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barry thompson

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Anything and everything

StreightAngular just want to know what's now
People never like to label themselves. Or, at least they shouldn't.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  October 10, 2009
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Dark matter

Soulsavers keep it eerie on the ears
To paraphrase some wisdom from Jake "The Snake" Roberts, if a man has power, he never has to raise his voice. Jake was explaining why, unlike his adversaries, he didn't keep screaming gibberish. But it's a universal truth.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  September 15, 2009
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Gloom merchants

The Warlocks’ psych is far from psyched
It would’ve been nice if Bobby Hecksher, songsmith and ringleader of the Warlocks, had spoon-fed me some anecdotes from back when he used to trip out with Timothy Leary.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  August 05, 2009
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Wandering stars

Humanwine's mysterious substance
The line between art and entertainment gets thicker and darker every time someone opens a Facebook account. Most of us music types are entertainers, because entertainers just want attention.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  June 24, 2009
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The Detroit Cobras give new life to old soul

Blessed versions
There's nothing lazier than the typical cover band: musicians taking the easy way out for listeners who don't want to be challenged — or, worse yet, revisiting the glory years when their shitty taste in music was current and therefore socially acceptable.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  June 01, 2009
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Smashing success

The New Collisions start things off right
It feels as if all the music people these days were rushing toward a hyper-electro-modern future where they'll be programming drum machines hard-wired directly to their erogenous zones.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  May 27, 2009
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Something for everyone

Hands and Knees' vintage-to-Fraggle rock
In the last three years Hands and Knees have been signed to the Beatings' Midriff Records and racked up ample gold stars from critics; late last month they also dropped their splendid sophomore record, Et tu, Fluffy?
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  May 12, 2009
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Between rock and a soft place

Is the Everyday Visuals' likability a liability?
There's a blog post on the Everyday Visuals' Web site titled "Pop is fucking (aka. Everything to all people? / a/k/a. Coldplay is just as bad as Wavves)" that I was tempted to cut, paste, and submit in place of this article.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  May 05, 2009
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The Milky Way takes it to the streets

A parade from dead end to new beginning
Nobody likes gentrification, but everyone loves a parade.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  March 18, 2009
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Slay anything

Words fail the post-everything epics of Irepress
Boston's Irepress weren't supposed to be an instrumental band. What they've evolved into just happens to be too stylishly sinuous to lend itself to lots of words.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  February 09, 2009
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Three Day Threshold take pride in roots

The undiscovered country
Three Day Threshold take pride in their roots
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  January 26, 2009
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Save yourselves

Fucked Up are not your father's hardcore
The media-propagated notion that the Canadian sextet Fucked Up are "saving hardcore" seems silly.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  January 13, 2009
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Southern exposure

Beat Circus's Brian Carpenter returns to his roots
Multi-instrumentalist and Beat Circus patriarch Brian Carpenter has made his share of escapist music, but he's also written dozens of songs that confront real life.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  January 07, 2009
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2008 Listravaganza!

An absolute glut of cruelly reductive Top 10 lists from our dedicated staff of tirelessly enthusiastic writers
We are not at all sick of bands with animal names yet and seem to have a soft spot for Erykah Badu that we kept very hush about all year.
By BOSTON PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF  |  December 31, 2008
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Angst-free zone

Barnicle keep things nice and friendly
It’s possible I’m working backward from a bullshit conclusion, but I’m half-convinced the main topic of most arts-and-entertainment journalism isn’t actually arts or entertainment.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  December 16, 2008
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Punk buccaneer

Jonee Earthquake rumbles below the surface
Jonee Earthquake rumbles below the surface
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  November 24, 2008
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Mob rules

Bang Camaro gang up for round II
Bang Camaro gang up for round II
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  November 11, 2008
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O’Death | Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin

Kemado (2008)
O’Death, from the rural backwater town of New York City, are a little bit country and a lot more calamitous power-folk.  
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  October 28, 2008
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Cellars by strobe light

We Are The Seahorses, Killspree Burlesque, and Real Life Time Machines at an “undisclosed” basement location
The ensuing batshit hysteria of this gathering was probably as close as one can realistically and safely get to a temporary autonomous zone.  
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  October 24, 2008
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Scenic route to Hell

Easter Bloodhounds take their sweet time destroying you
When it comes to goals a band can strive to achieve, having an excuse to get hammered and make noise with your buddies is surely among the most practical.  
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  October 20, 2008

Soup to completely nuts

Rise Against at T.T. the Bear's, October 7, 2008
I half-expected Rise Against to play their obligatory hits for 20 minutes and say “goodnight”; instead, they tore it up for well over an hour.  
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  October 15, 2008
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Star Fucking Hipsters | Until We’re Dead

Fat Wreck Chords (2008)
Of course, one could argue that anything called Star Fucking Hipsters gets an automatic three stars.  
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  October 08, 2008
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Sweet release

The Urinals can’t hold it in any longer
I don’t want to waste your time waxing philosophical about the problematic logic behind qualifying music “good” or “bad,” much less pontificating on whether “sophisticated punk” is an oxymoron.  
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  October 08, 2008
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Sex on wheels

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult just never get old
Subcultures all need their touchstones: entities that over time assume the stature of full-fledged institutions.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  September 16, 2008
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RIP 3516

A local punk hotbed goes up in smoke
Over the years, hordes of bands have played 3516 (Darkbuster and many more), and this Monday at the Middle East upstairs, there’s a benefit for the displaced rockers.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR  |  September 10, 2008
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Satan's little helpers

Thrash legends Wargasm only 99 percent pure evil
Everyone knows that metal is the most evil of all music, what with all those references to the occult, destruction, drinking, the color black, and long hair.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  September 10, 2008
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Painfully sweet

The Toothaches are a gas
Ask the same boring question enough times to enough people and you’ll get a not-so-boring answer.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  September 02, 2008
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The kids are all right

Teenage kicks courtesy of Mindwalk Blvd
There is an outstanding possibility that your high-school band sucked.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  August 26, 2008
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Refuse Resist

Mind: Yourself | Rodent Popsicle
With almost every song making its point and ending in well under three minutes, Mind: Yourself isn’t out to waste anyone’s time.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  August 19, 2008
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In and out of fashion

Paradosaurus Wreck invades the Dilboy VFW
Something felt eerie about scruffy, squirrelly Rhode Island trio Deer Tick as they entertained the bleep out of the densely occupied VFW.
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  August 19, 2008

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