In a post-White Stripes world, journalists - namely lazy journalists - are quick to point out the garage Mecca that is Detroit, rock city. They'll perpetuate the image that the city is musically supportive, and all the garage bands live in the harmony of one big happy scene. Of course, this isn't the case.
The residents of Detroit are completely oblivious to local music; there are countless indie bands that deviate from the garage formula, and - gasp - the scene isn't much of a scene at all. The Von Bondies aim to escape such a misnomer. Frontman Jason Stollsteimer even went as far as telling promoters to refrain from putting "Detroit" on concert handbills, in an attempt to escape the ever-lazy, constricting pigeonhole.
"Instead of exploring music and describing it for what it is, they'll just say 'Oh, that's just Detroit garage rock,'" said bass-player Carrie Smith of the Motown quartet.
Merely describing the Von Bondies as Detroit garage rock robs them of their well-deserved props and associates the band with a faddish movement - of which they want no inclusion.
This isn't the only misconception about the Von Bondies. Weekly UK music magazines New Music Express and Kerrang! have presented the image of a hard-partying and reckless group of boys and girls.
"They report that we're party animals, drunk all the time and going crazy," said Smith as she tries to stifle laughter. "This is just not true. We're all very straight-laced people who are kind of boring. We're not very rock 'n' roll."
Not very rock 'n' roll? This is where Smith is wrong. While the Von Bondies may not embody the "up all night, sleep all day" rock-star recklessness that Slaughter so poetically sang in 1989, they are, in fact, very rock 'n' roll.
Case in point: Their latest LP, "Pawn Shoppe Heart." The major-label debut is everything you would expect it to be, a more-polished effort that allows the Von Bondies to finally capture their studio-potential while retaining all of the authenticity that made "Lack of Communication" so charming; Stollsteimer's possessed, fiery howl combined with Don Blum's manic pounding of the skins (much like Animal from The Muppets) is juxtaposed by the more-collected, less-frantic half of the band, Carrie Smith on bass and vocals and Marcie Bolen on guitar.
Even more remarkable than the eminence that is "Pawn Shoppe Heart" is the relative inexperience the Von Bondies have as musicians. Frontman Stollsteimer didn't touch a guitar until he was 19 years old, and Smith didn't pick up the bass until she joined the band.
"In the beginning it was definitely a struggle," Smith recalled. "We had shows to play and I was terrified that I would mess up. [But] not everyone can be John Entwistle"
