Benjamin Myers Jesus Christ Kinski BLOOMSBURY Deranged and mesmerising. For those who have lost faith that the novel can do new things; for those who want to read a novel that is as close to experiencing watching a Herzog film as it is possible to get on the page, Jesus Christ Kinski is a masterpiece of suffocation and an unrelenting trip into the monomania of an unhinged and dangerous and damaged outsider artist. It restored our faith that fiction can still go to places where other art forms fear to tread.

Brian Eno and Beatie Wolfe Liminal VERVE Have we started to take Eno for granted? Perhaps this, the last in a magnificent trilogy of releases with Wolfe in 2025, has been slightly overlooked because it was the third to arrive, late in the year. Melancholy and elegiac chamber pop of the most haunting kind, Liminal has echoes of Spacemen 3 in their tender bluesy iteration. Perhaps Eno’s collaboration with the visionary artist Wolfe is his most exciting for almost fifty years, since his work with Cluster. Proof that some of the best avant garde music is affirmative, melodic and completely transcendent.

We announced our books and records of 2025 earlier this week, in no particular order, but now we're proud to reveal our #1 picks: Jesus Christ Kinski by @benjaminmyers76.bsky.social, and Liminal, by Brian Eno and Beatie Wolfe. Sending thanks and love to all authors and artists on the lists!

"Keshed hums with the vitality of lived and hard won experience that only fiction of the most transcendent kind can deliver. Channeling Bukowski, Denis Johnson and Selby Jr in a Yorkshire patois of brutal authenticity......

Limited to 500 copies signed hardback edition of Boyhood @whiterabbitbks.bsky.social comes with a gorgeous art print of the cover shot by legendary photographer Douglas Corrrance. Get in there: geni.us/Boyhood

Had a blast touring Boyhood around our favourite booksellers in Glasgow and Edinburgh over the last few days. Thank you all for bringing the magic and enthusiasm. What a vibe x

@whiterabbitbks.bsky.social

Lee Brackstone reflects on how #AndrewWeatherall led bandmates Gary Burns and Jagz Kooner on a determined excursion through the twinkling, psychedelic sonic margins

#TheSabresOfParadise - Sabresonic and Haunted Dancehall are tQ's Reissues of the Week

buff.ly/ck4saIH

Always a tough afternoon in the David Cameron household I imagine

Delighted to announce a special guest joining us for our BASE NOTES night @thesociallondon.bsky.social, as we celebrate Adelle Stripe's memoir... also appearing will be @wednesdayerskin.bsky.social!

10 Feb, tickets from thesocial.seetickets.com/event/adelle...

The jokey flippant lads down the pub way @bbcradio4.bsky.social Today programme is covering Trump Day One is perhaps the most worrying indication of how the creep of fascism is now officially in the room. Grow up.

I’m going to be doing an event on Saturday with Billy Childish for @citylightsbooks.bsky.social, speaking with the great Guy Picciotto of Fugazi. 11 AM PT/2 PM ET/7 PM GMT. All welcome. Billy Childish & Guy Picciotto: rare meeting of minds…

Flyer for an author/music event featuring Joel Gion of the Brian Jones Massacre discussing hai memoir In The Jingle Jangle Jungle with Will Hodgkinson. Event is on 17 February at Walthamstow Trades Hall DJs include Jim Jones and Lee Brackstone. Event organised by the Rock ‘n’ Roll Book Club

NEW EVENT
JOEL GION: IN THE JINGLE JANGLE JUNGLE
📅 17 Feb Walthamstow
In conversation with @willhodgkinson.bsky.social
Tickets:🎟️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1156027733... @whiterabbitbks.bsky.social @leebrackstone.bsky.social

Tambourines at the ready people, Joel Gion is heading to Walthamstow...

Celebrating his acclaimed book IN THE JINGLE JANGLE JUNGLE in paperback with @rnrbook-club.bsky.social, in conversation with @willhodgkinson.bsky.social + guest DJs

Tickets on sale now eventbrite.co.uk/e/joel-gion-...

Judging by my inbox over the past six months, I predict that come July 2025 there will be more books in the market dedicated to Oasis than Shakespeare and The Beatles combined.

Nonfiction to look out for in 2025 From a river voyage with Robert Macfarlane to Helen Garner’s candid tale of a broken marriage, via Ian Leslie’s analysis of Lennon and McCartney’s complicated kinship, here are the titles you can’t af...

Nonfiction to look out for in 2025...

Very nice to see Base Notes getting a shoutout here, Adelle Stripe's 'olfactory account of growing up in the north of the 1980s' - out next month

www.theguardian.com/culture/2024...

Incredible comp @acerecords.bsky.social

Gonna watch Groundhog Day. Again.

First epiphany of 2025: find a jacket as cool as Dick Van Dyck’s in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Wasn’t it. Solidarity brother x

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Will be reporting to the Committee for Crimes Against Confectionary in due course

Nice to see Mopn’s book there mate. I’ll send you the new Keenan early in the New Year

Yes the 1914 Xmas Day football match was an extraordinary thing but nowhere near as big an achievement as getting two teenage girls to join you on a dog walk on Boxing Day

Principal Xmas gifts: a bottle of mescal, three classic albums, and a rowing machine. Will start with the mescal and work my way up. Christmas as a mid-life miniature

A gala pie is an upgrade

Theme from ''Hill Street Blues'' (feat. Larry Carlton) Mike Post, Larry Carlton · Television Theme Songs · Song · 2005

RIP Alfredo, Balearic legend open.spotify.com/track/51p3jv...

I think we can all amicably agree in the spirit of goodwill to all men that the debate about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie can and should be retired forever now. Thanks and Merry Xmas

Two copies of The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club, by Richard Foster

Two copies of The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club, by Richard Foster. With a postcard of an etching of a tern

Two copies of The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club, by Richard Foster. Showing inner flaps.

Here it is - my new book, by @ortacpress.bsky.social - it’s lovely.

Jeremy Cooper / Brian Naomi Wood / This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things Annie Jacobsen / Nuclear War: A Scenario Sunjeev Sahota / The Spoiled Heart Claire Dederer / Monsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People? Richard Flanagan / Question 7 Rose Cartwright / The Maps We Carry Dorian Lynskey / Everything Must Go Chimene Suleyman / The Chain Alan Moore / The Great When Marieke Lucas Reijneveld / My Heavenly Favourite Hanif Kureishi / Shattered Jon Savage / The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture Tom Newlands / Only Here, Only Now Patrick Clarke / Bedsit Land: The Strange Worlds of Soft Cell Kristin Hersh / The Future of Songwriting Lewis Baston / Borderlines Garth Greenwell / Small Rain Will Hodgkinson / Street-Level Superstar: A Year with Lawrence Halle Butler / Banal Nightmare Jeff Vandermeer / Absolution Mariana Enriquez / A Sunny Place for Shady People Olivia Laing / The Garden Against Time Clive Chijioke Nwonka and Matthew Harle (Editors) / Black Arsenal Ann Powers / Travelling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell

We've managed to fit in a bit of reading from beyond WR in 2024, and here are a few of the books we've enjoyed. Sending much love to the authors and publishers who have brought these into the world - hard to pick just 25 and we know there are loads we've forgotten, but it's been a long year...

One True Pairing / Endless Rain Bill Ryder Jones / Iechyd Da Porridge Radio / Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me The Cure / Songs Of A Lost World Mabe Fratti / Sentir Que No Sabes Vampire Weekend / Only God Was Above Us Shit and Shine / Masters of All this Hell Vince Staples / Dark Times Nala Sinephro / Endlessness 070 Shake / Petrichor Good Looks / Lived Here for a While Fat White Family / Forgiveness is Yours Xiu Xiu / 13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds / Wild God Kim Gordon / The Collective Kahil El'Zabar, Ethnic Heritage Ensemble / Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit Michael Kiwanuka / Small Changes Waxahatchee / Tigers Blood St Vincent / All Born Screaming Tyler, The Creator / CHROMAKOPIA English Teacher / This Could Be Texas GNOD / Spot Land Tierra Whack / World Wide Whack Rosali / Bite Down Floating Points / Cascade

2024 has been another great year for music, and here - in no particular order - are just some of the many records we’ve been loving this year. We'd love to hear your favourites too...

🎧 And here's a playlist featuring a track from each one: open.spotify.com/playlist/0Jc...

Happy Birthday to The Country Girl. Gone but never forgotten xxx