Detroit garage rockers the Von Bondies popped by the Rolling Stone offices recently for a special acoustic performance — you can catch their stripped down versions of "Chancer" and "Pale Bride" in Rock Daily, and part of their interview right here in this week's New Music Report. Frontman Jason Stollsteimer explains that the latter tune wasn't written with a wedding theme in mind, but it wound up having special significance. "We wrote that song two years ago," he says. "It wasn't about marriage or anything, but right after we recorded that I got divorced. I didn't mean anything about that, but now I guess its kind of ironic."
Also this week, RollingStone.com's Caryn Ganz breaks down two reviews from our new issue (the one with Taylor Swift on the cover). First up, Grand, the latest from Brooklyn indie couple Matt and Kim, which RS' Kevin O'Donnell says is crammed with avant-garde nuggets of synth pop. Its major flaw, though: a serious lack of killer melodies.
And our special guest critic Patrick Stump (or P.V. Stump, as he's known in print) returns for his second review: the Black Lips' 200 Million Thousand. Stump writes that the sloppy Atlanta rockers so effectively channel influences like the 13th Floor Elevators and the New York Dolls, their own eccentric identity gets lost in the mix.
