Gone Bondies: Stollsteimer says that's it

Almost the last man standing from that explosion of Detroit indie, The Von Bondies are over. Jason Stollsteimer is rebranding, and moving on:

"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."

He's now doing business as The Hounds Below; the membership of the band beyond him, reports Spinner, is still fluid.

We've got through this without mentioning "being punched by Jack White". Oh...

Eminem: Some sort of stimulus

It's not going to solve the problems of the motor industry. It's not going to solve the laid-off workers' problems. But Eminem flying sacked auto workers to Jimmy Kimmel and throwing a show for others might at least lift their spirits for a short while.

Unless they hate Eminem's music, of course, but it's the thought that counts.

Warped security

Nasty footage from the Warped tour in Detroit, where one of the security guards is caught on camera punching a girl in the face. The footage was shot by one of Forever The Sickest Kids and starts - apparently - after the worst of the assault; according to the comments on the video the girl involved had been fighting inside the event earlier. None of which really excuses a hefty bloke slapping a woman in the face and then running away to hide inside the secured area.

You can't judge all the rights and wrongs from three minutes of YouTube footage, but having seen some pretty nasty behaviour from security staff down the years, it's nice to know that one of the side benefits of new technology is that it's now much less likely to be a their-word-against-the-fan if they do step over the line.

Aretha can't stand heat; gets out of the, erm, Ampitheatre

Aretha Franklin's hometown gig in Detroit is the latest victim of global warming, as she pulls the daye on Weather Channel advice:

"Following the Weather Channel and the daily reports in the news via television and newspaper publications, I see that the temperatures in Detroit have been very similar," she said in the statement. "I am exhausted from the heat and cannot tolerate heat in these extremely high numbers and being in concert simultaneously."

Ironic footnote: The venue she was due to play is sponsored by DTE Energy, currently being accused of being a major polluter in Canada and was involved in lobbying to reduce the effectiveness of clean air legislation. Maybe if Aretha wants to have a cooler time onstage, she should choose venues which don't encourage the sort of environmental damage which is making it so damn hot.