Largely forgotten Detroit rock pretenders the Von Bondies are no more, with frontman Jason Stollsteimer calling time on the band that were propelled to moderate stardom on the back of the revival of Detroit garage and punk of the early 00s.
Speaking in an interview with Spinner, Stollsteimer said, “The Von Bondies are done – I’m the only surviving member…The Von Bondies was never a band, it was a solo project dressed up as a band. It’s because my last name is Stollsteimer – it looks stupid. It’s not like Elvis Presley or Buddy Holly. It looks stupid and it’s too late to change my name now.
“I did it for ten years and it was amazing and lots of fun, but no intentions of doing it right now.”
He added, in reference to his much-maligned home city that nevertheless gave rise to artists like the White Stripes and Brendon Benson over the past decade, “Everyone left Detroit except for me.”
The Von Bondies released their first album, Lack of Communication, in 2001 and released four in all, the last being 2009’s Love, Hate and Then There’s You. Their most successful LP was 2004’s Pawn Shoppe Heart, which contained the song most will know them by, C’Mon C’Mon.
That track was a hit single in 2004, and also gave the band a lifeline more recently when it was used as the theme tune to the TV show Rescue Me.
Stollsteimer will be known to fans for his 2003 fisticuffs with Jack White that left Stollsteimer in need of hospital treatment.
He is now putting together a new project, it seems, called the Hounds Below, which sounds like a departure from his grungey days.
He says, “I’m trying to make it sound like if kids today stopped using Auto-Tune and learned how to sing.”
He is also unequivocal about who is in charge, adding, “This is not a democracy, this is definitely a dictatorship; I want to be Elvis Costello, I want to be Roy Orbison.”
The Hounds Below are reported to be finalising their line-up before embarking on a US tour later in the year.
In the mean time, here is Stollsteimer during his 15 minutes:
