7

Von Bondies frontman Jason Stollsteimer makes space for us in his Motor City abode

6

Seven-inch single “There are just five artists in this stack: the Make-Up, the Mummies, Brainiac, Otis Redding, and Archers of Loaf. We’ve never sounded like any of these bands, specifically, but they’re the bands that inspired me to pick up guitar.”

8

MacBook Pro “Because I travel so much, a computer is the most logical way to work on music. It’s embarrassing, because the person next to you on the plane doesn’t understand why you’re singing into a computer with headphones on.”

Master tapes “These are the masters from our first and third records, with three songs that are on our new one. It took me four years to get them back. It wasn’t fun. I stopped playing or writing songs for a while because of it.”

Photo of drummer Don Blum “He’s been with me for ten years, through all the bullshit and drama. He’s the backbone of the band. We’ve had a lot of craziness in the last four years, but we’re better friends now than we ever were.”

9

Sunglasses “When we play, I have my eyes closed for 90 percent of the show, so in the last year I started wearing the vintage Ray-Bans religiously. I’ve bought seven pairs. They made Dan Aykroyd look cool, and that’s not easy.”

Photo of grandparents “She’s 79, he’s 83. They’ve come to more of our shows than anyone else. I think they enjoy it because they’re both going deaf. But they’re very proud. They got the Internet just to look up what their grandchildren are doing. Every time our names pop up, they print out the Google page that lists the items.”

DVDs “I have more DVDs than CDs. I don’t even bring music on tour, because we’ve always had really amazing opening bands to watch. Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian, the Kills—they all end up bigger than us. So I have my DVDs. Evil Dead II, I think I’ve seen at least once every tour. My guitar tech and I cry at The Princess Bride.”

5

Moving boxes “In the past two years, I’ve moved five times. And I haven’t unpacked, because I’ll just be moving again. We’re going on a nine-month tour, so the boxes aren’t going anywhere.”

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Elvis doll “The focal point of our last record cover was supposed to be this doll, and it ended up being airbrushed into a silhouette. The Elvis estate, the people who own his image—you have to pay them a lot of money. We didn’t know that. I was pissed, because I had carried that thing in my hands, like a child, all the way to L.A. for the photo shoot. Screw ’em. Elvis would have liked it.”

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

Mosrite Celebrity I guitar “This guitar changed the sound of the new record. I had never owned a hollow-body. It’s just a bigger, thicker, nastier sound. It was like going from trumpet to saxophone—much sexier.”

Photographed for SPIN

in Plymouth, Michigan, December 4, 2008

BY BRIAN McCOLLUM PHOTOGRAPH BY GREG RUFFING

SPIN.COM IS WHY YOU LEARNED TO READ / FEBRUARY 2009 35