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BARRY THOMPSON

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Hooray for Earth find new life in the dirty Apple

C'mon get happy!
Sometimes it's well and good to wave the flag of home-town pride and condemn New York City as an overhyped, overcrowded, unholy chore to drive through. Other times, you've got to get the fuck out of Boston.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | January 18, 2011

All Asia no more?

Yet another endangered species for your list
Let’s hope the All Asia can relocate to a new building. I used to shit-talk the place . . . until I heard it might close.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | January 24, 2011

Down in the folk trenches with the Old Edison

A fighter's chance
In a messy Allston kitchen, in unison, a mob of about 20 or 30 persons start screaming at the Old Edison. And as is their custom, the Old Edison shout right back. Welcome to a typical Old Edison performance, but please watch your step.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | January 11, 2011

T-Model Ford And Gravelroad | Taledragger

Alive Records (2011)
An approximately 90-year-old ex-convict has persuaded hipsters everywhere to pretend to give a fuck about Mississippi blues, and that’s not even the most interesting thing about T-Model Ford.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | January 07, 2011

Hex Map | Cryptidography

Claw Solutions (2010)
The one-sheet for Hex Map's debut consists of a vague numeral code and an infograph of angular, multi-colored lines connecting to overlapping circles that match songs with their amalgamations of spiritual antecedents.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | December 15, 2010

Franz Nicolay reboots

Lone troubadour
I’m a little worried that this interview could kill Franz Nicolay.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | November 30, 2010

Love in Stockholm | A King's Ransom

Self-released (2010)
If your judgment on Love in Stockholm were based solely on their penchant for matching suits and shades, their humble origins as BU undergrads who formed a band in order to obtain "free beer and girls," and their parody video of the Lonely Island's "I'm on a Boat," you'd conclude that they're tools.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | November 30, 2010

Interview: Kevin Smith

Meh on you!
Motherfucking Kevin Smith, who comes to the House of Blues next Thursday, can tell a story as if it were his motherfucking job. Which it basically is.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | November 29, 2010

Runner and the Thermodynamics catch up with their past

Reigniting powerlines
As sagas of rock-and-roll near-misses go, there's a cinematic quality to Runner and the Thermodynamics, who in the early 2000s channeled their reverence for '70s arena rock into a power-pop detonation that briefly cracked the glass ceiling of the music biz.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | November 16, 2010

The 1900s | Return of the Century

Parasol (2010)
Parasol (2010)

By: BARRY THOMPSON | November 09, 2010

Meet the Mayor: Commonwealth Chiropractic

Welcome to "Meet the Mayor," a segment in which we interview local Foursquare Mayors in their natural habitats.
"My back is really useful for a lot of things in my life ... "

By: BARRY THOMPSON | October 20, 2010

New Collisions rediscover their pop identity

Smashing sound barriers
Ever since Adam and Eve invented pop music by writing the first song, "Snake Is a Jerk," local bands have honored a time-tested structure.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | October 04, 2010

The Birthday Massacre | Pins and Needles

Metropolis Records (2010)
If you disregard the distorted guitars, the spooky sound effects, and the unapologetically gothtarded imagery, not much separates the Birthday Massacre from honest-to-gosh bumblegum pop.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | September 28, 2010

Wicked Whiskey | Under the Gun

Self-released (2010)
Self-released (2010)

By: BARRY THOMPSON | September 22, 2010

Who shot rock and roll?

Drinking around town with Mellow Bravo
Sometimes, bad choices don't seem so bad when we're making them. Sometimes, dangerously irresponsible decisions pan out. Sometimes, it doesn't matter, because it's already too late to turn back.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | September 07, 2010

Live Review: Off the rails on a lazy train

Putting the "zzzzzzzzz" into Ozzfest
"Vampires are bullshit. I'm the Prince of fucking Darkness," Ozzy Osbourne informed Kristen Stewart during a pop-culture-parody-montage video that segued into a kick-ass eruption of time-honored crowd pleasers.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | September 01, 2010

The Organ Beats go on

Noelle LeBlanc emerges from Damone's power-pop shadow
At the risk of indulging in speculation, I'm going to presume that Noelle LeBlanc has experienced her fair share of the soul-extinguishing nihilism and corruption that live at the bottom of the music industry's digestive tract.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | August 18, 2010

Pattern sounds

Jaggery's experimental art-rock familiarity
I'm not sure how many of us ever outgrow the need for reassuring redundancy.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | July 25, 2010

Fiddle me this

Kingsley Flood don't even like alt-country
I tend to suspect a solid percentage of what appear to be roots-movement bands are, in fact, punk bands who realized they get taken more seriously when they play acoustic guitars and pretend they've always been huge Johnny Cash fans.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | July 14, 2010

The Freeways | The Freeways

Polk Records (2010)
After reading too many shitty reviews that included summations like "band X screwing band Y on Z kind of drugs," I swore off comparing bands to more-famous bands. It's like quitting cigarettes, however.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | July 01, 2010