Von Bondies' Jason Stollsteimer Says Band is 'Done,' Launches the Hounds Below

As the leader of the Von Bondies, Jason Stollsteimer gained notoriety in the early 2000s by riding the wave of Detroit's garage rock revival (a scene that, most notably, produced his one-time sparring partner Jack White of the White Stripes). Nearly ten years on, White and most of the other acts who earned esteem from tastemakers like the NME have left the Motor City for greener (and safer) pastures. "Everyone left Detroit," Stollsteimer tells Spinner, "except for me."

Gone, too, are the Von Bondies. Despite a recent resurgence in popularity thanks to FX TV show 'Rescue Me' using the band's hit 'C'mon C'mon' as a theme song, Stollsteimer says that era in his life is over.

"The Von Bondies are done -- I'm the only surviving member," he declares. "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," he adds, "and it was amazing and lots of fun, but no intentions of doing it right now."

Instead, the diligent songwriter has refocused his attention onto a new project he calls the Hounds Below. The band's sound differs greatly from Stollsteimer's previous fuzzed-out, garage attack, instead drawing on a 1950s-oriented vocal sound laid overtop modern instrumentation.

"I'm trying to make it sound like if kids today stopped using Auto-Tune and learned how to sing," he says, adding there is a very clear directive in his motivation. "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 currently finalizing their lineup ("every show is an audition") before an American tour in August, just don't expect to see Stollsteimer's former band on the marquee when they come through your town.

"We don't ever advertise I was in the Von Bondies, because we don't sound anything like the Von Bondies -- at all."

Watch the Hounds Below's 'All These Things' Video