by Sam Beresky
Daily Lobo
With the typical rock lineup of two guitars, bass and drums, rock music really can't be something different or new anymore.
The Von Bondies major label debut, Pawn Shoppe Heart, is no exception. And with the recent explosion of guitar-based rock that sounds as if it is coming straight from the carport, the sound isn't even new or original for our generation. Bands such as Jet or The Strokes are getting heavy radio play. Even Albuquerque's own The Foxx has more or less perfected the sound.
Pawn Shoppe Heart has songs that range in influences from Screamin' Jay Hawkins to Elvis - if only he showed up 30 years later and in the garage of Iggy Pop. Even when the female bassist, Carrie Smith, plays lead vocalist on "Not That Social," it sounds like something the Go-Go's could have done. Amazingly, they still rock.
Just admit it - everything has been done in rock. Lead singer and guitarist Jason Stollsteimer said: "The honest truth is that I didn't really have any musical roots. My goal has always been to find our own sound, not necessarily blues-based or garage-based, but something different that was new and natural to us."
But the Von Bondies haven't miraculously come across a new and uninfluenced sound. The group sounds like countless bands over the years. The four-piece is rounded out by Marcie Bolen on guitar and back-up vocals and drummer Don Blum. Maybe their secret to rocking better than many of their contemporaries is that the typical rock band lineup is mixed up with two females and two males instead of the usual all-male onslaught.
The Von Bondies are what the White Stripes could be with a full band and maybe some attitude. It is what The Strokes could be if, conceivably, the members all weren't rich pretty boys from Manhattan and weren't so damn repetitive. You get the point, The Von Bondies rock.
Pawn Shoppe Heart begins with "No Regrets," a guitar-and-drum anthem with a medium pace and plenty of rousing vocals. It isn't fast enough to make you get off your couch and start a mosh pit in your bathroom, but the driving beat begs you to turn up the volume a couple of notches. "You really haven't lived life yet, and you ain't got no regrets," belted Stollsteimer in a way that would have made Glen Danzig, Iggy Pop and Elvis simultaneously proud.
The decency continues on "C'mon C'mon." It could possibly be the perfect youth anthem, with loud guitars and insanely catchy lyrics that just beg to be sung by everyone. They have taken the sing-along, loud-then-soft sound that has been done by everybody and their father's backyard band and somehow made it sound new, refreshing and fun. The only stupid part of the song is the way they spelled the title - but that is still nothing new. Prince started that trend.
The key to the Von Bondies' success lies in the fourth track, "Tell Me What You See." The anguish and pain in Stollsteimer's voice adds the perfect element of emotional longing to the typically fun attitude of garage rock. Sure the "emo" thing has been done and is kind of whiny and pathetic, but throw a bit of sentiment into trendy rock and roll and the listener is rewarded.
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That emotion comes across like a city bus on the hidden track, a cover of "Try a Little Tenderness." If the listener wasn't already groovin' and shakin' through the whole album, the vocal wailing on the last number might be a little much to handle. The pain - like most pain - is still very entertaining. Just check out Ducky in the glorious '80s movie, "Pretty In Pink" crying through the same number. Just like the Von Bondies, Ducky rocks in that all-ready-been-done-but-still-great kind of way.
