Von Varagon Society is a new rock band from the Black Hills of South Dakota. The line-up includes Monte Amende on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Mike Hermanson on bass guitar and backing vocals, and Willie Piper on drums and backing vocals. Von Varagon Society plays primarily original music. The sound can be described as alternative rock with a 1980s pop sensibility.

Von Varagon Society formed in Winter 2010, but the seeds of the project go back to Winter 2007 when on set break during a Corduroy Vinyl show, Monte Amende visited with Mike Hermanson about the possibility of his playing bass guitar for a side project. Nothing developed immediately, though over the next couple years the proposed project was brought up occasionally in conversation.

In the Summer 2009, Amende rehearsed with drummer Rodd Bauck with the intention of forming a band. Hermanson was asked to play bass, then a couple rehearsals later, lead guitarist Paul Peterson was invited. By Winter 2010, the line up solidified and Amende dubbed the band Von Varagon Society, after a fictitious ufology cult.

By late Spring 2010, Bauck announced his plans to relocate to Pierre, South Dakota. Progress stalled through the Summer while options for a replacement drummer were considered. In the Fall, Amende and Hermanson began rehearsing with drummer Willie Piper.

Since reforming as a three piece, the band made a low key public debut in February 2011. Unfortuntately, in May, Willie Piper announced he would be relocating to Colorado with his family. By mid-summer, a replacement drummer was found, Heath Ennis.

As of January 2012, the line up is Monte Amende, Mike Hermanson and Heath Ennis. In its current incarnation, Von Varagon Society is actively seeking gigs.

About The Name

Von Varagon Society is the name of a fictitious ufology cult from a failed screen play band founder Monte Amende was writing.

The script introduces the character of Von Varagon, who in the 1960s was briefly considered at the forefront of UFO research before his results and methods were completely debunked by more legitimate scientific researchers. Relagated to the fringe, he establishes his own organization dedicated to the study of UFOs, named Von Varagon Society. Due to its guise of sympathy to victims of alien abductions, the society manages to gain an international membership of over 100,000 people. Gradually, though, Varagon's reputation as a charlatan catches up with the organization and its membership dwindles to a few thousand. Over the next four decades, the remaining members come to worship Von Varagon as a profit. Their devotion to their now mythic leader is such that he is thought to be at the helm of the organization many years after his estimated date of death. Members of the inner core still deny that their beloved leader has passed on and many claim to visit with him regularly in private.

The band's name comes from the story, but no further connection is intended. Mostly, the band's founder, Monte Amende, liked the sound of the name and wanted to put some of the graphic resources he had developed for the screenplay to good use. The VVS logo which appears on this site is an example of one such resource.

The VVS logo has been redesign since. This new look will be applied to the website in coming weeks.