Heartless Bastards
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The Heartless Bastards' story starts in Dayton, Ohio, where Wennerstrom found the name on a multiple choice video trivia game at a bar.
As a songwriting teenager during a time when GBV and Brainiac were packing local bars and three of the Breeders were still in town, Wennerstrom used to sneak into clubs to check out the scene. "I would just see those peoplemy music heroeshanging out at the bar like everyone else," she remembers. "I could see myself in them. It gave me inspiration to do my own thing."
After doing the usual business of playing local shows, the trio set out the following year on a regional tour. One of the first gigs of the trip took them to a bar in Akron, where Black Keys' drummer Patrick Carney just happened to be one of only a handful of people in the audience. This chance encounter led Wennerstrom and the Heartless Bastards to Fat Possum Records, with whom they released their debut, 'Stairs and Elevators', in early 2005.
The band moved on with critical praise in their back pocket, including a four-and-a-half star review from Rolling Stone, which took note that, when Wennerstrom "opens her throat on Stairs and Elevators ... she sounds like she's wailing on the shoulders of giants; her sad and angry vocals channeling all the swagger and spit of a young Robert Plant"
By whatever yardstick you care to measure, it was high time for Erika to get out of Dayton.
In true ascetic discipline, she moved to Austin, Texas in 2007 for a change of inspirational scenery and a new recording project. With the help of producer Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Trail of Dead), she assembled a group of musicians with whom she gave the songs life and uncovered yet another layer of Wennerstrom and the Heartless Bastards. Two of the new Bastards aren't Texas ringers, but fellow Dayton brethren Dave Colvin on drums, and Jesse Ebaugh on bass, who actually played on the original demo that hooked Fat Possum, throw in one Austin native on guitar, Mark Nathan and you've got a new unstoppable force that "Take the stage and literally knock everybody down" NY Times review of the Bastards SxSW record release performance.
The Decemberists' guitarist Chris Funk said, "It's been a few years since I've had a voice on repeat in my mind. This voice seems to arrive in my ears while sound checking, often before the shows on a pre-show play list and after shows too -- the songs are just perfect and the band has found their spots behind this incredible woman. A unique and enduring artist arrived into our world once again."
The album, entitled 'The Mountain', (released February 2009) delivers the powerful howl that fans expect from the Heartless Bastards, but also weaves in adventure with mandolins, banjos, strings and Erika's transcendent voice.
"The Mountain just might be the best song in the world, Need we say more?" "It's a brilliant, dirty, rock masterpiece" - Rolling Stone
"Wennerstrom relocated to Austin TX, pulled in a fresh rhythm section, signed up Spoon producer Mike McCarthy...the result, which is stylishly more varied than their previous releases, is also Wennerstrom's most glorious it's a collection of salty, rousing rock and roll that will leave you aching for a roadhouse and your repeat button." - Spin
"Hers is a mighty blues holler, projecting self-conflict not just to the rafters, but to the rafters in other states. Thank God for Erika Wennerstrom" - PASTE
"They're one of America's best rock bands. That's "rock" in the classic sense, as in power, intelligence, melody and volume..." - LA Weekly
"Heartless Bastards have the good fortune to ride the whirlwind that is Wennerstrom's voice. Add to that her ability for crafting throbbing hooks, The Mountain, out February 3rd, has lifted the Cincinnati-spawned Heartless Bastards to the level of top band" - LA Times
"The raw quaver in her untamed voice gives her as much bite as the distortion on her guitar." - NY Times
"Entertainment Weeklies Must list: "The Ohio trio's languid rock epic rises to a breathtaking peak." - Entertainment Weekly
"The Mountain is as fierce as any past recording, just more honed and helbound, this Zeppelin & Patti Smith in inspired singer makes the bad times come alive." - Blender
"Her voice has never sounded more potent than it does on The Mountain, timeless, as if it could be found on a scratchy 78 rpm blues platter as it is on an MP3 file" - Brooklyn Vegan
"Wennerstrom's voice remains the glass of whiskey that helps the gritty medicine go down. " - 4 out of 5 stars, Austin Chronicle
"If Chrissie Hynde's voice made you want to hump your record player back in the early '80s, the entrancingly husky vocal talents of Erika Wennerstromlead singer of the Cincinnati-based Heartless Bastardswill have you wearing their new CD The Mountain like a cock ring." - Philadelphia Weekly
"This is fierce, heartfelt rock & roll that tells stories you can believe in, it lets the music sing out with a power that's all the more compelling for being firmly rooted in the real world." - Allmusic
"Think of it as swampy, overdriven Lucinda Williams with a hell of a lot more living to do." - Dallas Observer
"She IS the Heartless Bastards. Whether it's crushing rants of "Early In The Morning" or the subtle banjo plucks on "Had to Go" the music's success depends on her soul investment in singing. This is one bastard with a lot of heart" - Time Out NY
"Erika Wennerstrom is one of the most welcomed voices and songwriters the genre has seen in quite some time." - Chart Attack
"I found their entire set half exhilarating, half awe-inspiring. Erika Wennerstrom is an anomaly and something of a phenomenon... her voice is bigger than her body and is almost beyond comprehension." - Pop Wreckoning
"Wennerstrom floods her sentiments with ruefulness and regret, and, still in the space of a mere 11 words, also fills them with a resolve to not be so messed-up in the future. She has a gift for making life's errors into more than cheesy life lessons they become statements of resolve." - NPR All Things Considered
"Wennerstrom's voice still resembles a slightly younger Lucinda Williams for chunky anthems, but is toned down from her signature howls" - Filter-Mag.com
"These are lean times for huge, sweeping, meat-and-potatoes trad-rock, but the Heartless Bastards do it exactly right." - Pitchfork.com
"The aural equivalent of Wild Turkey for breakfast" - 8/10 NME
"Whirlwind tunes, piercing vocals and a shameless hankering for drama... If you like The Duke Spirit you'll want to hear Ohio power trio Heartless bastards" - The Mail on Sunday
"When I first heard HB a few years ago, I couldn't distinguish them from a better-than-average bluesy bar band, but something magical has emerged from their core--or perhaps a haunting -- and it's very effective" - Carrie Brownstein/NPR/Monitor Mix
"If you would like to have your face rocked off sometime in the next few months, Catch the Heartless Bastards on the next leg of their tour. I was temporarily between contacts prescriptions last week, and they kept fogging up my glasses." - WNRN
"The Bastards' latest album, The Mountain a rough triangulation of the Band, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin wouldn't sound out of place in 1969, but as this year approaches the halfway point, it's easily one of 2009's best." - Houston Press
