Pawn Shoppe Heart

Pawn Shoppe Heart

Category: (Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Second album from Detroit garage rockers infamous for the bust-up between their frontman Jason Stollsteimer & the band's former mentor & producer Jack White. Released on Warner Bros. & produced by Jerry Harrison (No Doubt, Live, Fine Young Cannibals), 'Pawn Shoppe Heart' continues to refine their fusion of raw, emotional blues with filthy, frenetic, 60s-style garage punk, featuring 12 tracks including the single 'C'mon C'mon'. Sire. 2004.

Detroit's Von Bondies may never be able to successfully disentangle themselves from the shadow of the White Stripes, not so much because Jack White produced the band's first album and took them around the world, but because the punch-up between the two groups' front men is destined to go down as one of the most infamous moments in the annals of rock 'n' roll. At least the Von Bondies attempt to move on with their sophomore release, Pawn Shoppe Heart, shedding the makeshift garage-punk sound of their hometown and recruiting former Modern Lover and Talking Heads member Jerry Harrison as producer. The results are staggering, with tracks like "C'mon, C'mon" and "No Regrets" bouncing on big glam riffs and bruised blues wailing, while the band breaks through the door sounding at once shameless and victorious. --Aidin Vaziri

Customer Reviews

Good, but not my favourite

Reviewed by M. Benesh, 2009-06-29

Chances are, you heard "C'mon C'mon" and that's why you want this cd. There are a several tracks on this album which you'll love, but the rest are either boring or just typical songs any band could have. "C'mon C'mon" is definitely an outstanding track, and "Been Swank" is also rather enjoyable, albeit a bit repetitive. Despite it's shortcomings, the album is still good for the most part-- if you don't mind skipping over a song or two.

Love their sound!

Reviewed by Ben F. Lyle, 2009-04-05

First heard this band on the DVD 9 Songs. I really enjoy their raw sound... it plays to my soul and drives me crazy. To the other reviews that were not impressed I would say that you are to not of this world, aliens come here to destroy all that is good... rock and rolla Ayatola's. I give it a 5 no matter what you other bleepin fools say.

Pawn Shoppe Heart

Reviewed by Mark Twain, 2009-01-08

I had high hopes for this album, and they were surely met -- and exceeded. Jason Stollsteimer is hands down the most underrated guitarist I know, and his singing voice is quite outstanding as well (it's a shame that most people only know him as "that guy Jack White beat up"). I haven't had the privelage of seeing them live, but with such passionate songs as "Pawn Shoppe Heart," I'm sure they put on a killer show. I love the amount of raw emotion that is put into each and every song on the album, it's truly like nothing I've ever heard before. I was also impressed with Marcie Bolen's voice in the song "Not That Social." She should have done more singing while she was still a member of the band. It's been four years since their last release and the lineup is much different. But from what I've heard, the new album will be just as good (or better).

Pawn Shoppe Heart

Reviewed by Morton, 2008-06-03

The Von Bondies-Pawn Shoppe Heart ****1/2

I remember the first time I heard Pawn Shoppe Heart, it was the most pure, honest, best rock n' roll album I had heard in the last, well I don't know how many years but it had been a long time.

Straight out of Detroit and it shows. A city known for it's blistering rock n' roll with the likes of The Stooges, Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band, and The MC5, The Von Bondies are no exception.

'No Regrets' opens the album and is about as rock n' roll as you can get. 'Broken Man' is powerful and angst fueled, while 'Not That Social' shows a little vulnerability as does 'Mairead' with it's haunting vocal exercises. 'Crawl Through The Darkness' is basically better than anything to come along since 2000.

Now 'C'mon C'mon' which some might know as the theme song to the show Rescue Me don't realise how perfect the song is. It is the embodiment of rock n' roll, and easily THE best song to come along maybe since The Pixies 'Where Is My Mind.'

Is this worth owning, yes, it is a must own in fact. The Von Bondies are one of the better bands around today and Pawn Shoppe Heart is their very best album, hands down.

Very hooky, consistent album

Reviewed by Notthatsocial, 2007-08-14

The Von Bondies' major label debut is just stunningly catchy. From the chorus that opens "No Regrets" to the bended power chord held for 10 seconds at the end of "Pawn Shoppe Heart", it's a very consistent album, and while The Stripes have the ability to amaze so much more in just a single song (probably why they are more famous), when it comes to making their albums, everything was just so inconsistent and random that you really wondered whether they just had the songs on the album in the order they were able to think of them (their most recent effort Icky Thump has resolved that problem a great deal, but it's still there).

Stollsteimer knows his songwriting strength and clearly shows it on this album; anthemic pentatonic scale rockers. This format sounds so familiar yet isn't executed similarly enough to another band to yield any genuine comparisons (The Stripes aren't really that similar to them at all). The rhythm section is going wild (Don Blum really is an excellent drummer), the guitars are raging, and while the vocals are largely devoid of melody, they do a really good job of masking that aspect by using different tones of voice (I can't say the girls on the album really do that as much as Stollsteimer, but they got more melodic roles in the songs they were involved in anyway).

My biggest complaint with this album was probably that their formula is just a bit overused, though that really doesn't discredit the album much at all, because it's such a winning formula the band's invented. I really have gotten hooked on so many songs in this collection that it's hard to imagine it being much better.

Best songs:
Mairead
Broken Man
Tell Me What You See
Pawn Shoppe Heart

Weakest songs:
Not That Social
Poison Ivy
Been Swank