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Omargeddon #46: Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo
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— 15 Oct 2024 Bec Comment

Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo shares many similarities with A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume I in that both are atmospheric, mostly instrumental filmic albums. However, unlike the latter, Se Dice isn’t technically a soundtrack; the liner notes a[…]

About Freaky Trigger

Freaky Trigger is a website dedicated to smart, informal writing about pop culture – music, film, TV, food and drink, books, art, science and anything else we fancy writing about. We’re not particularly cutting edge, but we’re generous, affable and curious.

We started Freaky Trigger in 1999 – it was purely a music site for the first few years, gradually expanding its remit. Until 2005 it included the much-loved music blog NYLPM, whose contents form part of the site’s extensive archives.

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UncoolTwo50 VIII: Numerous Ways You Can Choose To Earn Funds
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— 13 Oct 2024 Tom Comment

48. MOBB DEEP – “Shook Ones Pt II” (1995)

The UncoolTwo50 challenge period covers the time – roughly speaking, 1989 to 1996 – when I took a lot of my cues about music and its quality from the weekly music press.[…]

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TONY CHRISTIE ‘ft’ PETER KAY – “Is This The Way To Amarillo?”
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Popular: #1009, 26th March 2005
— 31 July 2024 Tom 27 comments

The success of Elvis’ reissues – a promotional gimmick which actually managed to hack the charts – made a strong case that the new pop of 2005 simply wasn’t able to capture the wider public imagination. This record makes it inarguable[…]

Latest comments on FT

  3. What a great idea for me! I appreciate this, but in nytimes crossword it won't let you down!

  4. My husband was diagnosed of Parkinson’s Disease a couple of years ago, he had severe fatigue, difficulty with mobility and…

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#UncoolTwo50 VII: Please Don’t Knock It Until You’ve Tried It

Tom — 2 Oct 2024

49. QUAD CITY DJ’S – “C’mon N’ Ride It (The Train)” (1996)

There was a bit of chat the other day when Pitchfork released its list of Top Tracks Of The 2020s So Far; as is often the way it was sparked by th[…]

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#UncoolTwo50 VI: The Past Is Made Of Gold

Tom — 1 Oct 2024

50. THE AUTEURS – “The Rubettes” (1999)

This song is now as old as “Sugar Baby Love” by The Rubettes was when Luke Haines borrowed its hook for “The Rubettes”. It’s been squatting in my head for those 25 years; it[…]

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#UncoolTwo50 III: Just A Step On The Boss-Man’s Ladder

Tom — 30 Sep 2024

A third instalment of tracks which didn’t make my #UncoolTwo50 list – which starts TOMORROW; there is still time to enter, all you need is a list of 50 singles from 1977-1999. In fact what you could do is take the 30 I’ve put up so […]

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Omargeddon #40: Ciencia De Los Inútiles

Bec — 19 Dec 2023

By now, it should be abundantly clear that owing to my total lack of even the most rudimentary understanding of music theory or technique, Omargeddon reviews are emotionally driven. As such, I’m forever trailed by a weird sense of, if not outright […]

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Your own private quatre bras

mark sinker — 20 Feb 2007

“[John Thelwall] also had the misfortune to be a mediocre poet — a crime which, although it is committed around us every day — historians and critics cannot forgive.” —E.P.Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class*
It was ca[…]

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Why, Claudius? – A God in Colchester

Bec — 9 Jun 2024

This week’s flash-forward is just a few frames of Clavdivs, continuing to write into the night. The scene dissolves into a view of Messawina and her lover, the Greek actor Mnester, rolling around in a post-coital glow. She assesses the damage her v[…]

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The FT Top 25 Pubs of the 00s No 1: Glasshouse Stores

Pete Baran — 9 Jul 2010

So we get a winner, down on Brewer Street in Soho, the Glasshouse Stores was voted the number one pub of the noughties by those of us who voted. A nice pub sure, but so much better than the others? To find out why it scored so highly I thought I woul[…]

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Why, Claudius? – Reign of Terror

Bec — 28 Apr 2024

Back to our regularly scheduled usual flash-forward, with Old Clavdivs guzzling wine in his study while writing and occasionally scratching his wig with a stylus. The voiceover recaps have returned, although he does appear to be alone, but inconsiste[…]

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THIS IS BIS WEEK

Pete Baran — 24 Jan 2010

Here at Freaky Trigger we have realised that January has been a bit slow with output. A new year can put new strains upon our writers and what with Tom’s Guardian column and me embarking on a year without cinema, pickings have been slim. What w[…]

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The Jubilee Stuff

admin — 1 Jun 2002

1
The weather matters. Saturday 1st June: 8pm, and the sky out of my window is still fading pale blue, weightless, benevolent. A jubilee weekend of rain would be a symbolic down: but then, we are long used to finding a meaning in the rain. Not just w[…]

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Pika! Pika! Chu! Chu!

Tom — 10 Jul 2000

The Pokemon Phenomenon 
This piece was going to be an unabashed paean to Pokemania, explaining what a cracking game it was and how the mass tweener hysteria which greets every fresh Pokegame, cardset, pillow-case, or doily was a good thing inasm[…]

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SAINT ETIENNE – “Popular”

Tom — 21 May 2012

Saint Etienne – Popular

Huge weepy thanks to Bob, Pete and Sarah for immortalising us in song. And thanks to commenters past and present for making it worth immortalising.[…]

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Blog ’92: Introduction

katstevens — 15 Aug 2007

On my eleventh birthday I received a copy of a tape called “Rave ’92” through the post from my sister Grace, who was away at university. It was the second tape she had made for me whilst she was away, (the first being a random mix o[…]

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The Cottage Industry Of Moments

Robin — 1 Jan 2002

British Bubblegum Pop 1968-1972

“Sunday morning, up with the lark,I think I’ll take a walk in the park,Hey hey hey, it’s a beautiful day …”Daniel Boone, “Beautiful Sunday”, 1972

British bubblegum pop, c[…]

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Couldn’t Life Ever Be Sane Again?

Tom — 27 Sep 2001

What is “Panic” about? Dismissed and attacked since its release as small-minded, or snobbish, or even borderline racist, The Smiths’ anti-disco broadside continues to intrigue. On this thread, The Pinefox calls it a “yoking of[…]

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