who, while strolling in a city park one day, encounters a 14-year-old mugger named Carter (Kevin Duhaney). Being a life-long alpha male, Roberts refuses to play the victim and a tussle ensues. The lad's comrades in crime emerge from the surrounding trees and soon Roberts is forced to flee. He eventually finds refuge in the higher branches of a rather large tree. The gang members, led by the charismatic Shark (Clé Bennett), lay siege. A battle of wills and wits ensues between the adman and the gangster. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival.

Given all that Kevin Coyne went on to achieve in his own right, his apprenticeship in Siren remains just that, a learning curve that brought out only occasional flashes of his later acerbity, while the band blues-boogied along behind him. But what flashes they are, from the effortless churn of "Relaxing With Bonnie Lou," with its invocation of Coyne's later "Eastbourne Ladies" shamelessly doing the can-can behind it, to the Stax-y soul of the title track, an R&B shouter in everything but the R&B…

During the years 1994-1996 Time-Life produced a CD & Magazine called "Grooves". Veteran New York City DJ Vin Scelsa was given full control of the project, and a total of 14 wonderful issues were produced. They each highlighted Vin's selections of the best tracks from the best new albums/artists of the time. In addition, the last track on every CD was a bonus acoustic track by one of the featured artists recorded in the studio just for "Grooves". It was the next best thing to listening to Vin's radio show, "Idiot's Delight".

Before beginning his career as a solo artist, Kevin Coyne was the centerpiece of Siren. The group recorded two albums in the late '60s and early '70s for Dandelion, the British underground-oriented indie run by DJ John Peel. The paths that Coyne would follow on his many solo albums are much in evidence in Siren's work, which spotlight his pained, scraggly, and soulful vocals, as well as his funny, sometimes bitter lyrics…