Name: Modern Pea Pod
Weblog: www.modernpeapod.com
Articles: 259
First Published: Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Last Published: Friday, December 1, 2006
Currently listing articles 259-201:
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CD Review: This American Life - Stories of Hope and Fear— The wide variety of spoken stories on these discs will be sure to delight any NPR listener, even the boring people who enjoy Car Talk.
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Music Review: Gob Iron - Death Songs for the Living— Never has an album lived up to its title so strongly.
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Music DVD Review: The Harry Smith Project Live— You might not think you know Harry Smith, but you probably know his work.
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Music Review: Johnny Cash At San Quentin (Legacy Edition)— "I should have brought Tammy Wynette and George Jones - anybody but Johnny Cash!"
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DVD Review: Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law - Vol. 2— Every time you're like, "This is weeeeeeeird!", take a drink.
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Year-End Roundup Music Review: Deadboy & The Elephantmen - We Are Night Sky— For the most part, Deadboy & The Elephantman have put out a damn fine original album.
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Music Review: Darkel - Darkel— Please, Darkel, don't quit your day job.
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The Pixies Reunion on Film— Engimas don't get back together for sold-out world tours.
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Music Review: Paul Stanley - Live to Win— I never thought there would be a worse rock-dinosaur solo album than Gene Simmons' "Asshole", but a mere two years later, here it is.
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Music DVD Review: Public Enemy - MKLVFKWR Manchester UK Live— Back in their heyday, Public Enemy would never dream of releasing three-year-old material, not even as a stopgap video collection.
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Music Review: Jeffrey & Jack Lewis - City & Eastern Songs— Singing about time machines and being potentially beaten and raped by Will Oldham near the subway system are interesting concepts.
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Music Review: Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Knives Don't Have Your Back— When I get depressed, I feel sexy.
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Music Review: Badly Drawn Boy - Born in the U.K.— Seriously, enough piano sagas.
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Music Review: The Shimmers - The Way You Shine— I am not angry with the Shimmers. Okay, I take that back. I am a little angry.
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Music DVD Review: Nina Simone - Live at Montreux 1976— While I have nothing but respect for Simone, the two words that come to mind for this performance are anything but respectful: "batshit insane."
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Music Review: Viva Voce - Get Yr Blood Sucked Out— A consistently adventurous listen that suggests familiar elements without ever sounding old or contrived.
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Music Review: Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 - Ole! Tarantula— Handclaps, dragons, museums of sex, space, and lazy afternoons spring to life...
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Glory of Love: Lou Reed and the Redemptive Power of Coney Island Baby— Lou Reed doesn't want to be your friend.
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Music Review: Beck - The Information— One of Beck's most solid albums in a long time.
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Film Noir Special Series: Film Noir - Bringing Darkness to Light— It's not a definitive documentary, and it's not meant to be.
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Film Noir Special Series: The Racket (1951)
— What at first seems like a half-assed effort in the noir canon is actually a canny commentary on a dying era.
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Film Noir Special Series: On Dangerous Ground (1952)
— Think of it as a noir movie that Alfred would pointedly give Batman as a Christmas present.
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Film Noir Special Series: Border Incident (1949)
— An atypical noir that knows how to use its incongruities to its advantage.
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Film Noir Special Series: His Kind of Woman (1951)
— This film straddles both the era of studio dominance and the burgeoning independence of filmmakers in the '50s.
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Film Noir Special Series: Lady in the Lake (1947)
— Forget Sam Spade - Philip Marlowe is the man of this hour.
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DVD Review: The Batman - The Complete Second Season— This Batman tells its story a hell of a lot better than the gatekeepers of Comic Book Land have ever given it credit for.
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Music Review: Ike Turner - Risin' With The Blues— It's tough to forgive or even forget about Ike's checkered past when he insists on bringing it up in practically every song.
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DVD Review: Gilmore Girls - The Complete Sixth Season— If not mother/daughter rifts, what then was the main problem with this season of Gilmore Girls? Three ridiculous words: "Luke's Secret Daughter."
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25 Years of Touch and Go Records— Happy birthday, and here's to 25 years more.
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Concert Review: Radio Birdman, Mudhoney and the Dirtbombs in Detroit, 9.3.06— If anyone had their doubts about Radio Birdman's continuing relevance, those doubts had evaporated long before the final chords of opener "Burn My Eye."
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Masked and Anonymous: Bob Dylan in the 21st Century— After almost a half century of constant, electric, and yes, sometimes bewildering change, it seems that Bob Dylan has finally settled down.
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Music Reviews: Roy Orbison - Lonely and Blue and In Dreams— "With Roy, you didn't know if you were listening to mariachi or opera." - Bob Dylan
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Fall 2006 TV Party— Part One of the Modern Pea Pod's look at the Fall 2006 TV season.
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Ride This Trane— Zach Hoskins comes to terms with a jazz monolith... or two.
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CD Review: OutKast - Idlewild— An album which will send most listeners scurrying to find their copies of prior - and better - OutKast records.
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DVD Review: Double Indemnity (1944)— No discussion of film noir is complete without Billy Wilder's 1944 masterpiece Double Indemnity.
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Concert Review: Man Man at the Pitchfork Music Festival, Union Park, Chicago, 7.29.06— Dressed in white shorts and white shirts and sporting white and red face paint, they begin to blow, hit, pinch their instruments.
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DVD Review: Glenn O'Brien's TV Party - The Halloween Show, October 30th, 1979— What I surprise to find out that the hip cat New York scene could be such likeable nerds.
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Music Review: Mason Jennings - Boneclouds— You're a robot if Mason Jennings' old-fashioned charms don't draw you in.
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Music Review: M. Ward - Post-War— Moments throughout this record are bigger than speakers, headphones, living rooms, or LPs.
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Book Review: Paul's Boutique (33 1/3 Series) by Dan LeRoy— If you haven't heard the album, you need to go get it. And when you're done, you need to read this book.
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Concert Review: The 2006 Warped Tour, Detroit— The only place for reclusive Misfits fanatics, Hollister-clad tennis players, and forty-somethings.
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Music DVD Review: Happy Mondays - Live in Barcelona— To best sum up how I felt about this DVD, I would like to recite a poem...
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Music DVD Review: Seu Jorge - Live at Montreux 2005— This isn't any supermarket muzak bullshit; Seu Jorge's Live at Montreux is a blinding mist of exotica.
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Interview: Taking Back Sunday— The Modern Pea Pod speaks to TBS's Fred Mascherino...will he succeed in taking Sunday back from us?
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CD Review: God Bless the Child - The Very Best of Billie Holiday— If there had to be one female jazz singer out of the many greats whom it's imperative to remember, it would probably have to be
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CD Review: Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Cursed Sleep EP— Three tracks make it necessary to scramble around, looking for a calendar to mark September 19th in anticipation for the full album release.
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CD Review: Vetiver - To Find Me Gone— With this disc, Vetiver's Andy Cabic is turning into a bit of a - gulp - professional.
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CD Review: White Whale - WWI— Nautical but nice: This album will wrap the listener into a wild love affair. Or repel them with the force of a fifty-foot squid.
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Music DVD Review: Wu-Tang Clan - Legend of the Wu-Tang: The Videos— These videos show how great the Wu were, and how they kept true to their musical roots - and to their imaginations.
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CD Review: The Miles Davis Quintet - The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions— With this group, Miles had more than a steady performance group; he had a vehicle.
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CD Review: The Vibration - Amarilla— My advice: let's add a little pepper to our potatoes.
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DVD Review: Cut Shorts - A Collection of Short Films and Music Videos by David Markey from 1974-2004— David Markey is not a film director.
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CD Review: Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now
— Not really "louder now" — in fact, it's more sugary than anything Taking Back Sunday has done before.
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CD Review: Cut Chemist - The Audience's Listening— In simplest terms, it's a virtuoso record.
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CD Review: Little Annie - Songs from the Coal Mine Canary— This album sounds like an angry gypsy queen meets a lonely night club singer meets a crazy pirate bitch from hell.
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Concert Review: The 15th Annual 89X Birthday Bash, featuring Yeah Yeah Yeahs, AFI, et. al.— The Modern Pea Pod's Megan Giddings and Laura Misjak ventured to the Fox Theatre Complex in Detroit for 15 years of 89X mayhem.
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CD Review: Ramblin' Jack Elliott - I Stand Alone— He stands alone, but more importantly, he walks alone, too.
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CD Review: Sound Team - Movie Monster— Unfortunately, for accompanying various inane activities, Sound Team's latest would work just fine.
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