Happy New Year, PCHA-ers! It's time once again to present my annual mix modeled after the abysmal Now That’s What I Call Music series. As always, this mix is not intended to be a pure rundown of the best songs ... Continue reading

Produit par Jim Eno (Spoon), l’album Arrow est le quatrième du groupe Heartless Bastards,originaire de Ohio et aujourd’hui installé à Austin (Texas). Aussi, c'est le premier opus sous le label Partisan Records. Autre première, le trio est devenu un quatuor avec l’ajout du guitariste, Mark Nathan, pour donner plus de mordant et de cordes à l’ensemble. Mais Heartless Bastards, c’est aussi le cœur et la voix particulière d’Erika Wennerstrom (auteure-compositrice) qui assure à l’ensemble son unicité et sa qualité… L’album, Arrow (10 chansons dont le simple Parted Ways), paru en début d’année en Amérique, prend [...]

Heartless Bastards, left to right: Jesse Ebagh, Dave Colvin, Erika Wennerstrom, Mark Nathan. (PHOTO: Nathan Presley) We always thought Erika Wennerstrom , Heartless Bastards head honcho, would escape the curse of being labeled "confessional," despite the fact that she was a girl with a guitar who sang about her feelings. C’mon: Wennerstrom’s guttaral, anguished vocals and Heartless Bastards’ raw, heart-gripping songs were so rock ‘n’ roll they defied that lame "chick music" label. With the original lineup of Kevin Vaughn on drums and Mike Lamping on bass, Wennerstrom had a power trio to rival the Police, [...]
CHAIRLIFT, NITE JEWEL ( Doug Fir , 830 E Burnside) Read our article on Chairlift . RADIATION CITY, LEGENDARY OAKS ( Rontoms , 600 E Burnside) Radiation City took the local scene by storm with the release of last year's The Hands That Take You , first issued on the band's Apes Tapes cassette label and then given national re-release by Tender Loving Empire. That was a splendid debut, to [...]

- "Parted Ways (Studio Video)" music video by Heartless Bastards - Added on 28-03-2012 - Genre : Rock & Alternative - Description : Studio footage of Heartless Bastards recording "Parted Ways" from their upcoming album "Arrow" (out February 14th on Partisan Records). Video by Daniel Gibbs - Tags : 2012 , 10s , Heartless Bastards

The Outlaw Roadshow Austin, TX - Saturday 3/17 19 Acts & Completely Free! photos by Chris March The Middle East Cambridge, MA - 4.23.11 [...]
Es ist immer dasselbe mit den Heartless Bastards: neues Album, neuer Produzent, neuer alter Sound. Diesmal trat Spoon-Drummer Jim Eno als Produzent auf. So wirkt auch das neue und vierte Werk "Arrow" wie Strandgut aus Zeiten, als alles noch ein wenig berschaubarer war, ein paar Akkorde und eine hbsche Melodie noch reichten, um cool zu sein. Und obwohl ein gewaltiges Equipment zur Verfgung stand, besticht dieses sehr amerikanisch klingende Roadmovie-Album nicht durch Komplexitt sondern Transparenz. Das Quartett um Erika Wennerstrom hat mit dem neuen Werk nun das Kunststck fertiggebracht, ein anachronistisches Konzept herberzuretten, als htte es [...]

The Austin based rock band Heartless Bastards has been making consistently good albums for years now but their newest attempt, Arrow , really seems to hit the mark. From the moody opener "Marathon" to the pop friendly "Parted Ways" to rock riff happy "Late In the Night" this album is chock full o' goodness. Perhaps it's Erika Wennerstrom's powerful alto or how the album itself is a perfect blend of salty, sweet, rock, blues and heartbreak, but this one has been on repeat around here since it came out. "Got to Have Rock and Roll" [...]
A confident and resounding triumph for this Austin-based rock and roll outfit In an alternate musical reality, Heartless Bastards would be rewarded for their years of hard work and toil by getting the chance to tour arenas, headline Coachella and Bonnaroo, and grace the cover of Rolling Stone. If this sounds like a familiar scenario for you, it should, because it's the trajectory the Black Keys have followed over the past several years, as they have worked their two-man power blues stomp from the dirty basements of...
This week in NYC Live Music, Galactic and Big Sam bring the NOLA funk to NYC to help us get in the Mardi Gras mood. Plus, we've got a few other interesting shows including Small Black, Superhuman Happiness, Railroad Earth w/ Cornmeal, Heartless Bastards and more. Read on for my weekly highlight reel.

Although Tennis claims the release date is a coincidence, Valentines Day is perfect for the release of Young & Old , the Denver band's second album. If you don't know the story: the espoused Patrick Riley and Aliana Moore spent a romantic half-year sailing along the East Coast, during which they composed songs that would become their debut, Cape Dory . Produced in part with The Black Keys' Patrick Carney, the new album finds the duo evolved into a band, with drummer James Barone now a full member. You can read an exclusive interview with the [...]

Today, that is Valentine's Day, Austin-via-Cincinnati's Heartless Bastards release their fourth album, Arrow . Press releases discuss the heavy personal writing process that guitarist/vocalist Erika Wennerstrom undertook, writing tracks on road trips stretching between a lake cabin in the Allegheny Mountains and a ranch in West Texas. Produced by Spoon drummer Jim Eno and featuring the first recorded contributions from touring guitarist Mark Nathan, Arrow is like a new page in the Bastards' book. We had the opportunity to sit down with Wennerstrom to talk about her process, the new album, and more. [...]
Heartless Bastards - Parted Ways
Next Tuesday Heartless Bastards will be releasing their fourth album, Arrow , on Partisan Records. "Parted Ways" is found on that same album. Big tour underway and the dates are somewhere below. dates: 2/7 - Little Rock, AR - Juanitas 2/8 - St. Louis, MO - Firebird 2/9 - Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall 2/10 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue 2/11 - Madison, WI - High Noon 2/13 - Louisville, KY - Headliner's 2/14 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall 2/16 [...]
![Heartless Bastards – Arrow [Album Review]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/4040772_lg.jpg)
2012 is shaping up to be all about the women of indie music. We covered incredible albums from First Aid Kit and Sharon van Etten already and Heartless Bastards are equally deserving of praise. Erika Wennerstrom is the heart and soul of Heartless Bastards and she's at her best on Arrow . Arrow is the fourth album released from Heartless Bastards since 2005 and the first on Partisan Records. The album opens with "Marathon," a down-temp song for those that have gotten off track and found themselves lost in life. [...]
The Heartless Bastards' Erika Wennestrom has always had a voice, a wonderfully deep and robust voice, bluesy, billowing and full of nuance, one that has often earned comparisons to some Rock 'N' Roll's greatest leading ladies like Grace Slick and Janis Joplin. It wasn't until the band's 2009 release, The Mountain, however, that the songwriting and musicianship began to provide the proper compliment. This new potency can be heard on "Parted Ways," the first single from their forthcoming album, Arrows. Wennestrom wows, as always, along side a mid-tempo, country flavored jam, similar to something from Wilco's early [...]