REM of course. And the B52’s. And Pylon I suppose, but REM mostly. I’ve wanted to visit for years. I remember old interviews with the band where they raved about the city. I grew up on REM and I stick by them even now, in their run-out-of[…]

Mike’s Pop Pilgrimages
No.2 – Leonard Cohen, Chelsea Hotel, NY
The man on reception seemed a bit put out, but reluctantly conceded we did indeed have a booking. “How did you hear about the hotel?” he asked. I said something th[…]

Mike’s Pop Pilgrimages
No.1 – Nick Drake, Tanworth-in-Arden
I sat on a bench opposite the pub. An elderly lady was sunning herself. “Are you here because of Nick Drake?” she asked. I said I was, um, how did she know? “We[…]

Hank Williams Exploding Heart

I saw the footage of his funeral for the first time (kodachrome from the 50s) for the first time today, on a trashy cmt biodoc . The footage was edited badly and the voice over was distracting—but there were thou[…]

(an occasional series reviewing all of music* a few seconds at a time)
The late ’50s were an awkward time for Louis Prima. He’d had a terrific career as the Italian-American answer to Louis Armstrong, but rock ‘n’ roll was gro[…]

Does it have a name?
This, you know, guitars and ties and actual high sales thing we’re drifting through at the moment? Is there a useful agreed name for it yet? If there isn’t, I think that’s quite interesting. What are its backers[…]

C81 vs C86: a defense of the latter would surely (and appropriately) rest on r-ck-st criteria such as ‘coherence’ and ‘flow’. C81 feels like a tape a knowledgeable friend made for you at semi-random. C86 feels like a ‘re[…]

Great Moments:
‘I Can Never Go Home Anymore’ by the Shangri-Las 2:06-2:09
(an occasional series reviewing all of music* a few seconds at a time)
It’s a bittersweet little song about a girl defying her mother’s advice and runni[…]

FT Wrecking Everyones Curve
Five years ago!
(Link may not work due to the fucked up way archive.org works. If it doesn’t, just go there and plug in www.freakytrigger.com/juice.html.)
Just think Tom…you could’ve been making mixtapes […]

THE FT TOP 100 SONGS
84. Pulp – “Babies”
The genius of “Babies” is that the harder you try to make sense of the story the less sense the song seems to make: and the more you think about the song the less the story matter[…]