The Von Bondies

The Detroit-based rock band The Von Bondies assembled in 2000. The idea of forming this band came to the former classmates Jason Stallsteismer and Marcie Bolen after visiting a concert by the Japanese group Guitar Wolf. Having recruited two more persons, Don Blum and Loren Wilcox they organized a project initially called The Baby Killers. Soon enough, Wilcox was substituted by Carrie Smith and the team was renamed to The Von Bondies. The musicians drew their inspiration in the garage rock and flavored it generously with blues. The music lovers from the Detroit area were quick to like the fresh performers who were good at doing their live shows. Spending the free time in the studio, The Von Bondies recorded two singles, It Came From Japan, and Nite Train.

With the help of the skilled producer Jack White from The White Stripes, The Von Bondies grabbed the opportunity to get into the limelight after participating in the making of the Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit compilation. This move paved them the way straight to the Sympathy for the Record Industry. White executed the producer functions while preparing the band’s first long player, Lack Of Communication. The process took the short three days, but this did not affect the result. This record was warmly greeted in the underground, but the wide audience had yet to be conquered. That was exactly what happened after The Von Bondies crossed the European states as an opening act for The White Stripes. Garage rock manufactured in Detroit appeared to please the local public so much that the British label Sweet Nothing Records even undertook to release the album there.

The Von Bondies carried on rising to the top in 2003. That year, they release the Raw And Rare live album based on the sessions for BBC. Shortly after, the group received a number of proposals from influential recording companies and soon relocated to Sire Records, a longtime partner of Madonna, The Smiths, and Ramones. In a short while, The Von Bondies played a splendid performance in Detroit sharing the stage with the recently reunited The Stooges. During the preparation of the second studio work, Stallsteimer and White had a bitter fight resulting in the latter’s face smashed. White was declared guilty and pushed to attend the anger management courses. Although the participants of the conflict announced coming back to friendly terms, the producer of the sophomore album was not White. Pawn Shoppe Heart was released in February 2004 and filled the indie rock lovers with overwhelming delight. Among all the compositions, the most remarkable one was C’Mon, C’Mon. It was selected to sound in a streak of TV shows and computer games. Being an especially nice concert group, The Von Bondies focused on the touring activity and kept their fans waiting rather long for the follow-up studio release. In 2008, The Von Bondies moved to the indie label Majordomo Records and early in 2009 finally issued a new album, Love, Hate And Then There's You, notable for the single Pale Bride. By that moment, The Von Bondies had gone through numerous lineup substitutions with only Stallsteimer and Blum remaining from the original version.