It shouldn’t take an especially active reader to see that the Modern Pea Pod tends not to cover music that gets played on the radio. And I’m not gonna lie: part of that comes down to our own personal tastes. But another reason why we don’t usually talk to bands who get radio airplay is because the bands who get radio airplay don’t usually want to talk to us. I mean, seriously, if you were 50 Cent, James Blunt, Red Hot Chili Peppers or …

It’s a good time to be a music video fan with a DVD player. Seems like every time I look around, there’s a new video compilation to snatch, and for kids like me who have an ample amount of grainy little MPEGs on their computers, usually encoded by god knows who and probably obtained from a junk server of dubious legality, it’s nice to upgrade.
The present is also a wise time to release a DVD of definitive Wu-Tang Clan videos: ODB’s death has …

Last month, Detroit rock supergroup The Raconteurs released their highly anticipated debut album, Broken Boy Soldiers, to widespread public acclaim and a critical response that ranged from middling to ecstatic – including a decidedly middling review from our own Megan Giddings. But for those of us in the know, the idea of a Motor City answer to Blind Faith was never quite as enticing as the hysterical reports from NME had made the Raconteurs’ gestation period sound. That’s because we’d already heard …

If you’ve read between the lines of my reviews for long enough, you’ll find it no surprise that I have a healthy love for classic metal. Oh, sure, I loathe the modern stuff as much as the next pale, weedy, non-tattooed critic type; but give me some vintage Sabbath, Zeppelin, or Motorhead, and I’ll be head-banging until my skull hurts. That’s why I can’t help but like the debut album by Montreal heavy rock upstarts Priestess: like the Datsuns before them, these guys …

Lately I’ve been reading Bob Dylan’s memoir, Chronicles. It’s fascinating stuff, of course; a vivid, evocative portrait of the artist’s formative years. But what really gets me is the way he tells it. Dylan’s prose — the breathless rush of words, the exuberant citing of influences from Hank Williams to Balzac — perfectly captures the feelings of a young, hungry, and unbelievably talented poet, hurtling forward to his artistic peak.
At times the youthful folksinger seems literally aflame with a kind of Biblical portent: …

Alright, it’s official: I, Zachary Colin Hoskins, am too goddamn old for the Vines.
It’s an announcement, frankly, that I’ve put off for too long. My feelings of ambivalence for the Australian “garage rockers” have been brewing beneath the surface since before the release of their second album, 2004′s Winning Days, but I’ve ignored them out of a kind of rosy-colored nostalgia. See, the Vines were one of the two or three bands who, in the summer of 2002, made me really, passionately care …

Yesterday, the Pea Pod staff attacked Clear Channel’s underwater fortress. Aaron took advantage of his diminutive stature by climbing into a heating duct. He crawled through the castle walls until he came upon the secret radio control room, which was filled with guardian robots. Aaron poked his head out of a ceiling vent and coated the robots with molten lead. In the uproar that followed, the rest of us Podders were able to shoot, stab, and knee-face-bash our way to …

Every year, the hipsters of the world find a mainstream artist, usually female, who they all simultaneously decide to love. It’s a tradition based on a deceptively simple principle: the songs by this artist of choice might not be that great or original, but damn, are they catchy. Last year’s queen of pop crossover was of course the first ever American Idol, Kelly Clarkson, whose “Since U Been Gone” could be heard pouring out of everyone’s car windows during the summer of 2005. Even …

If you’re from the Detroit area, you may not have heard it here first…but the Hard Lessons are about two hair’s breadths from becoming a fully fledged household name. With a smoking debut album, Gasoline, and a red-letter 2005 under their vintage white belts – not to mention the single best live show in the metro area – if these kids aren’t the next big thing, then I’d like to see who in the hell is. But before all yer little indie-cred senses start tingling, let me put you …

Just one short year ago, who would have predicted that listening to Guitar Wolf could be so…well, poignant? The racket created by Seiji, Billy and Toru has always been more of a fist-pumping punk ‘n’ roll endurance test than anything else: just how many feedback squeals, hideously overdriven two-note solos and drunken guitar fumbles can a human being take? Well, over ten years after Guitar Wolf’s debut album on Goner – and nearly twice that time since the band formed – the answer is clearly more than you’d expect. And …