Von Bondies Pawn Shoppe Heart

The Von Bondies: Jason Stollsteimer (vocals, guitar); Carrie Smith (vocals, bass); Marcie Bolen (guitar, background vocals); Carrie Smith (vocals, Don Blum (drums, background vocals).
Recorded at Sausalito, Sound, The Plant, Studio D, Sausalito, California; Ghetto Recorders, Detroit, Michigan.
Before this, their major label debut, Detroit rockers the Von Bondies were best known to those outside the garage-rock cognoscenti for being produced/mentored by Jack White of the White Stripes, and subsequently for White beating the tar out of singer Jason Stollsteimer in an unexplained confrontation. With former Talking Head Jerry Harrison stepping into the producer chair, the Von Bondies sound set to transcend all that and climb to the top of the neo-garage heap.
There are undeniable similarities to the White Stripes in the raw, unhinged rock & roll madness of the Von Bondies, but that's strictly a peer-to-peer relationship. PAWN SHOPPE HEART owes little to anything but Stollsteimer's angst-ridden wail, the thunderous guitar racket of Stollsteimer and Marcie Bolen, and the manic drive of the rhythm section. Even in a garage-rock context, the only overtly retro track is the NUGGETS-like, 1960s-sounding "Tell Me What You See." The hidden track at the album's end, a Screamin' Jay Hawkins-style version of Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness," shows the band's sense of both humor and history. Take that, Jack White!

• Genre: Rock
• Format: Vinyl