Joyous gig from The Felt Tips tonight. So much fun! @unspunheroes.com

I’ve heard a couple of tracks in an earlier state and they are absolutely brilliant - this will be one to snap up when it’s out!!

On my way to this! Very excited!

Little goodie bag for tomorrow’s The Felt Tips gig. A little Unspun Heroes freebie.

Morning Saturday morning and a huge thank you to everyone who span, downloaded, supported and talked about, not only yesterday's new CBQ release "Like a Sunday" but, also, many items from the back catalogue. CBQ continues into the future... Have a top Saturday everybody!

Bob Dylan at the Brighton Centre was truly lovely. It’s hard to create at atmosphere in a crappy aircraft hanger venue, but the lack of anything to see meant I found myself listening with my eyes shut for most of the set - accompanied by the most divine onstage chemistry.

Bob Dylan at the Brighton Centre was truly lovely. It’s hard to create at atmosphere in a crappy aircraft hanger venue, but the lack of anything to see meant I found myself listening with my eyes shut for most of the set - accompanied by the most divine onstage chemistry.

An ace day on Bandcamp!

In the words of Robert Forster, "I'll stop for petrol and I'll stop for Dylan / but that's the limit when I get moving". Off to see Bob. The greatest songwriter and the greatest pop star that ever lived. Cor! And just down the road, too.

The next issue of my In The April Sun zine is v. v. nearly done. I think it's gonna run to 56 pages this time, and 51 pages are finished, bar a gargantuan proof-read. As a teaser, here is one page of the six-page review of @glasgoespop.bsky.social

The next issue of my In The April Sun zine is v. v. nearly done. I think it's gonna run to 56 pages this time, and 51 pages are finished, bar a gargantuan proof-read. As a teaser, here is one page of the six-page review of @glasgoespop.bsky.social

Delightful news!

Because we believe in maximum transparancy / regrettable over-sharing: for a little bit, here's a rough demo of a new Assistant song. Just me on this one for now but AS and Pete will work their magic on a version in the weird future soundcloud.com/assistantbri...

What's the best way to do a radio show these days? A podcast? A global radio streaming thing? A local station?

Official video for Flowers by the wonderful Assistant @assistant.bandcamp.com. I love the sparkling guitars on this one very much. #janglepop #dreampop #BrightonandHove www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozF4...

If anyone in Brighton (or any nearby Bobcats) missed out on a Bob Dylan ticket for Friday's Brighton Centre show, I have a spare ticket on sale at face value here: secure.ticketmaster.co.uk/rs/3E0062EAB...

16. Edward Rogers: Astor Place Based in NYC, born in the Midlands, this late-career-marvel by Astor is a real charmer; can hear everything from Luke Haines to Colin Moulding to John Cale in these elaborate clever songs. Produced by Don Fleming. Terrific! edwardrogers.bandcamp.com/album/astor-...

Current reads and half-reads

Deeply pleased to see Assistant, Goodbye Wudaokou and Shapes Like People on this roundup! Thanks so much @popintherealworld.bsky.social!

There's going to be lots of ace Felt Tips related stuff in the out-soon 3rd issue of my zine, but also a lengthy digression in the album review where I talk about the time I was buried in a shallow grave & made to listen to a simulation of the sound of a fox tearing my decomposing hand from my body.

Continued from Twitter; a new thread of lovely jangle pop / indie / post punk tunes collated with the help of youtube 1. The Caretaker Race - I Wish I’d Said That (1990) —for fans of The Go-Betweens youtu.be/_neac7GCGi4?...

#RedPlanet kicks off with @ratboysband.bsky.social #Anywhere + #NP WSUM 91.7fm Madison wsum.org ratboys.bandcamp.com/track/anywhere

Remembering the old Limewire days, downloading different versions of eski beat every 24 hours youtu.be/mO3dl25gR_g?...

Share/buy this or else

There's going to be lots of ace Felt Tips related stuff in the out-soon 3rd issue of my zine, but also a lengthy digression in the album review where I talk about the time I was buried in a shallow grave & made to listen to a simulation of the sound of a fox tearing my decomposing hand from my body.

24 really good songs in this thread now. I might start a new one soon as it’s getting a bit hard to navigate?

20. Horowitz - The Boy From Whatsandwell (2009) — sounds like an indie pop Leonard Cohen — youtu.be/TQMcCYy2oaE?...

We just let our kids paint our faces. My wife won the lucky draw and got the five year old. My artist was a bit less focused.

The Assistant song ‘Flowers’ might sound simple but it has a secret chord that triggers time-travel. Watch the video, you’ll see. What joy to come unhooked and exist between the past and the present. Clips from 2005 and 2025. youtu.be/ozF4WQh6nAQ?...

There are awful lot of very polite ghosts & vampires in Brighton. We ran out of sweets v early and had to send hundreds of v reasonable visiting ghouls empty-handed. Then had a nice evening of records and reading.

Went and bought these today. The kid in the shop said “oh, thinking of getting these for MY dad”. Ouch. But Evan is a genius. There’s a beautiful piece about Evan by John Strohm of the Lemonheads/Blake’s Babies in the next issue of my zine. Out soon.

Oh look it’s exactly what we all need!!

We’re exchanging Halloween song lyric ideas on the Assistant chat

Happy Halloween! A fine excuse to dust off some classic goth tunes and pepper with new releases and some spooky numbers.. Come on over 👻

An album which absolutely deserves your time if you have a bit to spare. Really great stuff from a year or so ago. Great work by @reseraphin.bsky.social

Still not quite ready to do my albums of the year list but this’ll v likely be in the mix - the excellent Fool’s Mate by R.E Seraphin on @safesuburban.bsky.social. I wrote about its “many moments of tactile, introspective brilliance and self-awareness” here: start-track.com/album-r-e-se...

#NewMusic from @assistant.bandcamp.com – Flowers. Relive the days of C86 with this track from the Brighton trio. It's part of a split single with @goodbyewudaokou.bsky.social 🖤 www.analoguetrash.com/blog/assista...

Playlist & playback for today’s It’s a Jangle Out There. jangleoutthere.wordpress.com/2025/10/30/p... @assistant.bandcamp.com @camera-obscura.bsky.social @thelilactime.bsky.social

Extremely happy to return from a couple of days of rebalancing my father to find this lovely new 7” by boy-genius Zenxith! Thanks to the generous spirits of pop music; flowing from Newcastle to Cologne and back up to Brighton.

Assistant are 1/3 French but we don’t really know of any French indie-pop DJs or blogs! Who does? Any tips? Daft to know so little about the scene in the land of all of our dream cheese.

Listen to this!

Abridged Memories, coming to a c15 near you (soon?)

There are still 24 physical copies of our Certain Memories CD available from our pals/overlords at Subjangle. If you liked Flowers, you’ll like that LP. I really do promise! Songs about love, nostalgia and dementia. (Maybe that’s why there are 24 left). assistant.bandcamp.com/album/certai...

The @dkfm.bsky.social premier of my new single is tonight, on this spectral edition of @bellesofparis.bsky.social program. Show starts 8pm PST/11pm EST and a repeat 12 hours later. Shadows hum, guitars weep... Mixcloud edition available soon.

Be sure to take a look/listen to the latest mixtape offering from @tristesunset.bsky.social featuring the wonderful @assistant.bandcamp.com & @goodbyewudaokou.bsky.social tristesunset.com/2025/10/28/m...

With many thanks to the awesome @tristesunset.bsky.social, we (@assistant.bandcamp.com and me) have put together a mixtape covering some of the influences behind our split single. You can check it out here: tristesunset.com/2025/10/28/m...

Such a sweet review of the Goodbye Wudaokou and @assistant.bandcamp.com split from one of indie music’s international treasures: Fabrizio Lusso - a shame he’s not on BlueSky. I’ll take the David Berman reference to my grave!!

Today! Saw a seal at Cuckmere Haven and went to the library! Brills. No picture of the seal, sadly.

This John Ashbery poem is completely wonderful; the celebration of a life of motion, the acceptance of mortal concerns, the joy in chaos, and the Pulp Fiction style circular revelation. He's a poet for whom change and forward momentum is everything. Love love love. www.nybooks.com/articles/197...

My children are very excited about Halloween and acting like very spooky little individuals. So here we are - not much spookiness in the Assistant back catalogue but this one is called Ghosts. youtu.be/MlIxatvrfZ8?...