@assistant.bandcamp.com
Jonathan tweeting. Assistant make lovely jangle pop from Brighton: Felt/Yo La Tengo/Stereolab etc. CERTAIN MEMORIES is our masterpiece; our new single is FLOWERS. Fanzines available; radio show Sundays 7pm on Untidy Radio.
I don't 'spose I heard Nirvana again 'til Teen Spirit in Sept 1991. I think I probably started growing my hair lank that day. The hit was immediate, unmistakeably vital. Why hadn't I seen it? We watched Nirvana live in Amsterdam in 91 on Youtube tonight. Oh my. I was taken right back! The best.
One day we passed a record shop and I made my dad stop - I went in and bought a live bootlegged CD of Nirvana playing songs from Bleach. I guess I couldn't play it 'til we reached our apartment in Saint-Gilles. When I did, I hated it!! It was so loud. It was heavy metal. I HATED heavy metal. [5/6]
I read about Nirvana, nirvana, nirvana. I would have taped 'Sliver' onto VHS from the Chart Show in January but I wasn't super into it - my friend Dan liked it better. I had no appetite for loud unless it was 'Drive Blind'. But all the incredible write-ups of the band that summer! V exciting [4/6]
The outlier would have been R.E.M's Out of Time, which I was obsessed with. I don't think I'd expressed any interest in any bands from America until then - but I played that album all the time. And as we trundled through France I read my Melody Makers in the car, excitable and car-sick. [3/6]
I think I'd probably have heard Bandwagonesque for the first time on that holiday. I'd have taken 30 Something & God Fodder with me but likely listened to those already. Beatsongs by the Blue Aeroplanes. From the year before Nowhere, Some Friendly, Life & Pils N Thrills, inevitably. [2/6]
In the summer of 1991 I went on a camping holiday with my parents to Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. As was my tradition, I went with a cache of about six unread Melody Makers (which I'd been saving up) and a bunch of tapes for my yellow walkman. Been working out what they would have been [1/6]
Little sneak preview of 'Late July Rainfall' - an updated version of which might well be on the next Assistant LP
soundcloud.com/assistantbri...
Pleasure! And i played Spellbinding a few weeks back too. Will make it a hat-trick before too long Iβm sure.
www.mixcloud.com/jonathanship...
Lovely stuff. Iβve got both too but never actually read much of the Megalithic European. I must!
Julian Copeβs The Modern Antiquarian - a thing of wonder
Open spread from The Modern Antiquarian. The left page features a large photograph of the Devilβs Chimney, a tall limestone rock pillar rising dramatically from scrub on Leckhampton Hill in Gloucestershire. The right page contains three smaller photographs showing prehistoric stones and dolmens set in grassy landscapes under open skies.
Open spread from The Modern Antiquarian by Julian Cope. On the left page, a chapter titled βI first saw Callanish stonesβ¦β describes Copeβs first encounter with the Neolithic stone circle on the Isle of Lewis. On the right page, a full-page colour photograph shows several tall, weathered standing stones of the Callanish complex rising against a pale blue sky, their rough surfaces glowing in warm light
Double-page illustrated map titled βThe Secret of Dunnideer β revealing the Goddess in Neolithic Aberdeenshire.β The stylised map uses warm reds, yellows and greens to depict hills, rivers and prehistoric sites around Bennachie and the River Don. Small annotations, arrows and short poetic passages guide the reader between locations such as Dunnideer, Candle Hill and Old Rayne.
Spending the evening in heavenly company tonight - a glorious big book that can always be relied upon to re-arrange my brain.
Last night's Fresh Ingredients is live here if you fancy listening back! Songs from @redcavalry.bsky.social, @somehappything.bsky.social, The Thorn, Pulp, @andrewrumsey.bsky.social, @thelovelybasement.bsky.social, Rec Centre, @theclientele.bsky.social, @cypressmine.bsky.social, Hedge Burners & more!
Catching up on Fresh Ingredients on @untidyradio.com from @assistant.bandcamp.com and realising I'm two weeks in arrears. You can listen to all 14 weeks' worth of shows here: www.mixcloud.com/jonathanship...
Got both every Xmas in Barnet, North London. Canβt imagine my childhood without them. Drawn by Dudley D. Watkins who also did Desperate Dan, which I found perplexing as a kid.
Artists reveal their thoughts in Kaleidoskop www.byte.fm 5-7 pm CET with thanks to: Alice Boyd aliceboyd.bandcamp.com | Midori Hirano via Thrill Jockey Records | The Corner Laughers via Big Stir Records | Tanya Donelly & Chris Brokaw |
βGreat catch!!β It used to drive me mad but I find it quite endearing in a way. The lengths it goes to provide an answer it thinks Iβll love!
Haha! I like your stuff! If I play you on my radio show next week do you reckon we can find a third band called Daydream/s for me to play the week after?
As you can probably imagine, I was greatly excited by this. It told me the book is called βThe Difference Between a Mountain and a Molehillβ by Ellen Dillon.
More detail in the pic.
I want to read it! Sounds right up my street.
Obviously the book doesnβt exist. Iβm being gaslit by an app. Argh
In a moment of weakness, I asked ChatGPT tonight if it knew the poet-scholar Ellen Dillon.
It told me it did! And mentioned sheβd written four books. One I know she wrote - because itβs in front of me. But it also told me she was the author of a book about Stephen Malkmus.
Cleared out lots of hooks so as to finally have some clear shelf space andβ¦. straight to the library to bring in more unneeded books
Thank you! X x
What a lovely show again Jonathan @assistant.bandcamp.com. Marvellous - thank youπππ
Cool! Will seek it out!
Tonight's #freshingredients will be published on Mixcloud tomorrow night if you missed the show and think you might like to catch up. All the shows to date are here.
mixcloud.com/jonathanshipley
Should you care to dip your toe.
OK! Seeing us out tonight is a new song by my friend @shopfiresmusic.bsky.social. It's wonderful, as usual.
"Spent the days hoping love would get us through
We know now
Love is a false pursuit
We know now"
Thanks for listening to the show tonight! Spread the word x x x
Two more songs to go tonight. This one is 'Polly and Andy' by Rec Centre, from Ontario. Very lovely! Hat tip to @joshmeadows.bsky.social who alerted me to the existence of this one. It's a treat.
reccentre.bandcamp.com/track/polly-...
Currently playing the very lovely Dayydream with 'Proximity' as my show on untidyradio.com begins to drift towards completion. Dayydream is the songwriting project of Chloe Trappes, a visual artist and musician based in Glasgow. REALLY LOVE the guitars in the run-in.
I'm sure this is a failing on my part not theirs, but I never really fell in love with Young Marble Giants the way I expected to. Maybe I will in time. Anyway, currently playing Drumbeat For Baby by Weekend from 1982 on #freshingredients - Alison Stratton's next group after YMG.
Regular listeners of my radio show will have already ticked off The Lovely Basement on their bingo card of inevitably: you can go ahead and cross off @shopfiresmusic.bsky.social & @andrewrumsey.bsky.social too - both predictably coming up on #freshingredients on untidyradio.com soon.
The last song on @redcavalry.bsky.social's LP is a stunner by the name of Bower Meadow. The band - excitingly - change up their style surprisingly in the telling. This new cover version of it is a bold shift too; it's by Dame Fawn Denier, a comedy drag act from Yorkshire. It's tender and wonferful
This @redcavalry.bsky.social song, & the LP that surrounds it, has provided me with one of the best fortnights in my recent memory - a small patch of time just utterly absorbed and thrilled by a band operating at a dazzling level. Wrote about it extensively here: