The Von Bondies
Pawn Shoppe Heart (Sire)
by Brian Varney
Because they’re best known as being the band whose singer had his ass kicked by Jack White (talk about infamy!), I just sorta assumed The Von Bondies would suck. Can I be blamed for making such an assumption based on that piece of knowledge?
Having said that, I will admit that I have been wrong many times in my life, and this was one of them. When bands like The Strokes, The Hives, and The White Stripes broke into the mainstream a while back, I’d hoped that some good rock records on major labels would be the result. I suppose it’s been awhile since those bands initially broke and there’ve probably been such records released in the interim, but I’m pretty behind the times when it comes to major label releases, so this is the first one I’ve heard that’s really impressed me.
Maybe it’s the Sire label on the back and the fact that the album was produced by Talking Head Jerry Harrison, but a lot of what’s going down on Pawn Shoppe Heart reminds me of the mid-to-late ’70s NY punk scene, complete with some choice glam/glitter-rock trimmings (opener “No Regrets” wants very badly to be a Gary Glitter song). What this means for you, the listener, is a band very conscious of its own image, but one that’s also not afraid to cram huge, anthemic choruses behind a surprisingly high-energy garage R&B attack.
(www.vonbondies.com)