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BARRY THOMPSON

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Iowa

Solid Attitude
Solid Attitude

By: BARRY THOMPSON | July 06, 2011

Hawaii

Clones of the Queen
Clones of the Queen

By: BARRY THOMPSON | July 11, 2011

Atari Teenage Riot | Is This Hyperreal?

Dim Mak (2011)
Returning after 11 years of officially not existing, what's left of ATR could've focused their energies on kicking lots of ass. Instead, they indulge spoken-wordy, freshman-year non-profundities...

By: BARRY THOMPSON | June 22, 2011

Gamers gather for retro glory in New Hampshire

Cathode-ray dreams
A person prone to dumbass assumptions might have confused this past weekend's 13th annual International Classic Video Game Tournament with a four-day-long exercise in retro-fetishism.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | June 10, 2011

Getting under the musical masks of Mighty Tiny

Carnival folk
Getting under the musical masks of Mighty Tiny

By: BARRY THOMPSON | May 12, 2011

The goggles-and-corset crowd invades the watch city

Steam power
Broken clocks are getting hard to find in this part of the country. At least that's what a Santa Claus archetype who introduced himself as Professor William Whatley told me, shortly after the clouds exploded.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | May 13, 2011

Mindless Self Indulgence | Tighter

The End (2011)
If MSI's convulsive rave rendering of Method Man's "Bring the Pain" had been rap rock's definitive anthem, history would have changed trajectory.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | May 17, 2011

The twee glide of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart

A lack of friction
Kip Berman has obviously listened to enough pop music to know damn well his band totally kick ass, even if he won't admit it.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | April 26, 2011

Rumble winners John Powhida International Airport

Out: John Powhida International Airport wins the 2011 Rock And Roll Rumble

We have liftoff
The de-facto demise of WBCN might have been the best thing that could've happened to the Rock And Roll Rumble, if the finals Friday at T.T. the Bear's – capped off by a curtain call/group hug decreeing John Powhida International Airport the 2011 champs – was any indicator.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | April 26, 2011

Pushing pop boundaries with Hunx and His Punx

Punk cock
In journalism school, they taught us not to mention anybody's sexual orientation, or race, or creed, or what-have-you, unless it was germane to the story.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | May 09, 2011

Haunting 'hoods new and old with Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion!

Psychobilly freakout
It's natural to freak out a little when inanimate objects autonomously zoom around the room, the walls bleed, and the phrase "GET OUT" mysteriously appears on your bathroom mirror.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | April 11, 2011

Steampunk's not dead

In which our hero attends a convention
Two hours after listening to a talking ape named Rupert Cornelius swat down inane inquiries from a panel of probable drama-club alumni, I watched a guy shove a needle through his face.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | March 31, 2011

A pint with Ken Casey and Al Barr of the Dropkick Murphys

"I didn't know we were associated with Faneuil Hall"
For whoever's interested, here's the full transcript of my chat with Ken Casey and Al Barr at McGreevy's from a few weeks back, just in time for St. Patrick's Day. The story we ran made it seem like Barr didn't say much. In fact, he shared a whole bunch of observations on punk-related matters.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | March 24, 2011

The World/Inferno Friendship Society | The Anarchy and the Ecstasy

Chunksaah Records (2011)
Jack Terricloth once likened playing in a band to being married and having a full-time job. Hence, his World/Inferno Friendship Society fashion themselves a kooky circus punk co-op, not a band.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | March 17, 2011

Against Me! survive the major labels ... barely

Achieving clarity
Against Me! played the best rock show I've ever seen. This was almost seven years ago at Jackson Mann K-8 School in Allston, for a capacity crowd of about 300 people. Or maybe closer to 600. Or maybe fewer. I didn't take a head count.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | March 11, 2011