Tag: John Jervis

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the chickfactor best of 2025 lists: round two

Bridget St. John playing at chickfactor’s Mon Gala Papillons at London’s Bush Hall, 2004. Photo: Gail O’Hara

Bridget St. John: many things I adore 2025

• my three cats – ever loving ever grateful

• the 30+ sparrows who gather beneath my window every morning for black sunflower seeds – ever thankful

• recording and then performing with Wilie Aron, Emily Wittbrodt & David Nagler at The Bitter End

• the FolkEast Festival – such a generous vibe…meeting Sandy Denny’s daughter, Georgia…playing with Jon Wilks… hanging with Diana Matheou… and in the company of my daughter and niece

• attending a Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game

• playing The Chapel, SF, and McCabes, Santa Monica, during the April tour with Evie Sands and her stellar band

Jim + cat

Jim Ruiz

The 7 foster kittens and their mother who tore up both our house, and our hearts, last summer. 

Bunty – mother (née Lee Wiley)

Louis Armstrong (pictured)

Frank Sinatra

Gladys (née Blossom Dearie)

Chet Baker

Billie Holiday

Hoagy Carmichael

Bing Crosby

John Jervis – WIAIWYA

Sarah Cronin – Sarah’s death cast a large shadow over an already shadowy year, terrible and unfair and a huge loss… I suspect this won’t be the only time she is mentioned in this year’s lists, as is only right and proper.

Poker Face – Columbo meets the Littlest Hobo starring a live action version of the girl from Brave, and who could ask for anything more. It’s great!

Italian exploitation soundtracks- Still banging on about these, especially those that live in the creepy house between disco and krautrock, with Edda Dell’Orso preempting Liz Fraser in the flat upstairs – there’s a massive (it’s about 8 hours at the moment) playlist here for anyone interested (sorry for big green music machine link)

New music from old bands – Pulp! Stereolab! Allo Darlin! All still wonderful and so much easier than hunting down new bands that sound a bit like them… and new Heavenly next year too!

True Grit Texture Supply – essential and ubiquitous brushes, tools and effects for your graphics package – have spent a LOT of fun hours playing in that sandpit this year

Plumbers- this year I found a good, reliable, affordable plumber and heating engineer- cannot be overstated.

Sade – I love Sade.

Biscuits – yes, biscuits – they are brilliant, especially the cheap own brand ones – what are your favourites? Drop a couple of packs into your basket next time you go for a big shop, and treat yourself when you get home – you deserve it (unless you are a fascist, a billionaire, or a POS PUSA – then you don’t)

Mike Slumberland: Here’s my top ten listens of 2025

Dead Famous People – Wild Young Ways (Tiny Global Productions)

Galore – Dirt (Speakeasy Studios)

Makaya McCraven – Off The Record (International Anthem)

Mitch Murder X Pizza Hotline – Anti Gravity Tournament (WRWTFWW)

Natural Information Society – Perseverance Flow (Eremite)

Paper Jam – This And That (self-released)

Saint Etienne – International (Heavenly)

Sault – 10 (Forever Living Originals)

Satoshi Tomiie & Tuccillo – Delta Dubs (20:20 Vision)

Viola Klein – New Chapter (Meakusma)

Brian Nelson (Black Tambourine, Velocity Girl) 

Graphic Novels, Comics, & Books of 2025 (with no particular order or emphasis)

Gilmore Tamny (Weather Weapon, The Mystery, The Yips) 
These are things that interested and engaged me this year, which I’d recommendo. Some of them came out in 2025, some of them I just discovered this year. No particular order.

TV

  • Who Hired the Hitman
  • The Lowdown
  • Hacks
  • The Diplomat
  • Unknown Number: The High School Catfish
  • Heated Rivalry
  • An Update on Our Family
  • Pokerface
  • Mo
  • The Task
  • The Righteous Gemstones
  • Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke
  • The Pitt

MOVIES/SPECIALS

  • The Perfect Neighbor
  • Deaf President Now!
  • Taurasi
  • Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery
  • Fairyland
  • The Wedding Banquet
  • Come See Me in the Good Light
  • The Baltimorons
  • PostMortem, Sarah Silverman
  • Why Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Is America, Josh Johnson
  • Happy Gilmore II
  • Sorry Baby
  • The Secret Agent

MUSIC/LIVE PERFORMANCE
oof I need to listen to more music, BUT songs I found and liked very much this year and a few live shows:

  • Manchild, Sabrina Carpenter
  • Hold On, Ngozi Family
  • Denial is a River, Doechii
  • Chappell Roan generally
  • Scrawl
  • Ben Hersey, Non-Event show
  • Major Stars release show for More Colors of Sound
  • Ravon Chacon performance, ICA

SOCIALS

TIKTOK

·      abbey.joselyn

·      doggystylinguk

·      kobimcnutt

·      nicoleolived

·      noodyxbums

·      ship_spotting_

·      journeyofjackson

·      yoleendadong

·      dpeezy2099

·      oceanscary4K

·      notoriouscree

INSTA

  • koreydior_
  • olya_with_squirrel
  • african_brutalism

PATREON

  • Christine Mcconells
  • The Cottage Fairy

YOUTUBIO

  • Broadway Barbara
  • That Practical Mom
  • Red Squirrel Studios (for cat enrichment–top notch)

BOOKS (all audiobooks FWIW)

  • The Unfinished Harauld Hughes, Richard Ayoade
  • Spent a Comic Novel, Alison Bechdel
  • The Dead of Winter: Beware the Krampus and Other Wicked Christmas Creatures, Sarah Clegg
  • Birnam Wood, A Novel, Eleanor Catton
  • History Lessons, Zoe B. Wallbrook
  • We Solve Murders, Richard Osman
  • Heartwood, Amity Gage
  • Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man), Jesse Q. Sutanto
  • Generation Darkness, Elizabeth Hand
  • King of Ashes, S.A. Cosby
  • Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Rufi Thorpe
  • Sociopath, Patric Gagne
  • Rental House, Weike Wang
  • Havoc, Christpoher Bollen
  • Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner
  • Perfume and Pain, Anna Dorn
  • Glory Daze, Danielle Arceneaux

PODCAST

  • The Rest is Entertainment (I listened to nearly every single episode)
  • The White Pube
  • Crissle’s Couch
  • The Art Angle
  • Waldy and Bendy
  • Grits and Eggs Podcast (have not kept up but love what I heard)
  • Darknet Diary (selective listening but some NUTS stories)
  • Wisecrack
  • Scamanda
  • The Read
  • I need to listen to AudioFlux
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chickfactor lists 2024: round one

James McNew (Yo La Tengo, Dump)

Caley Conway, Partner
Refrigerator, Get Lost
Jeff Parker, The Way Out Of Easy
Mountain Movers, Walking After Dark
The Special Pillow, Meets The Space Monster
Little Hag, Now That’s What I Call Little Hag
Daga Voladora, Los Manantiales
Shady Cove, Part II
Oneida, Expensive Air
Cornelius, Ethereal Essence
Roger Moutenot, Microcosm
Ava Mendoza, The Circular Train
David Nance, David Nance & Mowed Sound
Alan Sparhawk, White Roses My God
Tim Heidecker, Slipping Away
Alan Licht, Havens
Julie Beth Napolin, Only The Void Stands Between Us


Mark Robinson (Teen-Beat Records, Cotton Candy)
Kali Malone, All Life Long (record)
Miranda July, All Fours (book)
Kim Gordon, The Collective (record)
Ruben Pater, Caps Lock (book)
hollAnd, Green Text (record)
Katherine Small Gallery (store)
White Manna, Hackensack, NJ (restaurant)
Henry Smith, Film No.18 (Mahagonny) (film)
Bakar, Halo (record)
Escape-ism Black Gold (record)
Mount Kimbie, The Sunset Violent (record)
Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga, The Courage to Be Disliked (book)
King Krule, Shhhhhhhh! (record)

Papa Slumber’s Top Ten Listens of 2024 (Slumberland Records)
Ability II – Rediscovered (I9M)
Autocamper – Blanche (Safe Suburban Home)
Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes – Janice Long Session 11.11.86 (Precious)
Shabaka Hutchings – Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (Impulse!)
Rachel Love – Lyra (The Cat Collects)
The Moment of Nightfall & Tony Jay – Winter Dream (Kilikilivilla)
Sharp Pins – Radio DDR (Sharp Pins)
Nala Sinephro – Endlessness (Warp)
The Softies – The Bed I Made (Father/Daughter)
v/a – Lost Paradise: Blissed Out Breakbeat Hardcore 1991-94 (Blank Mind)

John Jervis (WIAIWYA Records)

I’m not going to get any less angry, so here we go:

Fanzines – loads of brilliant photos, pictures and writing, perhaps replacing record sales. Maybe we all need to evolve…

Clairo – get the latest lp if you haven’t already..
now..
really, are you still here?…
go… get the latest Clairo album, come back, read on…
Do not read on without that Clairo lp
YOU GOT IT? Ok, read on

Heavenly – they have returned just when we need them the most – May I be among the first to solemnly declare allegiance to the flag of FUCK YOU NO WAY

Saturday Night Fever – seen for the first time in 2024, after nearly fifty years of being told “it’s not what you think it is” it wasn’t what I thought it was. Led to me listening to a LOT of disco, good and bad, and buying a LOT of paint.

Italian exploitation soundtracks of the 70’s – turns out it’s the best music there is

Despair  – we did our best, it was fun while it lasted, but the cunts have been voted in, promoting the far right, buying politicians and media networks – but remember everyone who didn’t vote for it, we stand together, we are here for each other. I don’t know what it means, but if there is anything I can help with I am here – wiaiwya on most media (fuck you billionaires, we will use your networks while we can) – please get in touch – we are here for each other…

The future – it is ours… it has to be.

FUCK YOU NO WAY

Can you say cunt in America? Hope you can’t and you will anyway- because he is one!

Happy literal Christmas!

Theresa Kereakes (photographer, historian, documenter) 

Some books from 2024 that I have read/am reading and thoroughly enjoy – not in hierarchical order, but I do love Joni Mitchell more than most things:

• Traveling on the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers is my fave of the new books I’ve purchased this year because, well, Joni. There is not a wasted syllable in it, and the “traveling” and “path” is an extended metaphor for both Joni and author Ann Powers.

• How Women Made Music includes two photographs by me, but that’s not why I love it. It is an important reference work of NPR dispatches with thorough curation by Alison Fensterstock. I have lost track of how many people who have received this book from me as a gift. If you still haven’t gifted anyone anything yet – I highly suggest How Women Made Music. And sharing good reads isn’t just for Christmas or year-end lists.

• In Under a Rock, Blondie’s co-founder, Chris Stein delivers a delightful valentine to the NYC of his youth. It’s no wonder Blondie was a pioneering musical project.  I wish that NYC still existed.

• The surrealist next door, my former neighbor and lifetime icon of pop surrealism, Robyn Hitchcock also paints a picture of his Groover origin story in 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left.  He made a companion album to go along with it, which is a fave listen as well.

• The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture.  I lived in NYC for 20 years, but I read the Village Voice long before and long after I lived there. What a fantastic biography of a print icon! Bravo Tricia Romano on your widely heralded book!

• Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum I’ve worked in television, and I grew up in Santa Barbara and witnessed the Loud family open their lives to the PBS series about them – An American Family, which was the first “reality show” in the early 1970s.  Emily Nussbaum nailed this on every point; she has been writing about television for a long, long time and deftly connects all the dots. I am a hard one to convince, since this particular example took place in my very hometown at the peak of my snarky teenage phase. Read for yourself, Emily got it right !

• Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius. I have a personal obsession with the films ISHTAR and REDS, which Elaine May wrote, and co-wrote (no on-screen credit for REDS), and so does the author Carrie Courogen who appropriately identifies Elaine May as “Hollywood’s Hidden Genius.”  This is a phenomenal effort and it places my head in a space that helps me understand why I am happy when I’m immersed in ironic satire.

Music and Film – Mostly I was underwhelmed this year – too much hype; too little deliverance.  That being said, The The in concert was impressive, with the first set being their new album, Ensoulment, and after a brief intermission, a set of hits and fan faves.  Way back in January, I saw Elvis Costello & the Imposters put on the best concert (3+ hours!!) I’ve ever seen and heard.

Read round two
Read round three
Read round four