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 …

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 …

There are some genres of music that seem to grow in appeal during certain seasons. For me, melancholy-tinged indie pop (The Lucksmith’s Naturaliste, for example) is the flavor of autumn. Garage rock is usually best seasoned with a dash of snow and a lot of grey clouds. And what is one of the most palatable flavors of summer? Orchestral indie distilled in southern Scotland, a la Camera Obscura. Camera Obscura’s latest release, Let’s Get Out of This Country, has a luminously sweet flavor …

There are some bands that would become all the more popular if they’d simply change their zip code. Case in point is New York’s The Little Killers. While I’m sure certain dirtier corners of the Big Apple must appreciate this garage rock sludge of a bar band (and I mean that in the positive!), it’s a fact that Detroit would love them more.
Maybe the Little Killers have picked up on that mindset, because they hired trendy Detroit Producer (Ghetto Recorders), former Dirtbomb, and Jack …

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 …

The Hellacopters are asking for it. Here they are in 2006, still playing the same hooky, unabashedly retro sound they perfected with 1999′s Grande Rock. Face it, these Nordic hell-raisers’ approach hasn’t aged a day since 1972, let alone that nearly decade-old record: take two parts Cheap Trick, one part MC5 and one part KISS, stir it together with a neo-garage rocker’s sense of reverence, then airlift the whole damned concoction to the frosty North, and you have the Hellacopters. It’s a formula …

The Gossip have always been in a league of their own – after all, how many other feminist indie rockers could you name with roots in small-town Arkansas? But with the release of their third and latest album, it’s going to be time for all of us lazy critics to pack up those “White Stripes meet Sleater Kinney” references for good. Standing in the Way of Control is the work of a slicker, more streamlined Gossip: angular and danceable enough to sit comfortably next …

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 …

Bomp! Records is the granddaddy of American indie. From 1974 until his death last year, founder Greg Shaw kept it real with a steady stream of punk, garage, power pop, and plain ol’ rock’n’roll. This album, then, is of special importance: the Invisible Eyes were the last band to be signed to Bomp! by Greg Shaw himself. And oh man, you can hear why: pounding drums, tempo-pushing tambourine, muddy vocals that wrap themselves around that great Farfisa sound…and did I mention the distortion?
With no less than 16 songs, I should …

The Precious EP
Semi-Precious Weapons
(fettY)
In today’s pop world, old genres don’t die…they just go dormant for a decade or two. Hell, the last five years alone have seen an absurd amount of musical rebirths: from punk to post-punk, garage rock to prog rock, disco to old-school hip-hop. Obviously I could waste my time here on the pulpit with the usual complaint about how music just isn’t original anymore, it’s all self-regurgitating garbage, blah blah fuckin’ blah. But I’m of a mind to accept these retro doldrums as a sign of the …